I looked at how much my 128GB DDR4 costs and holy shit £900. Timed my build well I feel with the 3080Ti.
this post was submitted on 12 Feb 2026
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Yeah, I bought 32GB of RAM about three months ago for my new computer build and last I checked it had doubled in price. Thinking about selling it for a profit. Can a computer run without RAM?
Just download some before you sell it and you'll be good.
Excellent idea.
We're in the late stages of the AI bubble.
God I hope so
To be clear, that doesn't mean AI is going away. It just means no one is actually going to pay for AI models anymore because open-weight free models will be extremely cheap and powerful.
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I really hope so but I can't help but to think that they are going to drag it for as long as possible, because no matter how bad the situation is for the common folk, they are still going to make a profit off of it.
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Damn never thought the gaming PC I built two years ago would actually be APPRECIATING in value over time.
It's truly mental. I don't think I could afford to build my PC at the same spec today with RAM and SSD prices being what they are.
I have 128 GB of ddr5 memory in my machine. I paid 1400 for my 7900xtx which I thought was crazy and now half my ram is worth that.
Never thought I would see the day where the graphics card was not the most expensive component.
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Just about all electronics older than a year or so have. Even a Switch, which came out 9 years ago, costs more to buy now than it did then!
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When the yet-to-be data centers never get built because AI slop bubble pops, we will be able to build houses out of RAM sticks for the poor
the problem with data center hardware is that they are often bespoke and nowadays can't be reused in a consumer context. Think about those headless GPUs, they probably making these RAM modules with a different interface.
They will just be e-waste instead of having the possibility of being surplus.
The modules yes, but ram is bought on the chip level. If the modules are never built, the chips can be reused in normal dimms.
Worst case we get a new HBM dimm format :D
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Theyll just manufacture another reason to keep prices high
Ahhh the de beers technique
Slaves have become very expensive. Pay more for rock.
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32GB of DDR4 3200Mhz cost me $115 in October, now the listing is out of stock and says $392. 240% increase.
Apple over here not raising their RAM prices because they’ve always been massively and unjustifiably inflated. Now, they’re no longer unjustifiably inflated.
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This article sucks... I think they felt the need to excuse AI lest they upset corporate masters
While it’s easy to point the finger at AI’s unquenchable memory thirst for the current crisis, it’s not the only reason.
Followed by:
DRAM production hasn’t kept up with demand. Older memory types are being phased out, newer ones are steered toward higher margin customers, and consumer RAM is left exposed whenever supply tightens.
Production has not kept up with demand... demand being super charged by AI purchases
...newer ones are steered towards higher margin customers... again AI
consumer RAM is left exposed whenever supply tightens... because of AI
You see, it's easy to blame AI data centers buying all the RAM - but that's only half the story! ~the~ ~other~ ~half~ ~of~ ~the~ ~story~ ~is~ ~manufacturers~ ~selling~ ~to~ ~these~ ~data~ ~centers~
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I can't believe how lucky I was to upgrade my desktop before the surge. This is an outrage!
Built a new PC in April 2025. 192GB DDR5 for 650€. This is totally insane.
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Ram is the new Bitcoin.
I was about to say "atleast this is a physical thing not some completely made-up digital thing with no real value"
Then I realized these prices are partially based on speculation... So I guess it's still just a made up digital thingy"
Fuck man turns out all money is fake this is bullshit I want a redo
Something something buy gold and silver.
Oh fuck that's just made up value tooo....
Im on Linux and it requires just as much memory as it did in 2018. No problem here.
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Cost me 200eur towards the end of 2023. Crazy, I'd sell it if I didn't need it.
Me to my 10 year old gaming pc: "I guess it'll be another couple of years, buddy."
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2026 is going to suck for hardware, but 2027 might be better if this nonsense blows over. For one thing, AMD’s RDNA 5 was announced for 2027, which is supposed to be more comparable to Nvidia for compute workloads, including real RTX cores. AMDs recent SoCs have been pretty impressive, so I’m looking forward to AMD SoCs that are competitive with Nvidia discrete GPUs beyond just rasterization, except without artificially constrained VRAM and lower power requirements.
Who produces the chips that make AMD products? They are the bottleneck. If those fabs are already overloaded, a new product won't help in any way.
Pretty sure RAM and C/GPU use different fabs (and wafers) thankfully. If some fuck goes and corners the market of CPU wafers we're all doomed. The RAMpocalypse is actually likely to free up processor fab space if it prices phones such as they sell less.
Of course the margin on AI compute will be better, so suck it consumers.