According to a new statement from Asus, the company will start raising prices on several products starting January 5, citing cost pressures on DRAM and storage, driven by AI demand. Although the company has yet to mention by how much it will increase its prices, it’s following the footsteps of Dell, which has previously announced hikes of up to 30%. Framework has also raised the prices of its memory modules twice in recent months, with the company announcing that it will stop selling standalone RAM kits, as well as the possibility of another price hike in early 2026.
Asus' statement, as published by TrendForce, means that the company will join Dell and Framework as the first companies to announce cost adjustments among business and consumer PC manufacturers. TrendForce expects that surging memory prices will dampen the growth of the PC market, with laptop shipments expected to contract by 5.4% to 10.1% year-on-year. This falls in line with IDC’s estimate of a 5% drop in PC shipments in a moderate scenario, with worst-case scenarios modeling a 9% reduction in global shipments.
News of a memory shortage began circulating in mid-2025, with TrendForce predicting that DRAM prices would jump by as much as 45% in July. Unfortunately, this forecast was seemingly understated — DRAM prices increased by up to 171% by early November and are still climbing. Meanwhile, NAND prices jumped by 246% as of mid-December. Because of this, some analysts are already saying that you should not hold off purchasing the RAM or SSD upgrade if you really need it. Otherwise, you should just hold on to what you have and make it last as long as possible.
Both companies and PC builders are looking for ways to avoid the memory pricing apocalypse, with some vendors already selling pre-built PCs without RAM. That way, you can either re-use what you already own, or you can purchase from another supplier if you find a better deal. Aside from that, older AM4 Zen 3 CPUs like the AMD Ryzen 7 5800X and 5800XT have seen a surge in popularity as enthusiasts flock towards still-capable processors that use DDR4 memory modules. Even those looking for a used AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D might be in for a surprise, as the first X3D processor is already more expensive than the latest, brand-new 9800X3D.
For average consumers, this means that buying new hardware will just become more expensive, impacting products that utilize memory or storage in any capacity. While some predict that RAM prices will begin to stabilize by the second half of 2026, it's still unlikely that the market will stabilize in the short term.
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