Question Why are 32GB DDR5 RAM getting cheaper quickly?

[mujmuj]

Crucial DDR5 4800_32G was 184USD just one or two months ago when I bought it, now it's 136USD.

Kingston FURY Beast DDR5-5600 32G was beyond 200USD as far as I remember just one or two months ago, but now it's 177USD.

Is there some soon upcoming new RAM release plan out there? Why are they getting cheaper so quickly?

 

[lvt]

Prices are likely to increase again when there is a RAM shortage.

 

[falcon291]

Rules of supply and demand.

When demand is increasing, and supply is decreasing, prices increase.
When demand is decreasing, and supply is increasing, prices decline.

 

[Eximo]

In this case it is more a matter of increased supply. There are more options and DDR5 production is ramping up. We are already seeing DDR5 based OEM offerings hit the market. And if those companies are supplied, then the component market is free to have additional supply to produce sticks.

Whereas before, we basically ONLY had the first runs of DDR5 going to enterprise class devices and the remaining binned chips making it into the hands of the component OEMs.

 

[falcon291]

Yes it is increased supply, but I think also demand is decreasing. During COVID most people upgraded their computers and for most people upgrading again in one or two years just does not make much sense.

 

[Eximo]

The majority of people don't build PCs at all. But upgrade existing systems, and there are more and more DDR5 based computers hitting the streets. And in typical OEM fashion, likely a single DDR5 stick.

 

[mujmuj]

In this case it is more a matter of increased supply. There are more options and DDR5 production is ramping up. We are already seeing DDR5 based OEM offerings hit the market. And if those companies are supplied, then the component market is free to have additional supply to produce sticks.

Whereas before, we basically ONLY had the first runs of DDR5 going to enterprise class devices and the remaining binned chips making it into the hands of the component OEMs.

Do you expect the DDR5 prices to go down this year? We are having inflation but only DDR5 price went down. There must be some reason

 

[Eximo]

As I recall there has been a case of over production once again, you may recall that DDR prices went crazy a few years back, so companies scrambled to increase production (I believe the root cause was a natural disaster) But at the same time new fabs were being built to produce DDR and NAND flash to grow with global demand increases. They also expected demand to be higher than it actually is, likely due to component shortages in other spaces. Not much point in buying memory if you can't get silicon for the rest of a device.

Dramexchange and Trendforce show the average price has been declining since 2018, down 10-18% this quarter alone.

The same is true for SSDs, so if you are shopping for more storage, keep your eyes open. I know I might pick up a decent 2TB drive some time this year.

 

[CountMike]

Historically speaking, RAM prices have large oscillation . I remember paying more for 16KB of RAM than for whole Timex.Sinclair and it's accessories. 300 bucks for 2MB of RAM for my first 386 machine but few month later they dropped like a rock, almost 10x cheaper,

 

[sizzling]

A large element of early adopter tax. I seem to recall DDR4 being similar.