The RAM crisis and the PC apocalypse

[flyerdog]

I have an AMD RYZEN 7 system with 64G of RAM (DDR4) and a 4060 GPU, 2x 1TB M2 drives, ASUS ROG STRIX MB

I also recently (about a year ago) built an i7 with 32G of RAM DDR5 this time and an RX 6950 XT, 2x 1TB M2 drives, also ASUS MB

glad I build the second one, because I've had MBs just die on me out of no where, and at these prices, no way I can afford to build another

 

[Owain Taggart]

I also love having 32GB of Ram. I thought I was being a little crazy when requesting it when I was getting my PC put together, but I'm glad I went with that option as everything runs very smoothly.

 

[Kor]

I got a ram chip several months ago and this whole thing made me curious to look it up again. It now costs twice as much as it did when I got it.

Kor

 

[Paul Weaver]

I got my 2017 laptop second hand in 2023 and bumped the ram upto 32G with 2x 16G kingston DDR4s

They cost £28.90 each plus VAT.

Looks like it's more than twice the price now.

Still I remember paying £80 for a 16MB 72pin simm back in the day, not 16GB, so mustn't grumble

 

[Santaman]

I'm pretty much okay for the next 5 years.

I don't play the latest and greatest so for me it's a AM4 machine Ryzen 7 5700X, 32GB RAM, Radeon RX 7700XT, 500GB NVMe boot drive and a 2TB SATA SSD as game storage.
It's a pure gaming machine, everything else I do on an AM4 4300G with 16 GB RAM and Linux Mint, this does everything else, office stuff, browsing, youtube and everything not gaming related.

 

[John Clark]

I got my 2017 laptop second hand in 2023 and bumped the ram upto 32G with 2x 16G kingston DDR4s

They cost £28.90 each plus VAT.

Looks like it's more than twice the price now.

Still I remember paying £80 for a 16MB 72pin simm back in the day, not 16GB, so mustn't grumble

I remember paying something like £80-£100 to bump my first computer from 4mb to 8mb - but we're talking early 90s then.

For what I do on my computers, most of it can be done on what I currently have adequately. That said, some of the games I would like to play, need better than what I have.

 

[Owain Taggart]

Anyone remember the Turbo buttons?? Oh man, we're going fast now!! I've had variations of these from simple buttons to key-switches.

 

[Rincewiend]

Anyone remember the Turbo buttons?? Oh man, we're going fast now!! I've had variations of these from simple buttons to key-switches.

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[Rincewiend]

Also, pre-built PCs are now the better, cheaper option...

 

[Marc]

Also, pre-built PCs are now the better, cheaper option...

not for much longer.

As the manufacturers have to pay for ram that will be passed on to consumers.

They would have long standing orders for the quantities they need and would have stock on hand.

 

[Owain Taggart]

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Figures LGR would have a video about turbo buttons. Of course he does!

 

[Santaman]

not for much longer.

As the manufacturers have to pay for ram that will be passed on to consumers.

They would have long standing orders for the quantities they need and would have stock on hand.

True but they're on the list of manufacturers that at least get RAM, Dell, Lenovo, HP etc will get RAM, yes at an inflated price but still FAR less than what normal consumers will pay, that is IF normal consumers will even get RAM at any price...
Also, that leaves smaller OEM's and mom and pop shops dead in the water...

Mainstream PC OEMs Get DRAM Priority As Supply Crisis Changes Market

We've already seen the myriad far-reaching effects of the DRAM crisis play out in a number of ways, including bring-your-own-RAM offerings from custom PC builders and rumors of delayed next-gen consoles. However, a new report out of DigiTimes claims that DRAM producers, specifically mentioning...

www.techpowerup.com

AMD is pondering the return of AM4 Zen3 CPU's which is an opening back for them towards DDR4 powered machines.

Amid Memory Crisis, AMD Considers AM4 Zen 3 Revival

An elevation of computer memory prices—throughout late 2025 and early 2026—has prompted revisits of older generation hardware. After all, cheaper DDR4 memory offers an alternative route in the current climate. Prime examples turned up last week, when Gigabyte unveiled and launched four new AM4...

www.techpowerup.com

So that means my 6 year old Ryzen 2200G is yet again a modern machine..

 

[Marc]

True but they're on the list of manufacturers that at least get RAM, Dell, Lenovo, HP etc will get RAM, yes at an inflated price but still FAR less than what normal consumers will pay, that is IF normal consumers will even get RAM at any price...
Also, that leaves smaller OEM's and mom and pop shops dead in the water...

Mainstream PC OEMs Get DRAM Priority As Supply Crisis Changes Market

We've already seen the myriad far-reaching effects of the DRAM crisis play out in a number of ways, including bring-your-own-RAM offerings from custom PC builders and rumors of delayed next-gen consoles. However, a new report out of DigiTimes claims that DRAM producers, specifically mentioning...

www.techpowerup.com

AMD is pondering the return of AM4 Zen3 CPU's which is an opening back for them towards DDR4 powered machines.

Amid Memory Crisis, AMD Considers AM4 Zen 3 Revival

An elevation of computer memory prices—throughout late 2025 and early 2026—has prompted revisits of older generation hardware. After all, cheaper DDR4 memory offers an alternative route in the current climate. Prime examples turned up last week, when Gigabyte unveiled and launched four new AM4...

www.techpowerup.com

So that means my 6 year old Ryzen 2200G is yet again a modern machine..

but DDR4 production has stopped in favour of DDR5 and what supply of the older ram was in various channels is drying up so there would be nothing to gain by bringing back Zen3.

 

[Santaman]

IIRC Samsung has decided to keep a few older fabs making DDR4, guess others will do so too.

 

[Owain Taggart]

I'd imagine that it's a matter of momentum, in that if there's enough of a need to keep producing it, they'll keep it around due to the costs surrounding the manufacturing of DDR5, so it's something that the market will have to adjust to.

 

[Marc]

IIRC Samsung has decided to keep a few older fabs making DDR4, guess others will do so too.

nope.

They're only continuing the DDR4 production for a contract they have no way out of and it's server memory.

So being server memory it will be registered ECC which isn't supported on consumer platforms. Those that do support DDR4 ecc (i3, Ryzen Pro) use unregistred.

the also article mentions that any DDR4 still in production will be going to industry clients so it's not going to help consumers.

Samsung to delay its planned DDR4 end-of-life due to signing a long-term 'non-cancellable, non-returnable' contract with key customer — agreement will not alleviate consumer shortage, supply earmarked for server clients

This move will allow Samsung to squeeze more out of its aging DDR4 production line.

www.tomshardware.com

 

[Rincewiend]

With Memory Market in Chaos, ASRock’s Dual DDR4/DDR5 Board Changes Everything

In an era where RAM prices have soared beyond reason, ASRock's H610M offers both DDR5/DDR4 slots, highlighting a customer-first approach.

tech4gamers.com

ASRock says lets do a mobo with ddr4 and ddr5 memoryslots

 

[Santaman]

nope.

They're only continuing the DDR4 production for a contract they have no way out of and it's server memory.

So being server memory it will be registered ECC which isn't supported on consumer platforms. Those that do support DDR4 ecc (i3, Ryzen Pro) use unregistred.

the also article mentions that any DDR4 still in production will be going to industry clients so it's not going to help consumers.

Samsung to delay its planned DDR4 end-of-life due to signing a long-term 'non-cancellable, non-returnable' contract with key customer — agreement will not alleviate consumer shortage, supply earmarked for server clients

This move will allow Samsung to squeeze more out of its aging DDR4 production line.

www.tomshardware.com

Yes, you're right, pity... so I guess we're just doomed, DOOOOOOOOMED DOOOOOOOOOOOOOMED!

 

[Marc]

Yes, you're right, pity... so I guess we're just doomed, DOOOOOOOOMED DOOOOOOOOOOOOOMED!

DDR3 is pretty cheap

 

[bdub76]

Feels like PCs are reverting.

I'm seeing this with LEGO too. You pay more for the sets, and the new iterations aren't as good as the old. It used to be that future iterations were an improvement on the old. You saw this a lot with the Harry Potter sets. Now, it's the opposite. This is the first time I'm seeing this.

It won't be long before new PCs are worse than ones we bought a couple of years ago at much higher prices. This is new too. If you've been following Backblaze, the cost of the storage as been steadily dropping for decades. This is the first time it's not dropping.

I bought a 10TB CMR Hard Drive for $170 over the holidays. Now, it's costs $199 for 8TB CMR Hard Drive.