Right now I'm on a 2021 MacBook Pro, I'm debating whether to upgrade to the new M5 Pro laptops or to wait until next year; so that's 5-6 years. My desktop gets upgraded over time, so it's not really on a "cycle"; it's more that every few years, I may decide to get a more powerful CPU, or more RAM, or a new GPU, or more storage, or whatever else. Though I recently (as in, during the past year) upgraded from an AM4 CPU to an AM5 CPU, so that meant I replaced more than usual; everything other than the GPU, storage, power supply and peripherals. (I switched from ITX to mATX for an extra PCI slot so the case had to go; though it still lives on in the form of a lab PC of sorts, along with my old i7 6700k)
But common among all these replacements is that they're not really planned in detail years before. I may weigh up factors like "I don't really need an upgrade right now" against factors like "the market looks like it'll probably get really shitty later this year", or "I could really really use an upgrade right now" against "but the market is shitty now and we're right before a product launch which will shake things up". But I always react to my current or near-future needs/wants and current or near-future market conditions.
So hearing "the RAM market will be good again in 5 years" is completely irrelevant to me. My decisions are entirely based around how the RAM market is right now and how I believe it will look throughout the year or the next.
Right now I'm on a 2021 MacBook Pro, I'm debating whether to upgrade to the new M5 Pro laptops or to wait until next year; so that's 5-6 years. My desktop gets upgraded over time, so it's not really on a "cycle"; it's more that every few years, I may decide to get a more powerful CPU, or more RAM, or a new GPU, or more storage, or whatever else. Though I recently (as in, during the past year) upgraded from an AM4 CPU to an AM5 CPU, so that meant I replaced more than usual; everything other than the GPU, storage, power supply and peripherals. (I switched from ITX to mATX for an extra PCI slot so the case had to go; though it still lives on in the form of a lab PC of sorts, along with my old i7 6700k)
But common among all these replacements is that they're not really planned in detail years before. I may weigh up factors like "I don't really need an upgrade right now" against factors like "the market looks like it'll probably get really shitty later this year", or "I could really really use an upgrade right now" against "but the market is shitty now and we're right before a product launch which will shake things up". But I always react to my current or near-future needs/wants and current or near-future market conditions.
So hearing "the RAM market will be good again in 5 years" is completely irrelevant to me. My decisions are entirely based around how the RAM market is right now and how I believe it will look throughout the year or the next.