As we detailed in October, the memory and storage markets were expected to face significant supply constraints. In the months following, DDR5 prices have skyrocketed. Kits that had sold comfortably below $100 months earlier were surging into the hundreds by early December. CyberPowerPC, one of the largest system builders in North America, warned in November that contract DRAM prices had jumped 500% since early October, while another report indicated that they had risen 171.8% year over year.
The disruption is being driven not by demand from gamers or device makers, but by artificial intelligence. Specifically, by the way hyperscalers are soaking up wafer starts and advanced packaging lines for high-bandwidth memory (HBM) used in AI accelerators.
The consequence is that anyone or anything that’s not part of that ecosystem — PC builders, laptop OEMs, and even phone makers — is fighting over the scraps of a shrinking pool of commodity DRAM. And with new fabs still years from coming online, the shortage is expected to last well into the second half of the decade.
RAM kits up 2-4x in a quarter
The most visible impact can be seen with retailers. A Corsair Vengeance DDR5-6000 32GB (2x16GB) cost $134.99 in September before reaching more than $420 in early December. G.Skill, TeamGroup, and Kingston all adjusted channel pricing by double digits across Q3, citing tightening availability.
That translated to a whopping 2-4x price swing for enthusiasts buying RAM, depending on capacity and bin. The G. Skill Trident Z5 Neo RGB DDR5-6000, our tried-and-tested best RAM for gaming, is now only available via third-party sellers through Amazon, with 64GB kits attracting prices beyond $500, with one seller listing them for a whopping $881.87 as of December 18.
(Image credit: Future)
Suppliers and distributors have sharply tightened allocation of DDR5 memory, with some channel partners reporting severely limited quotes and rollovers on orders as capacity is diverted to AI-driven demand. Reports from Taiwan and broader market tracking show memory modules selling out or being bundled to secure placement, indicating that mainstream buyers are being deprioritized.
That squeeze quickly filtered into GPUs, where memory is a major cost driver. AMD board partners raised card prices by around $10 per 8GB of VRAM starting in November. A rumor suggests AMD could increase Radeon RX graphics card prices with 8 GB models up by about $20 and 16 GB models up by about $40 in response to climbing GDDR6 spot prices and memory costs. SSD pricing has also reversed direction. 2TB Gen 4 NVMe drives that had been available for $80 in the summer were back at $130 by November. Contract pricing on NAND rose 60% in November, and module-level spot prices followed.
Framework was forced to increase its pricing on the DDR5 memory configurable in Framework Laptop DIY Edition orders by 50% in response to “substantially higher costs” they are facing from suppliers and distributors. Meanwhile, Dell and HP have both flagged component pricing, with HP’s CEO stating that memory costs in particular were affecting margin on consumer systems and Dell COO Jeff Clarke saying he’s “never seen memory-chip costs rise this fast.” Raspberry Pi also raised prices on its 4GB and 8GB boards, citing supply constraints on LPDDR4X.
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