DRAM contract prices surged 171.8% year-over-year as of the third quarter of 2025. The increase now exceeds the rate at which gold prices have climbed. ADATA chairman Chen Libai stated that the fourth quarter of 2025 will mark the beginning of a major DRAM bull market. He expects severe shortages to materialize in 2026.
Memory manufacturers have shifted production priorities toward datacenter-focused memory types like RDIMM and HBM. Consumer DDR5 production has declined as a result. A Corsair Vengeance RGB dual-channel DDR5 kit that sold for $91 dollars in July now costs a $183 dollars on Newegg. The pricing trend extends to NAND flash and hard drives. Analysts project the increases will persist for at least four years, matching the duration of supply contracts that some companies have signed with Samsung and SK Hynix.
I just bought a 2x8GB DDR4-3200 kit of G.skill Ripjaws at Microcenter for $59.99 on Oct 19th. The same set is currently on sale for $89.99 and original price is $119.99. Absolutely wild, I hope I don’t have any RAM die in the near future. I do have a spare kit of Corsair Vengeance DDR4 somewhere so I guess I’m safe on that front, but I feel bad for anyone currently or planning to build a new system.