Memory shortages are not going away soon
If you have been eyeing a RAM upgrade or a bigger SSD for your gaming PC, the latest analyst reports are not what you want to hear. Fresh commentary based on Goldman Sachs research suggests that both DRAM and NAND flash will remain in short supply, with prices likely to keep climbing through 2026 and possibly beyond.
The core problem is simple. Demand for key memory technologies is growing much faster than supply, and manufacturers are prioritizing the most profitable markets. Right now, that does not mean gaming PCs. It means AI servers and data centers.
On the DRAM side, analyst Jukan shares that demand for both conventional DRAM and High Bandwidth Memory is continuing to outstrip supply. HBM is the ultra fast stacked memory used in AI accelerators and some high end GPUs. These chips are at the heart of the current AI boom and they soak up an enormous portion of global memory production.
According to the commentary, full year 2026 HBM volume and pricing negotiations for most DRAM suppliers are effectively wrapped up already. That tells you just how locked in this demand is. Memory makers know exactly where most of their output is going in 2026 and it is not to budget gaming rigs.
Because of this supply and demand imbalance, some suppliers see potential for conventional DRAM prices to rise by double digit percentages quarter over quarter throughout every quarter of 2026. That means prices not just staying high, but repeatedly stepping up as the year goes on.
At the same time, vendors apparently have no plans to convert HBM production lines back to conventional DRAM, or to repurpose NAND lines for DRAM. There is simply too much money in feeding the AI market. For gamers and regular PC users, the implication is clear: do not expect a sudden wave of extra capacity that makes 32 GB RAM kits cheap again any time soon.
SSD prices are under pressure too
It is not just RAM that is set to stay expensive. The NAND flash used in SSDs is facing a similar squeeze. Jukan shares further Goldman Sachs research suggesting that NAND supply and demand has tightened significantly over the last two quarters.
Two forces are driving this. On the supply side, big players like Samsung and SK Hynix have been disciplined about how much they produce. They are not flooding the market with chips because that would crush prices and profits. On the demand side, more devices than ever are using SSDs, from gaming PCs and laptops to consoles, servers, and cloud storage platforms.
The numbers tell the story. Bit supply growth for NAND is projected to be in the mid ten percent range, while bit demand growth could reach the high teens to around twenty percent. In plain language, production is growing, but demand is growing faster. Even if fabs are pushing out more NAND than they did this year, it still will not be enough to match how much the world wants to buy.
As a result, analysts expect NAND supply shortages to persist for at least the next several quarters and potentially through 2027. That is likely to translate into sequential quarter over quarter price increases, just like with DRAM.
For gamers, this means the dream of dirt cheap multi terabyte NVMe SSDs may be postponed. Storage deals will still exist, but the overall price floor is being held up by tight supply and strong demand.
What it means for your next PC upgrade
There is a bit of light at the end of the tunnel but it is a long tunnel. The charts shared by the analyst suggest that supply and demand should begin to rebalance around 2027. For DRAM, the gap between how much the world wants and how much is produced is expected to come back to more normal levels. For NAND, the situation is still forecast to be worse than it is right now, but better than the spike in 2026.
Even that outlook is not guaranteed. Some analysts think the shortages could stretch on for another three or four years. It all depends on how fast AI demand grows, how quickly new fabs come online, and whether manufacturers change their strategy.
For PC builders and gamers planning upgrades, a few practical takeaways emerge.
- If you know you need more RAM within the next year for gaming, streaming, or content creation, consider buying sooner rather than later. Waiting could mean stepping into a higher price bracket.
- Similarly, if your SSD space is constantly running out, watch for sales but do not assume prices will crash. A solid 1 TB or 2 TB drive might be worth grabbing when you see a reasonable deal rather than holding out for a massive drop.
- New prebuilt gaming PCs and laptops might creep up in price if manufacturers have to pay more for memory and storage. Factor that into your budget if you are planning a full system upgrade.
- For existing rigs, making efficient use of what you already have will matter more. Cleaning up old installs, offloading rarely used games to slower drives, and being realistic about how much RAM you actually need can all help stretch your hardware further.
The big picture is that AI and data center demand are setting the tone for the entire memory market. Gaming and general consumer PCs are along for the ride. Until new capacity catches up and the current wave of investment pays off, it is wise to assume that RAM and SSDs will remain a more expensive part of any build.
In other words, plan your next upgrade carefully. The good news is that once you have enough memory and storage, they tend to age gracefully compared to GPUs and CPUs. The tough part is getting there during a period when every gigabyte carries a premium.
Original article and image: https://www.pcgamer.com/hardware/memory/goldman-sachs-research-seems-to-point-towards-dram-and-ssd-prices-spiking-next-year-as-memory-supply-lags-behind-demand/
