RAM and SSD Prices Are Climbing Fast
PC builders and gamers are running into a familiar problem again: memory and storage prices are shooting up. After a brief period of great deals, RAM and SSDs are getting more expensive and there is not much reason to think that will change soon.
Industry analysts at TrendForce report that supply of NAND flash wafers, the core component used in SSDs, is getting tighter. At the same time, demand from big enterprise customers is booming, largely driven by artificial intelligence workloads in data centers. That demand is pulling supply away from the consumer market that home PC gamers rely on.
The result is a sharp jump in prices at the manufacturing level. In November, average NAND wafer prices increased between 20 and 60 percent. Triple level cell or TLC NAND which stores three bits of data per cell has been hit the hardest. Quad level cell or QLC NAND is also in short supply. Since these technologies are what most consumer SSDs use, higher wafer prices will eventually show up as higher prices on the drives sitting in your favorite online store.
There is always a lag between component price hikes and what you see at retail, but that lag is already closing. Many of the best deals that appeared around Cyber Monday have either dried up or do not look so impressive once you compare them with prices from a few months ago.
Why RAM Is Getting So Expensive
The situation for system RAM is even worse than for SSDs. Reports suggest that RAM is as much as three times more expensive than it was a few months back. This is not just a small market correction. It is a major swing driven by the changing priorities of the big memory manufacturers.
A report from SEDaily shines a light on what is happening inside Samsung, one of the largest memory makers on the planet. Samsung’s Semiconductor Division which actually produces DRAM is said to have rejected a request for memory from Samsung’s own Mobile Experience division. Instead of locking in long term supply deals, the mobile side now has to negotiate every quarter.
That kind of internal tension usually signals that supply is tight and profits are higher elsewhere. In this case, the real money is in high bandwidth memory known as HBM. HBM is the ultra fast stacked memory used in AI accelerators and high end data center GPUs. These chips sell for a lot more than standard desktop RAM kits, so manufacturers are shifting production to chase that revenue.
Micron is following the same playbook. The company is investing about 9.6 billion dollars in a new factory in western Japan focused on next generation HBM chips for AI workloads. That scale of investment makes it clear where the industry thinks the future profits will be. While AI gear gets more capacity and better speeds, production lines for regular DDR4 and DDR5 get relatively less attention.
For gamers, this translates into fewer DRAM chips available for standard desktop kits. When supply shrinks and demand stays strong from PC builders and upgraders, you end up with a rapid rise in prices. Even when you do find sales, the “deal” price today may still be far above what the same kit cost earlier this year.
How This Hits GPUs and PC Gaming
The squeeze on memory is not just about RAM sticks and SSDs. Graphics cards are in the crosshairs too. Modern GPUs rely on large amounts of high speed VRAM which is built using the same DRAM technologies that power system memory. If there is not enough DRAM being produced, there also is not enough VRAM for graphics cards.
To make things more complex, Nvidia is reported to be changing how it sells GPUs to its board partners. The company might stop bundling VRAM with GPU dies. Instead, add in board partners would need to source their own memory directly from DRAM suppliers.
At first glance that might just sound like a business detail, but it matters for pricing. When partners have to negotiate their own memory deals during a shortage, they will face the same high costs everyone else does. Those extra costs tend to end up in the final price of the graphics card. So between expensive VRAM and high demand for AI focused HBM, there is little room left for genuinely cheap gaming GPUs.
All of this is happening while PC gamers are already feeling burned from past shortages. We have gone from GPU scarcity during the crypto boom, to post pandemic supply issues, and now into an AI fueled memory crunch. Each cycle makes it harder to find reasonably priced parts, especially for budget and mid range builds.
What Gamers Should Expect Next
Putting it all together, the PC gaming market is entering another tough phase for anyone hoping to upgrade or build a system on the cheap. Key points to keep in mind include:
- NAND flash wafer prices are up significantly which will push SSD prices higher over time.
- DRAM production is being pulled toward HBM and AI products, leaving fewer chips for standard desktop RAM and VRAM.
- RAM prices for consumers are already up dramatically and may have more room to climb if supply stays tight.
- GPU makers and board partners are not immune because they rely on the same memory ecosystem that is under pressure.
For now the best approach is to be strategic. If you see genuinely good RAM or SSD deals from reputable brands, they might be worth grabbing rather than waiting for another big price drop that may not come soon. At the same time, do not panic buy. Track prices over a few weeks, set alerts, and be flexible on capacities and speeds. A slightly smaller SSD or a kit with more modest timings is often better value than paying a premium for top shelf specs in a market where every gigabyte is at a premium.
It is not the most exciting news for PC gamers, but understanding why prices are moving the way they are can help you plan smarter upgrades and avoid overpaying in yet another round of component shortages.
Original article and image: https://www.pcgamer.com/hardware/ssds/its-not-just-ram-ssds-could-soon-cost-way-more-too-and-its-all-downhill-from-here/
