Doesn't solve the present shortage, but perhaps this is a good opportunity for software developers to start caring about memory usage again, since consumers may be forced to keep their existing hardware for a few more years.
Who the hell needs more than 640 KB anyway? :-)
Jokes aside, I've been extremely frugal with memory in my latest project, in the hope that it can fit in a few megabytes of RAM. But we have come a long way since the eighties, and now an audio codec (OPUS) takes the best part of a megabyte, and so do "frugal" scripting engines such as Lua and even SQLite \o/.
Would they? Cartels aren't known for massively increasing production to satisfy all demand. Far from it I'd say, they're more likely to expand supply to such a level that they can still reap massive profits. Very few countries/companies have the knowhow and willingness to be able to build more. OPEC is a perfect example of this behaviour. They set hearly production goals to keep prices high. Or the Quebec Maple Syrup…
Can you list out the precise "cartel" company, their supply chains and the board of directors, their financial and political ties? Lot of unsubstantiated claims with low fidelity meme evidence
So the 1970s oil crisis caused a shift that included fuel efficiency rules. For like, the whole time I've been a software engineer, memory footprints of a lot of software have crept up, even when they aren't really doing more. The memory situation currently is a mess. But ... is it bad enough to get us to _change_ how we build?
If most software gets written by AI in the future and AI becomes self conscious. AI might write more memory efficient software, so there's more RAM available for the AI to grow. Basically the black mirror plaything episode.
They don't have to become self conscious to want to write more memory efficient software or grow.
I wonder if supply chain constraints currently represent an inherent scepticism of manufacturers that demand will last. It feels to me like a side effect of the self-dealing / incestuous financing that is going on is that manufacturers are not willing to bet on it all materialising and therefore are not scaling up capacity nearly as much as they would if they thought it was certain.
Counterpoint: I drove past TSMC in Surprise AZ and I counted at least 18 large construction cranes on that single site.
TSMC in the US is a bit of a special case .... wouldn't surprise me at all if they were virtue signalling to the Trump admin more than anything with what they are doing there.
I wonder if supply chain constraints currently represent an inherent scepticism of manufacturers that demand will last. It feels to me like a side effect of the self-dealing / incestuous financing that is going on is that manufacturers are not willing to bet on it all materialising and therefore are not scaling up capacity nearly as much as they would if they thought it was certain.
9-Aug-2026: SK Hynix to invest $38 billion building new memory chip plants as demand soars [1]
"In the AI era, technological competitiveness alone is not enough and the ability to supply the required volume at the exact moment customers need it is the ultimate competitive advantage," SK Hynix said in a press release. "We reached this investment decision after a thorough review of market demand."
So the 1970s oil crisis caused a shift that included fuel efficiency rules. For like, the whole time I've been a software engineer, memory footprints of a lot of software have crept up, even when they aren't really doing more. The memory situation currently is a mess. But ... is it bad enough to get us to _change_ how we build?
What consumer software do you run that causes you to run out of memory or feel constrained? Even my phone has 16gb of ram. I need to run slack 16times to run out? Lol
I wonder if supply chain constraints currently represent an inherent scepticism of manufacturers that demand will last. It feels to me like a side effect of the self-dealing / incestuous financing that is going on is that manufacturers are not willing to bet on it all materialising and therefore are not scaling up capacity nearly as much as they would if they thought it was certain.
Building new fabs is a very different bet from selling into a temporary shortage: you're committing billions based on what demand will look like several years from now
I'm saving a ton of money by simply not upgrading. I used to do upgrades every 1-2 years just to keep up on things, pass the old box down to my son or otherwise donate it. Now I intend to keep my current setup for 7+ years. Its 2 years old next month. I may even stay with it longer. I just see no reason to upgrade with things how they are. I considered a Mac Studio a couple months ago. Price was up but might have pul…
It's wild seeing so many comments about updating every 1-2 years. When I build a PC, I pay a little extra because I want it to last a long time. I aim for 5 years, and in reality it usually ends up 7 years (life happens, need the money, etc). I am now in year 8 of my current PC. I only had money to replace it this year, and am now stuck with it due to the RAM prices. It's going to really suck for me if my RAM fails i…
Exactly. I probably spend 1.5x the money on a really solid build, and it's paid off - I'm still running just fine on a 10 year old desktop (overclocked i7-6850K). The only component I've upgraded (other than hard drives) is the graphics card (to a 2080Ti), and it's still running all the games I play just fine. I was planning to upgrade it on the 10 year mark, but now I'm just going to make it last a few years longer until RAM pricing becomes less silly again.
I wonder if supply chain constraints currently represent an inherent scepticism of manufacturers that demand will last. It feels to me like a side effect of the self-dealing / incestuous financing that is going on is that manufacturers are not willing to bet on it all materialising and therefore are not scaling up capacity nearly as much as they would if they thought it was certain.
It's exactly this - the memory market has gone through exactly this boom/bust since I can remember - there was a great RAM price stabilization around Windows 95 (price stayed the same or went up per megabyte over years) and then a glut of oversupply.
RAM follows the logic of cyclical commodities, going through cycles of under/over investments that lead to spikes and crashes.