RAM is so expensive, Samsung won't even sell it to Samsung

I'm running a box I put together in 2014 with an i5-4460 (3.2ghz), 16 GB of RAM, GeForce 750ti, first gen SSD, ASRock H97M Pro4 motherboard with a reasonable PSU, case and a number of fans. All of that parted out at the time was $700.

I've never been more fearful of components breaking than current day. With GPU and now memory prices being crazy, I hope I never have to upgrade.

I don't know how but the box is still great for every day web development with heavy Docker usage, video recording / editing with a 4k monitor and 2nd 1440p monitor hooked up. Minor gaming is ok too, for example I picked up Silksong last week, it runs very well at 2560x1440.

For general computer usage, SSDs really were a once in a generation "holy shit, this upgrade makes a real difference" thing.

To be fair, Samsung's divisions having guns pointed at each other is nothing new. This is the same conglomerate that makes their own chip division fight for placement in their own phones, constantly flip-flopping between using Samsung or Qualcomm chips at the high end, Samsung or Mediatek chips at the low end, or even a combination of first-party and third-party chips in different variants of ostensibly the same device.

"The price of eggs has nothing on the price of computer memory right now.". A dozen eggs went to ~$5. They are eggs and most people use what, max 12 eggs a month? Get out of here with that trite garbage. Everyone knew that the egg shortage was due to the extreme step the US does of culling herds infected with avian flu and that they were transitory.

Well well well. From an anti monopoly standpoint isn't it interesting that each business is doing what it should for its own best interests rather than special deals because they're under the same umbrella?

Apple is going to be even more profitable in the consumer space because of RAM prices ? I feel like they are the only player to have the supply chain locked down enough to not get caught off guard, have good prices locked in enough in advance and suppliers not willing to antagonize such a big customer by backing out of a deal.

This is going to be a serious problem. We’ve had smart devices percolate through all consumer electronics, from washing machines to fridges. That’s all fine and dandy but they all need RAM. At what point does this become a national security issue? People need these things and they all require RAM and now assumably will cost more as the raw chip cost increases significantly or the supply chains dry up for lower quantities all together.

This is to be expected from any large corporation. In my experience, this sort of infighting leads to low morale and wastes a significant amount of energy that could be directed somewhere far more productive.

Based on my time working for Samsung this does not surprise me. The silos within fight against one another more than they ever bother to compete with anyone else

Dec 2023:

96GB (2x48) DDR5 5x00 £260 today £1050

128GB (4x32 ) DDR5 5x00 £350 today £1500

Wut?

Edit: formatting

I really wanted to build a new PC this year, which is obviously not happening anymore. But I do have 2x16GB DDR5 SODIMMs from my laptop that I'm not using, after I upgraded to 64GB a while back. Now I wonder if I can build a tiny PC around those? Does anyone make motherboards that support DDR5 laptop memory?

The manufacturers are willing to quadruple the prices for the foreseeable future but not change their manufacturing quotes a bit.

So much for open markets, somebody must check their books and manufacturing schedules.

It's unfortunate that we will soon not have computers because it is not profitable enough. Alas. Too bad the market is so efficient.

I had planned to build a new workstation this fall, all the parts were in the list. but seeing the ram go from 300€ (96 GB) to 820€, in-stock for 999€, in under a month made me decide that i will continue using that laptop from 2019 for maybe another 1.5 years.

It's a ridiculous situation and these companies, whoever they are, should be somewhat ashamed of themselves for the situation they're putting us in.

That goes specially for those MF at OpenAI who apparently grabbed 40% of the worldwide DRAM production, as well as those sold in stores.

I am sooooooooooooooooooooooo glad I bought a 6000Mhz 2x16 kit before all this nonsense started.

I'll be honest, I have 0 confidence that this is a transient event. Once the AI hype cools off, Nvidia will just come up with something else that suddenly needs all their highest end products. Tech companies will all hype it up, and suddenly hardware will be expensive again.

The hardware manufacturers and chip designers have gotten a taste of inflated prices and they are NOT going to let it go. Do not expect a 'return to normal'

Even if demand goes back to exactly what it what, expect prices to for some reason be >30% higher than before for no reason - or as they would call it 'market conditions'.

It is absolutely the worst time to be a gamer. First it was the GPU prices that went up and NVIDIA started to focus on their enterprise cards more and more RAM prices. I don’t think I’ve seen the price of computer components go up so much.

You make more money selling the good stuff. It's like this in just about every industry.

When RAM gets so expensive that even Samsung won’t buy Samsung from Samsung, you know the market has officially entered comic mode. At this rate their next quarterly report is just going to be one division sending the other an IOU.

I'm now glad I bought 128GB of DDR4 when building a new dual purpose server-gaming PC two years ago. The RAM is now worth way more than the rest of the parts combined.

I wonder how this will impact phone prices.

This seems to be for chips put in phones in 2026? I thought these orders were booked further in advance, or is that only for processors?

I bought 64 GB DDR4 RAM for $189 in 2022. The exact same memory is now almost $600 on Amazon. How can this not impact PC sales and the sale of other electronics?

Ironically that site was eating up my RAM. PC World has some issues, Chrome & Firefox.

I've bought 2x16GB Samsung ECC RAM last week for $150.

Once the AI bubble pops there will be smoking deals on RAM (and everything else).

In the 90s, Motorola Mobile used Cypress SRAMs and not Motorola SRAMs.

Pricing.

I feel we have a RAM price surge every four years. The excuses change, but it's always when we see a generation switch to the next gen of DDR. Which makes me believe it's not AI, or graphics cards, or crypto, or gaming, or one of the billion other conceivable reasons, but price-gouging when new standards emerge and production capacity is still limited. Which would be much harder to justify than 'the AI/Crypto/Gaming folks (who no-one likes) are sweeping the market...'

Kdrama on this when?

AI companies must compensate us for this outrage.

A few hours ago I looked at the RAM prices. I bought some DDR4, 32GB only, about a year or two ago. I kid you not - the local price here is now 2.5 times as it was back in 2023 or so, give or take.

I want my money back, OpenAI!