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Memory prices climb 500% in 12 months

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Re: Memory prices climb 500% in 12 months

#361

Post by LastTrain »

ncallaway wrote: post #129
cm2187 wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't understand the distinction you are making. If you have a massive excess of demand ready to pay any price, and a limited supply, of course the sellers will take advantage, that's how any market works. They can do that because of the lack of supply. Over the long term demand will rationalise and supply will adjust. But in between there is a squeeze, and the right price is the maximum price buyers are willing to…

> If you have a massive excess of demand ready to pay any price, and a limited supply, of course the sellers will take advantage, that's how any market work The question is how quickly the supply adjusts. In a free market, the suppliers would respond to the price signal by quickly expanding their production to meet the elevated demand. But a market captured by a cartel will be much slower to expand the supply. So, th…

> In a free market, the suppliers would respond to the price signal by quickly expanding their production to meet the elevated demand.

That’s a good one!

Re: Memory prices climb 500% in 12 months

#362

Post by HumblyTossed »

dudul wrote: post #360
stingraycharles wrote: post #350

I already decided I won’t be upgrading any hardware for a few years and I’m going to ride this out. As right now we’re seeing that all prices of everything electronics is going up, my biggest worry is that once memory prices go down, the rest of the electronics will stay high. Eg after the price hike of all Apple electronics, will they go down again in prices in a few years after RAM goes down? If history can predict…

> If history can predict anything it’s that the price hikes are permanent. There was a massive spike of RAM prices from 2016 to 2018 followed by a price crash in 2019...

But if we learn anything from big corporations, they'll keep the difference as profits. IOW, Apple won't be lowering their prices.

Re: Memory prices climb 500% in 12 months

#364

Post by icedchai »

dontSendItBack wrote: post #223
icedchai wrote: post #182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Correct! Basically, I excluded the bad range so Linux doesn't touch it. It's been stable for weeks now. I should send the DIMM back under warranty.

Don't send it back. Since they can't easily replace it with new hardware, they will probably refund you the price of purchase. Which is normally a very good deal, but obviously not in these circumstances. I've seen it happen with GPUs as well.

I'm convinced it's not worth the hassle!

Re: Memory prices climb 500% in 12 months

#365

Post by ramijames »

1saadcodes wrote: post #105

500% in a year is just insane. I knew RAM prices were going up, but $3k+ for 128GB of DDR5 makes me wonder how much of this is actually AI demand, and how much is this just manufacturers taking advantage of it. They have done this in the past after all

I remember the cost of RAM in the 80s and 90s. If I remember correctly my mom paid ~$1000 for 32mb of RAM in 94/95. Something or other like that.

While they have spiked this year, the trend is towards more RAM for cheaper.

https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/historical-cost-of-comput...

Re: Memory prices climb 500% in 12 months

#366

Post by Petersipoi »

HumblyTossed wrote: post #362
dudul wrote: post #360

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If history can predict anything it’s that the price hikes are permanent. There was a massive spike of RAM prices from 2016 to 2018 followed by a price crash in 2019...

But if we learn anything from big corporations, they'll keep the difference as profits. IOW, Apple won't be lowering their prices.

Nope. Apple wants to maximize profits. They clearly make more at lower prices. Source: the fact that they had lower prices until they were forced to increase them. They will be hoping to return to a more optimal price point as soon as they can.

Re: Memory prices climb 500% in 12 months

#367

Post by carlosjobim »

pfdietz wrote: post #311
carlosjobim wrote: post #218

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You need 8GB at the very most, which isn't out of reach for any consumer. If you need more, then you are a professional and can afford more. Or you are a hobbyist, and your hobby doesn't deserve any subsidies from the hard working tax payer.

> You need 8GB at the very most I call total bullshit on that. I need more.

Why would you need more compute power than other people? An 8GB machine is already way beyond capable for anything a consumer - and most professional - can throw at it.

And why in the world should the government force tax payers to subsidize your extraordinary computing needs?

Re: Memory prices climb 500% in 12 months

#368

Post by [deleted] »

Jensson wrote: post #342
senderista wrote: post #199

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At a longer timescale than very temporary supply shocks, I believe what I said is correct. The basic point is that if supply contracts, demand must contract as well, which in a free market happens via price increases and in an unfree market happens via shortages (i.e., the inability of buyers to obtain a good at a market-clearing price). If high barriers to entry are relevant in this context (obviously they very much…

But currently we are in a very temporary supply shock, and its called a shortage. > in a free market happens via price increases and in an unfree market happens via shortages Since people have earmarked purchases in advance the market isn't free, I'm not allowed to buy the ram another person already bought. Its the same how the texas electricity market works, prices reach infinity since there are more consumers that…

[deleted]

Re: Memory prices climb 500% in 12 months

#370

Post by carlosjobim »

pfdietz wrote: post #310
carlosjobim wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Everybody needs electricity and water, but nobody needs more RAM except for companies. And they can pay for it.

> but nobody needs more RAM except for companies. I'm amazed you could write this in apparent seriousness.

Be so kind then and tell me what a normal citizen would need more than 8GB of RAM for, if it isn't for professional work or a specialized hobby?

A Mac with 8GB of RAM is blazingly fast for any task your average person would need for it to do. Which doesn't include gaming, mining crypto, or heavy AI models.

Maybe I've missed something? So please tell me exactly what task requires more than 8GB of RAM which is so necessary for the average citizen that the government should subsidize it?

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