I noticed that the price of a RAM set I was interested in shot up from £229 to £299 in just a week! I'm really concerned and wondering if this trend will continue. Will prices ever come back down?
4 Answers
It’s largely about supply and demand. A lot of companies are planning for shortages and higher profit margins. With the big players like Skhynix and Samsung managing stocks, it feels like we’re all just caught in the middle. Hopefully, by summer, things might ease up a bit.
It seems like the demand for RAM is mostly driven by AI advancements. Companies are ramping up their data center operations to leverage AI, which means there’s a scramble for RAM. Plus, the few manufacturers we have can't increase their output fast enough, so prices keep rising. Definitely keeps us on our toes!
Are they only focusing on the 4TB models? That seems pretty limited.
OpenAI's big purchases have also played a huge role here. They switched from buying servers with consumer RAM to acquiring large amounts of DRAM wafers, severely cutting into normal supply capabilities. If you're in need of RAM, you might want to buy now instead of waiting for prices to fall.
Great, I guess I'll have to bite the bullet then!
Yeah, it’s a mix of growing AI demand and seasonal sales like Black Friday. RAM prices tend to fluctuate anyway, but with AI making such big waves, it’s hard to predict if they’ll go back down anytime soon.
So you're saying this isn’t just a temporary spike? That's rough!