We can not seem to get a second’s respite within the PC gaming business, can we? We spent the higher a part of this 12 months lamenting ridiculously excessive GPU costs, and as quickly as stated costs lastly begin dropping, reminiscence and storage costs begin climbing.
We’re in a reminiscence scarcity proper now, and this is applicable to each DRAM reminiscence used for RAM and NAND reminiscence used for SSDs, and it’ll doubtless additionally have an effect on GPUs, too. This scarcity means there’s extra demand than provide, which causes costs to rise. We’re already seeing RAM costs skyrocket, and costs for SSDs and even GPUs may comply with go well with earlier than lengthy.
The trigger is generally the newly booming AI business, as AI servers require plenty of reminiscence, each by way of long-term storage and short-term system reminiscence. And most of the identical manufacturing amenities that make reminiscence for these AI servers additionally make reminiscence for our RAM, SSDs, and graphics playing cards, thus why there’s an affect on PC gaming {hardware}.
I’ve damaged down how and why all of that is occurring beneath, in addition to the real-world results we’re already seeing and are prone to see shifting forwards.
A snapshot of the most recent reminiscence value information
Seen results on reminiscence pricing to this point
You might need seen this worrying development when you’ve been searching for a RAM improve these days. Charts on pcpartpicker.com are telling: since mid-2025, DDR4 and DDR5 client reminiscence equipment costs have been climbing, with significantly notable spikes since September. That is true all the way in which from DDR4-3200 kits as much as DDR5-6000 ones.
To take one concrete instance, this 32 GB Corsair Vengeance DDR5-6000 equipment on Amazon, which was secure at $95 or much less all through a lot of the 12 months, however from mid-August onward began climbing. It not too long ago rose to $184, which makes for a 94% enhance. This, after an excellent few months of sustained DDR5 value drops via the tail finish of 2024 and first half of 2025. And now it is offered out solely.
DDR4 is not protected, both, as this 32 GB Corsair Vengeance DDR4-3600 equipment on Amazon exhibits. It was secure at about $70 via a lot of the 12 months, however excluding a quick drop again to all the way down to this unique value, from mid-August it shot as much as a brand new latest value of $161. That is a 115% enhance: over twice its earlier price. And now that is offered out, too.
This development suits all of the market evaluation we’re seeing these days, which by now appears little greater than mentioning the plain: reminiscence is turning into extremely costly. The “premium” you’ve historically needed to pay for DDR5 in comparison with DDR4, in line with a latest chart spotlighted by a Futurum analyst, now not exists. The truth is, in simply the house of 1 week, spot costs for DDR4 reminiscence not too long ago doubled.
Issues can change shortly throughout shortages., however we’re conserving monitor of the most recent results on real-world RAM equipment costs right here.
Why the reminiscence scarcity impacts RAM
The obvious sort of PC {hardware} the reminiscence scarcity affectsis RAM. The DRAM reminiscence that’s being devoured up by AI prospects comes from the identical manufacturing amenities and features that make the reminiscence that goes into the greatest RAM for gaming. That is true not only for the most recent RAM, too, but in addition for DDR4.
DDR4 reminiscence is winding down manufacturing, which implies much less provide in the marketplace. However we would not essentially anticipate this issue to trigger such dramatically rising costs by itself. The truth that DDR4 costs are rising by such an excessive quantity signifies that there merely is not sufficient provide in comparison with demand throughout the reminiscence business generally, and that corporations are searching for no matter reminiscence they will get their palms on.
This tracks with what’s been happening within the DRAM and reminiscence business behind the scenes. Samsung and SK Hynix, for example, are reportedly charging prospects as much as 30% extra for DRAM and NAND within the fourth quarter of 2025.
Why the reminiscence scarcity impacts SSDs
These value hikes are additionally coming for NAND flash reminiscence, too, which is what goes into non-volatile SSD storage. Even when the SSDs in AI servers aren’t the identical as those we put in our gaming PCs, NAND manufacturing for these AI server SSDs can detract from NAND manufacturing for client SSDs as soon as provide is restricted.
Normally, AI servers use higher-quality SSDs than client ones, with totally different NAND, however when storage will get tight, AI server prospects can begin ordering extra consumer-oriented NAND.
We have not seen as a lot of a mirrored image of rising flash storage costs on the client stage as we have now with RAM simply but, however it’s doubtless coming. Adata has stated that provides of DRAM, NAND, and even HDD storage are actually in scarcity, for the primary time in 30 years.
Most of the greatest SSDs for gaming are nonetheless fairly low cost, however I would guess it will not be lengthy earlier than these shortages begin exhibiting results within the client market, similar to has began to occur with reminiscence. It won’t be lengthy earlier than each RAM and SSDs are prohibitively costly.
The truth is, we have seen hints of this already, as Trendforce’s investigations confirmed that cloud suppliers are more and more being pushed in direction of QLC (‘quad-level cell’) SSDs like those discovered in lots of client desktops and laptops. That is pushed partly as a result of nearline HDDs (ones for occasionally accessed storage) are in brief provide. Yep, that is proper, even conventional onerous drives are dealing with shortages and, shock shock, value hikes. Western Digital, for example, not too long ago raised costs for all its HDD merchandise.
I additionally obtained remark from SSD and reminiscence maker Workforce Group confirming all this:
“We’ve certainly noticed noticeable upward strain on costs throughout the NAND and DRAM markets. The present state of affairs shouldn’t be merely a matter of value fluctuation however a results of an unprecedented provide scarcity, primarily pushed by surging demand for AI and DDR5 server platforms. As well as, as knowledge storage demand in knowledge facilities continues to develop whereas onerous drive producers have but to develop manufacturing, chilly knowledge storage has step by step shifted towards SSDs, additional tightening NAND Flash provide.”
Why the reminiscence scarcity will have an effect on GPUs
GPUs may appear somewhat additional away from the reminiscence value hikes than RAM and SSDs, however we’re already listening to chatter that graphics playing cards could be affected, too.
The reminiscence that goes into AI datacenters is totally different to the reminiscence that goes into our graphics playing cards, however reminiscence makers are prone to divert manufacturing traces to the previous as demand continues to extend, which implies much less GPU reminiscence provide and better GPU reminiscence costs. And better GPU reminiscence costs after all means larger GPU costs.
We not too long ago noticed hearsay that AMD is planning to lift graphics card costs as a result of reminiscence scarcity, and that it has already raised costs for its business prospects.
We have additionally had remark from UK retailer Overclockers UK, saying:
“As a result of unprecedented explosive value enhance in DDR4 and DDR5 desktop reminiscence as a result of AI Server demand going into 2026, these value will increase are actually beginning to affect graphics card [prices] with as much as $15 value will increase on 8G playing cards and upto $30 value elevated on 16G playing cards.
“As soon as inventory has offered out, anticipate some hefty value will increase when Overclockers UK has to replenish inventory on the larger price as a result of affect of reminiscence value will increase. Briefly NOW IS THE TIME TO BUY your GPU, as 2026 will see value will increase.”
The trigger is AI
The primary trigger of those rising reminiscence and storage costs is the unprecedented scale of funding in AI.
AI servers are inclined to require an astronomical quantity of storage and reminiscence, and the processors have to have the ability to entry knowledge in stated storage and reminiscence fairly shortly. Coaching AI requires nice volumes of information, as does operating inference as soon as the AI is skilled—and infrequently re-training is regularly ongoing. Normally this knowledge is unstructured, as AI will pull from plenty of totally different areas because it learns and kinds its neural community or probabilistic fashions.
SSDs are perfect for this in terms of storage, and for reminiscence, excessive bandwidth reminiscence (HBM) is what most AI server corporations are searching for. This is not the identical because the DDR reminiscence we get in our gaming PCs, however the reminiscence chips are DRAM similar to we use in our acquainted DIMMs. AI servers shopping for up HBM means much less DRAM available in the market for our RAM kits, which causes costs to rise.
Over the previous few months, we have seen the AI business obtain and shuffle round some significantly mind-boggling quantities of money and capital.
OpenAI’s Stargate mission was introduced in the beginning of the 12 months and plans to spend $500 billion on AI infrastructure within the US over 4 years. That mission is now completely underway, and has even unfold past the borders of the US into the UK. We have seen Nvidia not too long ago make investments $100 billion into the Sam Altman-headed firm, and OpenAI make investments tens of thousands and thousands into AMD and comply with buy $300 billion of computing energy from Oracle over the subsequent 5 years. Plus many extra offers and investments, corresponding to with Broadcom—and these are simply contemplating OpenAI, the poster little one for this AI period alongside Nvidia.
With all this cash being flung round and knowledge facilities arising so shortly that they are having to be housed in tents, it is little marvel that the reminiscence and storage industries are experiencing a drain in provide. Which is nice for them, after all, as they will rake within the cash from raised product costs and booming share costs, in addition to promote out their total HBM provide. SK Hynix, for example, simply introduced it has “achieved its highest-ever quarterly efficiency, pushed by the full-scale rise in costs of DRAM and NAND, in addition to the rising shipments of high-performance merchandise for AI servers”, nevertheless it’s not so nice for us.
Reminiscence shortages and rising costs have been predicted for some time now—over a 12 months in the past, for example, Micron stated that the AI would “affect the provision demand steadiness” because it’s “made reminiscence horny once more”. Storage shortages, not a lot. Final 12 months, Trendforce evaluation predicted that storage costs would decline by as a lot as 15% over the ultimate quarter of 2024, and there was no prediction of the shortages we’re seeing now. Peaks and troughs are regular within the reminiscence business, as a result of ebbs and flows of provide and demand, however the latest shortages and value hikes do not match that mould. They’re just too excessive.
What’s to come back?
There’s little likelihood that these reminiscence and storage producers will create far more provide than is at the moment wanted, both. For one, this may sting these corporations if demand unexpectedly drops, as they found in 2023. Second, whirring up new or elevated semiconductor manufacturing isn’t any easy matter and might take years, and the demand from the AI sector would not appear to be slowing down.
There may be, after all, the prospect that the complete AI business provides a loud and audible pop as what many are calling the AI bubble bursts. To simplify, the explanation some suppose the AI business is a bubble is as a result of there’s tons extra funding than income within the business proper now, which arguably means increasingly more cash have to be pumped into it to maintain it going underneath the hopes that some day the income will seem.
To this finish, plenty of the cash concerned appears to be flowing forwards and backwards between the identical corporations. As an illustration, Nvidia invests in OpenAI, and OpenAI buys {hardware} from Nvidia. This creates what some see as a round system the place cash is regularly injected with little precise return, inflating the metaphorical bubble till finally it pops just like the housing market did in 2008 and the dot-com market did in 2000.
We should bear in mind, nonetheless, that though the dot-com bubble burst and swept away a lot of the web as we knew it, it did go away behind the seeds for the web as we now realize it. In the same method, the AI bubble bursting may go away behind the seeds for a much less inflated world of AI somewhat than the present AI business that we all know.
That would nonetheless type out the reminiscence and storage market, although. Because it stands, huge swathes of reminiscence and storage capability is spoken for by large AI corporations nicely earlier than it is packaged and able to be put in into servers, most of it upfront. And these manufacturing commitments are primarily based on the present fee of arguably inflated AI market growth. If that inflation involves a sudden finish and reversal, we could be coping with oversupply once more and decrease costs.
Workforce Group instructed me that “the [memory] supply-demand imbalance is anticipated to persist via not less than the primary half of subsequent 12 months.” And market evaluation sees the present reminiscence scarcity lasting for an additional three or 4 years. This tracks with not less than what some, corresponding to ex-Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger, take into consideration the so-called AI bubble: that positive, it’d burst, however that will not be for “a number of years.” Wherein case, we would must settle in for a protracted haul of excessive reminiscence, storage, and even GPU costs.
Finest RAM for gaming 2025
