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RAM is so expensive, Samsung won't even sell it to Samsung

pcworld.com

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Re: RAM is so expensive, Samsung won't even sell it to Samsung

#11

Post by jacquesm »

JKCalhoun wrote: post #3
DocTomoe wrote: post #2

I feel we have a RAM price surge every four years. The excuses change, but it's always when we see a generation switch to the next gen of DDR. Which makes me believe it's not AI, or graphics cards, or crypto, or gaming, or one of the billion other conceivable reasons, but price-gouging when new standards emerge and production capacity is still limited. Which would be much harder to justify than 'the AI/Crypto/Gaming…

Regardless of whether it is Crypto/AI/etc., this would seem to be wake-up call #2. We're finding the strangle-points in our "economy"—will we do anything about it? A single fab in Phoenix would seem inadequate?

If 'the West' would be half as smart as they claim to be there would be many more fabs in friendly territory. Stick a couple in Australia and NZ too for good measure, it is just too critical of a resource now.

Re: RAM is so expensive, Samsung won't even sell it to Samsung

#13

Post by jacquesm »

baiwl wrote: post #10
JKCalhoun wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Regardless of whether it is Crypto/AI/etc., this would seem to be wake-up call #2. We're finding the strangle-points in our "economy"—will we do anything about it? A single fab in Phoenix would seem inadequate?

What will we do with that fab in two years when nobody needs that excess RAM?

There has never been 'an excess of RAM', the market has always absorbed what was available.

Re: RAM is so expensive, Samsung won't even sell it to Samsung

#14

Post by grincek »

morcus wrote: post #6
jsheard wrote: post #5

To be fair, Samsung's divisions having guns pointed at each other is nothing new. This is the same conglomerate that makes their own chip division fight for placement in their own phones, constantly flip-flopping between using Samsung or Qualcomm chips at the high end, Samsung or Mediatek chips at the low end, or even a combination of first-party and third-party chips in different variants of ostensibly the same devi…

> two versions of the same phone with different processors That's hilarious, which phone is this?

This is the case as recent as of S24, phones can come with exynos or snapdragon, with exynos usually featuring worse performance and battery life

Re: RAM is so expensive, Samsung won't even sell it to Samsung

#15

Post by zorked »

jacquesm wrote: post #8
DocTomoe wrote: post #2

I feel we have a RAM price surge every four years. The excuses change, but it's always when we see a generation switch to the next gen of DDR. Which makes me believe it's not AI, or graphics cards, or crypto, or gaming, or one of the billion other conceivable reasons, but price-gouging when new standards emerge and production capacity is still limited. Which would be much harder to justify than 'the AI/Crypto/Gaming…

Why is this downvoted, this is not the first time I've heard that opinion expressed and every time it happens there is more evidence that maybe there is something to it. I've been following the DRAM market since the 4164 was the hot new thing and it cost - not kidding - $300 for 8 of these which would give you all of 64K RAM. Over the years I've seen the price surge multiple times and usually there was some kind of h…

This industry has a history of forming cartels.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DRAM_price_fixing_scandal

Re: RAM is so expensive, Samsung won't even sell it to Samsung

#16

Post by shevy-java »

AI companies must compensate us for this outrage.

A few hours ago I looked at the RAM prices. I bought some DDR4, 32GB only, about a year or two ago. I kid you not - the local price here is now 2.5 times as it was back in 2023 or so, give or take.

I want my money back, OpenAI!

Re: RAM is so expensive, Samsung won't even sell it to Samsung

#17

Post by petcat »

morcus wrote: post #6
jsheard wrote: post #5

To be fair, Samsung's divisions having guns pointed at each other is nothing new. This is the same conglomerate that makes their own chip division fight for placement in their own phones, constantly flip-flopping between using Samsung or Qualcomm chips at the high end, Samsung or Mediatek chips at the low end, or even a combination of first-party and third-party chips in different variants of ostensibly the same devi…

> two versions of the same phone with different processors That's hilarious, which phone is this?

Basically every Galaxy phone comes in two versions. One with Exynos and one with Snapdragon. It's regional though. US always gets the Snapdragon phones while Europe and mostly Asia gets the Exynos version.

My understanding is that the Exynos is inferior in a lot of ways, but also cheaper.

Re: RAM is so expensive, Samsung won't even sell it to Samsung

#18

Post by nickjj »

I'm running a box I put together in 2014 with an i5-4460 (3.2ghz), 16 GB of RAM, GeForce 750ti, first gen SSD, ASRock H97M Pro4 motherboard with a reasonable PSU, case and a number of fans. All of that parted out at the time was $700.

I've never been more fearful of components breaking than current day. With GPU and now memory prices being crazy, I hope I never have to upgrade.

I don't know how but the box is still great for every day web development with heavy Docker usage, video recording / editing with a 4k monitor and 2nd 1440p monitor hooked up. Minor gaming is ok too, for example I picked up Silksong last week, it runs very well at 2560x1440.

For general computer usage, SSDs really were a once in a generation "holy shit, this upgrade makes a real difference" thing.

Re: RAM is so expensive, Samsung won't even sell it to Samsung

#19

Post by muvlon »

morcus wrote: post #6
jsheard wrote: post #5

To be fair, Samsung's divisions having guns pointed at each other is nothing new. This is the same conglomerate that makes their own chip division fight for placement in their own phones, constantly flip-flopping between using Samsung or Qualcomm chips at the high end, Samsung or Mediatek chips at the low end, or even a combination of first-party and third-party chips in different variants of ostensibly the same devi…

> two versions of the same phone with different processors That's hilarious, which phone is this?

Not one phone, they did this all over the place. Their flagship line did this starting with the Galaxy S7 all the way up to Galaxy S24. Only the most recent Galaxy S25 is Qualcomm Snapdragon only, supposedly because their own Exynos couldn't hit volume production fast enough.

Re: RAM is so expensive, Samsung won't even sell it to Samsung

#20

Post by dgacmu »

itopaloglu83 wrote: post #4

The manufacturers are willing to quadruple the prices for the foreseeable future but not change their manufacturing quotes a bit. So much for open markets, somebody must check their books and manufacturing schedules.

In their defense, how many $20 billion fabs do you want to build in response to the AI ... (revolution|bubble|other words)? It seems very, very difficult to predict how long DRAM demand will remain this elevated.

It's dangerous for them in both directions: Overbuilding capacity if the boom busts vs. leaving themselves vulnerable to a competitor who builds out if the boom is sustained. Glad I don't have to make that decision. :)

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