this post was submitted on 25 Nov 2025
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Generative “AI” data centers are gobbling up trillions of dollars in capital, not to mention heating up the planet like a microwave. As a result there’s a capacity crunch on memory production, shooting the prices for RAM sky high, over 100 percent in the last few months alone. Multiple stores are tired of adjusting the prices day to day, and won’t even display them. You find out how much it costs at checkout.

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[–] markz@suppo.fi 292 points 1 day ago (6 children)

I swear there's a new gold rush every time I want to upgrade my pc.

[–] notabot@piefed.social 158 points 1 day ago (4 children)

It wouldn't be quite so bad if the previous gold rush ended first, but they seem to just be stacking up.

[–] Truscape@lemmy.blahaj.zone 43 points 1 day ago (5 children)

Speak for your self - scored a nice GPU upgrade during the crypto crash, maybe something similar will be achievable after this insanity hits the brakes.

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[–] bobs_monkey@lemmy.zip 23 points 1 day ago

This AI bubble needs to explode yesterday, Wall Street be damned.

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[–] Assassassin@lemmy.dbzer0.com 54 points 1 day ago (4 children)

This is why I'm still running ddr4. Every time I think about upgrading a generation, there's a run on some integral component.

[–] Truscape@lemmy.blahaj.zone 35 points 1 day ago (4 children)

AM4 is gonna last until the 2030s at this rate...

[–] Assassassin@lemmy.dbzer0.com 16 points 1 day ago (4 children)

With how good my 5600x still performs, I could very well see it lasting that long. Assuming it doesn't randomly kill itself after a few years like my previous ryzen 5.

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[–] adespoton@lemmy.ca 14 points 1 day ago (1 children)

It’s why I started treating computers as commodities — I rarely upgrade anymore; just wait the 5 years and by an entirely new system.

[–] Imgonnatrythis@sh.itjust.works 27 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Same except for me it's 10 years.

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[–] Agent641@lemmy.world 139 points 1 day ago

First they came for the hard drives, and I did not speak out because I didn't need a hard drive. Then they came for the GPUs and I did not speak out because I had a pretty dope GPU. Then they came for my 8gb of ram and there was nobody left to speak out for me.

[–] demizerone@lemmy.world 94 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (3 children)

I have 128gb of corsair ddr5 in my closet. IM RICH!

Just did a quick check, it's worth double what I paid for it. I'll just let it sit in my closet until it's worthless.

[–] krooklochurm@lemmy.ca 39 points 1 day ago (2 children)

I also have 128gb of ddr5 ram

And 64gb of ddr5 ram

And some laptop ddr5 ram

I'm going to wrap them all in Saran Wrap and stick them up my ass so my brain works faster

[–] Technikus5@feddit.org 15 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Ah, but you see, if you wrap it in Saran wrap, they won't be able to make contact. You'd be better off using contact grease for that easy insertion

[–] krooklochurm@lemmy.ca 10 points 1 day ago

Of course. That must be why it didn't work the last time. Thank you kindly for that wonderful advice.

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[–] AbidanYre@lemmy.world 14 points 1 day ago

Is it sitting on top of a pile of beanie babies?

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[–] BD89@lemmy.sdf.org 60 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Lol pricing computer parts like they do fish in an expensive restaurant.

What a time to be alive.

[–] comador@lemmy.world 17 points 1 day ago (4 children)

Thing is, this isn't new in the slightest.

I remember calling around to different PC stores in the 90s and early 00s to find the cheapest RAM and hard drive prices.

Before that, I remember my grandfather, an IBM employee in the 60s-90s calling places looking for best pricing on 64k-128k SIPP memory for an ibm pizzabox 286.

[–] 3abas@lemmy.world 21 points 1 day ago

That was the norm before it was so easy to buy online from across the country, local stores set their own prices and a few minutes of calling to find the best deal is like searching on Google for a few minutes to find the best deal... But they weren't doubling in price in a couple months, that I can recall anyway.

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[–] Dogiedog64@lemmy.world 49 points 1 day ago (2 children)

If you want to see a good set of graphs on pricing over time, PC Parts Picker does some good ones. It's absolutely INSANE how bad it's getting. The graphs in question.

[–] Eyekaytee@aussie.zone 14 points 1 day ago (4 children)

I was like DDR4 doesn't count

One well-documented memory industry trend that is behind the price increases seen is said to be makers shutting down their DDR4 production in favor of DDR5 and other more profitable lines. In February, we noted that the likes of Micron, Samsung, and SK hynix were being rudely elbowed out of the DDR4 market by Chinese players (such as CXMT and Fujian Jinhua) ruthlessly undercutting them in this segment.

Samsung was seen to flinch in late April, as reports circulated that the South Korean technology and manufacturing giant had scheduled to cease DDR4 production in early June.

Now there are indications that oversupply from Chinese ‘dumping’ is at an end, as CXMT has been instructed by the Chinese government to abandon DDR4 manufacturing. Thus, the reported spikes in DDR4 pricing in recent weeks may stem from a perfect storm of the above supply-side factors all exerting an effect over a relatively short period of time.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/ddr4-prices-continue-surge-reportedly-122337204.html?fr=sycsrp_catchall

But still ouch :)

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[–] moonburster@lemmy.world 36 points 1 day ago (4 children)

As someone buying load of secondhand tech, you don't need the latest and greatest

[–] Valmond@lemmy.world 14 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Yeah but even second hand drives are stupid-priced today. No, I dont want to buy your 2014 1TB drive for 25€ + shipping.

I can't wait for this to pop, I mean if it does in a way that produces selloffs.

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[–] thermal_shock@lemmy.world 10 points 1 day ago (5 children)

I can never get people to understand this. I've got servers running on i7 8th gens, with stock 16GB ram. I could upgrade, but no need. People thinking they need 128GB to plays games are delusional.

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[–] baatliwala@lemmy.world 36 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (4 children)

Ffs I keep delaying a rebuild of my PC because of crap like this every year thinking the bubble will burst, but something new comes up. I don't use it for gaming nowadays, just regular browsing since I have a console but even Sony is bringing their stuff to PC so I was looking to upgrade. Now it's been pushed even more.

Hang in there my 8 GB ram PC with GTX 960...

[–] kieron115@startrek.website 11 points 19 hours ago* (last edited 19 hours ago)

so i switched myself and my parents to arch linux over the past 3-4 months and I can say definitively that those specs are fine for CachyOS (an Arch Linux distro). My mom is using my hand-me-down 970 with its lovely "we charged you for 4gb of vram but actually only 3.5 of it is fast haha sucker" and it runs great paired to an old i7 6700k.

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[–] Vandals_handle@lemmy.world 35 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Lived in the Silicon Valley in the 1990's, when the price of RAM exploded with the web, armed robberies of manufacturing plants and warehouses for RAM became a thing for a few years.

Insert <Aw shit, here we go again . meme>

[–] sobchak@programming.dev 13 points 1 day ago (2 children)

I think the RAM manufacturers were found to be guilty of colluding/price-fixing in that case (maybe this case too).

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[–] kurodriel@lemmy.dbzer0.com 30 points 1 day ago (9 children)

This is crazy, not displaying the price of an item in a shelf or display is against consumer laws where I live. And if the price on display is not updated the store is required to sell by the price on display.

[–] tmyakal@infosec.pub 15 points 1 day ago

It's blatant price-gouging. Any stock in the store has already been sold to them at an agreed price. They can set a number and make their set margin.

Updating prices after each delivery might make sense (if their procurement department is absolute dogshit at negotiating contracts), but updating prices throughout the day is just someone trying to see how hard they can push their margins to drain every cent out of their customers.

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[–] U7826391786239@lemmy.zip 23 points 1 day ago (4 children)
[–] Trainguyrom@reddthat.com 16 points 1 day ago (4 children)

That's insane. I literally just got that same kit of memory free in a NewEgg bundle just 2 months ago! And the 32GB kits I was looking at were all priced at around $75-125 for 32GB

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[–] artyom@piefed.social 21 points 1 day ago (3 children)

Multiple stores are tired of adjusting the prices day to day, and won’t even display them. You find out how much it costs at checkout.

Someone should tell them about those e-paper price tags...

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[–] SlartyBartFast@sh.itjust.works 19 points 1 day ago (1 children)
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[–] pressedhams@lemmy.blahaj.zone 17 points 1 day ago (1 children)

It’s not a fucking lobster. Base pricing per unit based on whatever profit margin you need on that item.

Nope, let’s get as much as we can at all times, like it’s silver bullion.

[–] osaerisxero@kbin.melroy.org 21 points 1 day ago

No, they have to base the price on what it costs to order the next shipment, unless they want to just stop carrying ram or you expect them to take on a loan for that. The wholesale market for ram must be fucking wild for a retail store to think they have to post something like that.

[–] TheObviousSolution@lemmy.ca 16 points 1 day ago

If this bubble doesn't pop soon, I expect a memory card thefts to start making the headlines. Small and easier to carry off while being more expensive than some jewelry of the same size.

[–] SabinStargem@lemmy.today 16 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I think that in the long run, the RAM shortage will turn into a glut of much faster and larger DDR5 RAM sticks. Provided if you can wait for the transition to AM6, an AM5 endgame system will have pretty good RAM.

[–] BakerBagel@midwest.social 15 points 1 day ago (6 children)

They are going to pivot all that processing to the next snale oil scheme. Do you think its a coincidence that rhe AI hype came immediately after crypto crashed?

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[–] hereiamagain@sh.itjust.works 12 points 1 day ago

Finally set up my proxmox server, been procrastinating for a year. Thought on a whim, "I'm only using 2 of my 4 slots, and I could benefit from a bit more RAM. It's DDR4, can't be that expensive".

Yeah... It was that expensive. More expensive than when I bought the stuff originally when this computer was new.

[–] HugeNerd@lemmy.ca 11 points 15 hours ago (1 children)

Well if you know of a better way to generate pictures of comically obese bearded men gayly dancing, I'd love to hear it.

[–] InternetCitizen2@lemmy.world 12 points 13 hours ago

DMing you my patron

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