Michael Crider’s title PC World Today perfectly demonstrates how ridiculous the PC memory shortage has become: stores like Central Computers in the San Francisco Bay Area are starting to sell RAM at market prices, like you’d pay for a day’s lunch at a seafood restaurant.
“Costs are fluctuating daily as manufacturers and distributors adjust to limited supply and high demand,” reads a message posted on the store’s display case, seen by Steve Lynn. “Because of this, we cannot display set prices at this time.”
Micro Center is apparently doing just that: “Due to market volatility, we request that you please see a sales associate for pricing,” reads an in-store message captured by Redditor CassTexas (via Tom’s Hardware,
It’s hard to overstate how quickly the lack of RAM is changing the affordability of computers – and it may soon affect other areas too, as everything from game consoles to smartphones need RAM to function.
Three months ago yesterday, I bought 32GB of memory for my gaming PC, and since then the price of that kit has more than tripled. It now costs $300 more. ($440 vs. $130, if you’re curious; a more common version of the same kit went from $105 to $400.) Some prices have doubled since October, and while you can still find some 32GB kits for as low as $230, a 64GB DDR5 kit can easily run $700, $800, even $900.
Some high-profile product launches may be affected by the price of memory. Valve cited the lack of RAM as one reason it could not yet promise a specific price for its Steam Machine.
Leaker Moore’s Law Is Dead claims Microsoft may have to raise Xbox prices again to compensate, but Sony has stockpiled enough RAM for the PS5 to last a few months.
Epic CEO Tim Sweeney says that it may take years for high-end gaming to overcome the lack of RAM due to AI. “Factories are leveraging leading-edge DRAM capacity to meet AI needs, with data centers bidding far more than consumer device makers,” he says.
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