The Briefing Room
General Category => Science, Technology and Knowledge => Computers => Topic started by: Suppressed on October 29, 2016, 07:44:03 pm
-
Here's why DDR4 RAM prices have spiked
By Bo Moore 10/20/2016
A perfect storm of chip demands has driven memory prices up.
http://www.pcgamer.com/heres-why-ddr4-ram-prices-have-spiked/
If you're in the market for some DDR4 RAM, now...is not a great time to buy. While updating our high-end PC build guide, we noticed that DDR4 prices had spiked in recent weeks, from a relatively steady $60-$70 for 2x8GB to $75+. For example, take a look at PC Part Picker's price history for G.Skill Ripjaws V Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2400 over the last six months:
(http://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/SdxzQk2LDZoQBTHCYaqJYn-650-80.png)
So what's the deal? We reached out to a few memory makers to find out. According to our sources, the DDR4 price increase is due to a number of factors, but primarily smartphones are to blame. Essentially, mobile phone production using DDR4 chips is on the rise.
[Excerpt. Read more about the Chinese connection, the Note 7, etc., here: http://www.pcgamer.com/heres-why-ddr4-ram-prices-have-spiked/ ]
Personal note... I spec'd out a home build of a desktop system in April 2016 at less than $950, and hoped the price would drop as new video cards came out, etc. The same exact system components are now up to more than $1,000. So much for tech prices dropping... 8888crybaby
-
I still remember when you couldn't get more than 640k of memory into an IBM clone for love or money!
-
I still remember when you couldn't get more than 640k of memory into an IBM clone for love or money!
And that was considered more than enough! Oh, the tricks used to access and manage that higher memory space!
-
HIMEM.SYS was one of the things that made MS-DOS 5.0 so awesome!
It seems that the price jump is not just affecting DDR4 RAM. The 8Gb DDR3 stick that I had priced a few months ago has gone up also. :shrug:
-
I still remember when you couldn't get more than 640k of memory into an IBM clone for love or money!
And the 640K limit was due to DOS's addressing limitation.
Remember extended memory and paging? Good times.
-
And the 640K limit was due to DOS's addressing limitation.
Remember extended memory and paging? Good times.
Indeed.
-
I wouldn't worry about it unless you need the memory in the next 3-4 months. DRAM prices fluctuate all the time. I actually think this has more to do with DDR3 use declining as the mainstream desktop has switched to DDR4.
@Scutter
Well, one could argue that I don't need a new system... but I 'd thought that this season would be a good time to pull the trigger. Now it's looking like RAM and video cards (probably because of their RAM use) are killing that idea!
-
Raising this thread from the dead to provide an updated chart to illustrate how crazy things are...
(https://i.redd.it/zymb1hydrrvz.jpg)