The RAM crisis is getting worse — I take a look at when prices might fall, and whether you’ll ever see the savings when they do
The technology industry is experiencing a significant memory and storage price crisis that is sending shockwaves through hardware markets. Memory prices have skyrocketed dramatically over the past year, with 2TB NVMe SSDs now costing roughly three times their previous prices. DDR5 RAM has been hit particularly hard, with 32GB kits that sold for $90 last summer now commanding $300–$500, often with limited availability.
The effects extend far beyond enthusiast PC builders. Major technology companies are passing these costs directly to consumers through price increases across their product lines. Xbox announced another steep console price hike this week, Microsoft raised prices on its Surface PC lineup, and Apple similarly increased MacBook pricing in response to the elevated component costs.
The crisis reflects broader supply chain pressures and demand imbalances in the memory semiconductor market, with the ripple effects felt throughout the tech industry. As manufacturers struggle with production constraints and pricing pressure, consumers face a landscape where the affordable memory upgrades that once defined technology value propositions have largely disappeared, fundamentally changing the economics of PC and hardware purchases.