alt Hacker NewsI find the panic over RAM prices to be overestimated. 32GB DDR5 RAM is around $500 which is comparable to to the 9800x3D. Sure it sucks that it increases by around 4x, but when you factor in the overall price of a top end PC at around 1000-2000, especially for the lion's sum of the GPU, the increase is marginal.
This only effects a very narrow slice of highly budget conscious consumers trying to build high end PCs at razor thin margins.
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I disagree with you. The issue does not only affect a “very narrow slice” of consumers. https://www.techspot.com/news/111472-hp-warns-ram-now-makes-... A major brand is now suggesting that this is a “new normal” and one solution is to just offer systems with less ram. This is an issue when lots of modern software seems to expect an unending supply.
> 32GB DDR5 RAM is around $500 which is comparable to to the 9800x3D.
Apples to oranges. Why are you comparing RAM prices to CPU prices? It's different hardware.
$500 for 32 GB is insane. Just 18 months ago, I bought 128 GB of DDR5 for only $480.
That is an insane amount of money for just 32GB of RAM! That's what we were paying back when it was hard to use more than 32-64GB in a desktop setting. These days with all the electron and node bloatware, containers everywhere and AI - 32GB doesn't get you far.
$500 is 5x what it cost less than a year ago, just for context. It turns a $1600 computer build into a $2000 one. That’s a huge difference.
Edit: I don’t get your math. If we’re using a very generous definition of “top end,” even neglecting Nvidia and going AMD - which some would argue makes it not top end - you’re talking conservatively: $600 for a GPU, $500 for 32gb of ram, and $500 for a CPU. $1600 before PSU, case, SSD, fan(s), mobo…there’s no world in which you’re coming in under $2k. The SSD and board will put you over immediately.
You’re talking 3/2025 prices, not 3/2026. A compromise, mid-range computer is $1500 to build now.
>"overall price of a top end PC at around 1000-2000"
All 4 of my "top end PCs" have 128GB RAM. Me server (I self host everything is 512GB). Lucky for me all were bought before that insanity.
$500 for 32GB is about $15/GB which is a high we haven't seen since the mid-2000s. This is a big deal, it turns RAM and to some extent storage (especially fast storage) into a massive economic bottleneck.