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Server DRAM prices surge 50% as AI-induced memory shortage hits hyperscalers

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Re: Server DRAM prices surge 50% as AI-induced memory shortage hits hyperscalers

#41

Post by zrm »

embedding-shape wrote: post #32
Ekaros wrote: post #25

I hope this AI craze will crash soon enough. Maybe then various things normalize in price again. And consumers get cheaper products with less limitations.

Is that really the cause of this price increase? I still don't understand if this price surge is specifically for the US ( https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45812691 ) or if it's worldwide, I'm not sure I notice anything here in Southern Europe, so either that means it's lagging and I should load up RAM today, or this is indeed US-specific. But I don't know what's true.

In the US some of it could be tariffs. Micron is a US company with some US fabs but most of theirs are in other countries and Samsung and Hynix are both South Korea.

Re: Server DRAM prices surge 50% as AI-induced memory shortage hits hyperscalers

#43

Post by Ekaros »

zonkerdonker wrote: post #39
654wak654 wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Best we're getting is probably a stop to the price raises, but no price cuts. Kids will continue to grow up not knowing a $600 flagship GPU or a $1000 gaming PC.

It really is a damn shame, but before AI, it was cryptomining. Desktop GPU prices have been inflated to nonsense levels for gamers, to the point where console vs. PC isnt even really question anymore.

And even with increased priced you often still get paltry amount of RAM. All for market segmentation due to AI use cases. Which is bad as requirements have crept up.

Re: Server DRAM prices surge 50% as AI-induced memory shortage hits hyperscalers

#44

Post by threeducks »

embedding-shape wrote: post #11
zparky wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep, DDR5 prices have nearly doubled in less than 2 months. https://pcpartpicker.com/trends/price/memory/#ram.ddr5.5200....

Are those graphs specifically for the US? When I change the country in the top right, it doesn't seem like the graphs are changing, and considering they're in USD, I'm assuming it's US-only? Is the same doubling happening world-wide or is this US-specific, I guess is my question? Edit: one data point, I last bought 128GB of RAM in March 2024 for ~€536, similar ones right now costs ~€500, but maybe the time range is t…

536 € seems expensive for March 2024, but either way, the price dropped a lot over the last one and a half years, only to surge in the last two months.

Re: Server DRAM prices surge 50% as AI-induced memory shortage hits hyperscalers

#47

Post by 9rx »

sleepyguy wrote: post #18

Manufacturers learned a valuable lesson a few years ago: overproduction leads to lower prices. Samsung was the first to address this issue by scaling back, and other manufacturers soon followed suit (collusion, cough cough). The past couple of years have been extremely profitable for the entire industry, and they’re not about to increase production and risk hurting their profits. I suspect they would rather face shor…

> I suspect they would rather face shortages then satisfy market demand.

Doubtful. A shortage is normally a scary prospect for a vendor. It means that buyers want to pay more, but something is getting in the way of the seller accepting that higher price. Satisfying market demand is the only way to maximize profitability.

Why do you think companies would prefer to make less profit here?

Re: Server DRAM prices surge 50% as AI-induced memory shortage hits hyperscalers

#48

Post by embedding-shape »

Normal_gaussian wrote: post #37
embedding-shape wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are those graphs specifically for the US? When I change the country in the top right, it doesn't seem like the graphs are changing, and considering they're in USD, I'm assuming it's US-only? Is the same doubling happening world-wide or is this US-specific, I guess is my question? Edit: one data point, I last bought 128GB of RAM in March 2024 for ~€536, similar ones right now costs ~€500, but maybe the time range is t…

In the UK I was looking at DDR4-3200 SODIMM last week for some mini-pcs... and decided to pass after looking at the price graphs. It's spiked in the last few weeks.

What graph you used for UK-specific prices as it seems the earlier graphs referenced here are US-only?

Re: Server DRAM prices surge 50% as AI-induced memory shortage hits hyperscalers

#49

Post by embedding-shape »

confirmmesenpai wrote: post #38
embedding-shape wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is that really the cause of this price increase? I still don't understand if this price surge is specifically for the US ( https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45812691 ) or if it's worldwide, I'm not sure I notice anything here in Southern Europe, so either that means it's lagging and I should load up RAM today, or this is indeed US-specific. But I don't know what's true.

you should look more carefully, RAM prices are up across Europe, 40% or so

I did (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45812691), the RAM I bought in March 2024 currently costs about the same as when I bought it, seems the price stagnated rather than increased for that specific example.

Do you have some concrete examples of where I can look?

Re: Server DRAM prices surge 50% as AI-induced memory shortage hits hyperscalers

#50

Post by NullPrefix »

gordonhart wrote: post #33
654wak654 wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Best we're getting is probably a stop to the price raises, but no price cuts. Kids will continue to grow up not knowing a $600 flagship GPU or a $1000 gaming PC.

$1000 in 2010 is ~$1500 today — kids won't know these prices because the currency has been debased pretty rapidly in recent years.

This ram price spike is literally part of the currency debasing
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