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Memory prices climb 500% in 12 months

tomshardware.com

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Re: Memory prices climb 500% in 12 months

#421

Post by tensor »

naet wrote: post #127

I almost upgraded my computer a year or two ago, but decided to hold off for a bit longer. I've always been fine with being "behind" on the latest and greatest. I don't mind watching a movie, playing a game, buying a cell phone, etc, that was released a few years prior. If it was really all that great when it came out it should still be good later on. Buying slow usually saves a.good bit of money when prices go down…

I thought about upgrading my macbook, but I have the M1 Max and it still doesn't feel slow, so I decided it'll probably last another two years. That said, now I feel like this price raise is maybe permanent. If so it will definitely eat into computer makers profits, people will not be upgrading nearly as often.

Re: Memory prices climb 500% in 12 months

#422

Post by [deleted] »

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…

[deleted]

Re: Memory prices climb 500% in 12 months

#423

Post by ankurdhama »

odo1242 wrote: post #416
Noaidi wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a MacBook M1 and I recently had to downgrade from Tahoe to Sequoia. Why? First of all they force you to download 7 GB of AI training when you’re not even using their AI. And secondly on Tahoe just watching a video with nothing else running off-line my MacBook was asking for 7 W of power. On Sequoia that drops down to 2 W maybe three. It’s sad to think they think of themselves as an environmental company, I don…

They don’t force you to download Apple Intelligence, disabling it deletes the model files

I have disabled it many many months ago and storage still shows 9 gb of Apple intelligence.

Re: Memory prices climb 500% in 12 months

#424

Post by cgriswald »

doubled112 wrote: post #213
Iolaum wrote: post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hello!? Us consumers need it too.

Really depends how you're defining "need". Will you die without it? Will your life as you know it end if your next phone has 8GB instead of 12GB?

Those questions can’t get to the root of how the GGP is using the word for two reasons: 1. Companies, not being alive, can’t possibly need in this sense without analogy. 2. The poster included electricity as something everybody needs but there are people surviving without it.

Re: Memory prices climb 500% in 12 months

#425

Post by vor_ »

Cider9986 wrote: post #312
techteach00 wrote: post #210

There is no law that states memory must be a consumer product. I truly believe the era of personal computing was a beautiful blip that our masters are beginning to take away from the general public. It could be terminals and time sharing for the foreseeable future through "smart" phones.

Apple is making Macs and iPhones more powerful every year. Macs are more affordable and powerful that other computers since the M series. People are buying them to run their own private on device AI. This is a signal for personal computing.

> Macs are more affordable and powerful that other computers since the M series.

Apple has been raising prices on Macs and other products.

Re: Memory prices climb 500% in 12 months

#426

Post by [deleted] »

nubg wrote: post #343
RickHull wrote: post #325

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> or just an excuse to fleece regular buyers In a market with healthy competition (no collusion), this generally can't happen. Every single vendor is incentivized to lower their prices slightly at all times, with a floor at cost plus margin.

why plus margin? the floor is cost

[deleted]

Re: Memory prices climb 500% in 12 months

#427

Post by cortesoft »

dijit wrote: post #406
forinti wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've been using computers for more than 40 years now and the one component I have never seen fail is RAM. All the other bits in a computer I've seen fail.

I've seen every single component of a system fail, the least I've seen fail has been the CPU itself (I've only seen one fail out of thousands). Memory seems to fail pretty commonly overall, less common than harddisks but more common than motherboards. The issue is that I'm used to using ECC ram, which fails loud when it's actually bad.. consumer memory won't tell you unless you can't boot.. and everyone disables the…

I was so sure that a CPU wouldn't suddenly fail that I ended up replacing every other part in my computer before getting a new CPU and realizing that was the issue.

Re: Memory prices climb 500% in 12 months

#428

Post by ikiris »

paulpauper wrote: post #191
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

What is also interesting is no one predicted this in 2022-2025 as LLMs were gaining widespread use. It just suddenly happened--"boom!" memory shortage in mid 2025 to early 2026,and it caught everyone by surprise. It was understood that the biggest bottleneck was "compute", not the memory. Even experts, such as popular AI bloggers, industry leaders, and top podcasters failed to anticipate this. No one on twitter eithe…

Everyone in cloud knew this was going to happen, the contracts for all parts of server stuff were measured in years.

Re: Memory prices climb 500% in 12 months

#429

Post by BobbyTables2 »

josephg wrote: post #298
preg_match wrote: post #224

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Every time I upgrade iOS past a few major versions there is significant slow down. I don’t think it’s done on purpose, it’s just that software grows more demanding over time.

> software grows more demanding over time. Nah. Adding more features to software doesn’t make software run slower. The problem is that software developers only optimise enough to make it run fast on our own computers. Because we keep getting new computers, we get lazier over time and software gets slower. Electron is the most obvious example of this sort of thing, but examples are everywhere once you start looking.

That may be true but it did get slower. Maybe new fancy UI effects, etc.

Apple also seems hellbent on fully utilizing all available space on the low end model. IOS+ System Data is about 30GB.

The original iPhone had a 4GB model and had space left over for the user to use!

Re: Memory prices climb 500% in 12 months

#430

Post by mrheosuper »

forinti wrote: post #6
cosmic_cheese wrote: post #3

The situation is absolutely awful for anybody who needs significant memory or storage (or devices incorporating such). Even people who think they have enough for the next few years already could end up with an unpleasant surprise if they e.g. have a stick or two of RAM go bad or a GPU fry. I have a few machines with aging sticks that I'm hoping will manage to hold out until when/if things improve.

I've been using computers for more than 40 years now and the one component I have never seen fail is RAM. All the other bits in a computer I've seen fail.

i've seen ram fail, some of them are bitflip, some of them just refuse to boot.

The only thing i've never seen fail is the Case lol. Air cooler too if you don't count the fan.

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