Will RAM, GPU and SSD prices ever return to what they were in early 2025?
Posted by ComprehensiveCow5068@reddit | buildapc | View on Reddit | 579 comments
I honestly don't care if it happens in 2 or even 3 years, as long as it just happens eventually I'm happy. The true horror is if it never goes back to what it was before.
Joinedtoaskagain@reddit
most likely governments are going to have to force their prices down. i can see america and most of the eu doing this after a very high chance of a blue wave. china will obviously also probably do this.
TheLaw_1711@reddit
No. Prices don't go back down because they know people will pay whatever for things they need. That's the trash world we live in.
Lagines@reddit
When people pay ridiculous prices for these items all it does is show companies they can get away with charging whatever the hell they want. So, I can’t see prices ever returning to normal as they now know some idiot will spend $500 for a ram kit that used to be $100. They’ll end up marking it down to $300 and pretend to be the good guys.
KaleidoscopeSalt3972@reddit
Welcome to capitalism.
zannet_t@reddit
This. It's fucking depressing because companies take advantage of consumer desperation.
A_Random_Catfish@reddit
I’m shocked pc component prices ever went down after Covid. The prices of most consumer goods went up due to supply shortages and never really came back down, despite inflation easing up.
I’ll probably be forever kicking myself for not upgrading my pc when prices were low after living through the gpu crisis 2020
ba123blitz@reddit
They were never going to go back down. Covid is a great example when companies raise prices they say whatever is most applicable and they’ll never lower them again out side of a sector crash or new invention/method
I’m serious in my mid 20s I can’t think of a single product that went through price increases and then decreases without just straight collapse or replacement besides gas but that fluctuates. Obviously old models of things get marked down but that’s not what we’re talking about
the_astro_cat@reddit
They literally went back down.
Random Example: 18 TB WD Red drive
$730 in 2021, $280 in 2023, $529 in 2026
I agree in general that companies jump at any opportunity to price gouge, but it's not like no products ever went down in price after COVID.
XiTzCriZx@reddit
That corsair vengeance price chart is fucking insane!
Fomoco74@reddit
Yup, the 32gig kit I bought for $116 is now $419....🤣
Hetstaine@reddit
What's annoyed me is i had a whole new DDR5 build in my cart for over a year and a half while i was putting money away. I would continually go back and change an item as i checked mobos/gpus/coolers etc..it was an evolving build sorta thing. Being Australian prices it was a $4700 rig. X870, 9800x3d, 64gb ddr5, 5070/9070xt-kept going back and forth on that.
By the time i had about half of it put away slamadam ram happened.
I ended up just upgrading mobo so i could go from my old i5 9600k to an i7 12700k and still stay with my 32gb ddr4. Sold the 3080 and threw in a 5070ti. So, i saved about half my build price overall and massively increased my fps and finally able to take advantage of all the latest nvidia options.
All in all it ended up for the better regards money and i'm getting near 200fps in rdr2 on a 34" with smooth motion. Flight and racing sims on my other monitor, 49" ultrawide are also amazing. Maybe i didn't need all that other expensive shit anyway 😅
Seregosa@reddit
RAM isn't nearly the most important part anyway, the performance increase is far less than a GPU or even a CPU would give. As for SSDs, any gen4 ssd will be more than enough for gaming, the performance increase is barely noticeable.
So, yeah, upping to 64GB ddr5 might give you a few fps over, say, ddr4 32gb, but it's nothing crazy. People imagine it'd make far more of a difference but it really doesn't for gaming.
But we're vain and truly believe the most expensive stuff must be that much better to justify the price.
Hetstaine@reddit
Totally correct.
amenz06@reddit
Exactly what I wanna do, I’m on i5 10600kf with 32gb ddr4, wanted to go ddr5 but no way with those prices.. I’ll prolly get i5 14600kf but it’s almost impossible to find a good motherboard, I use to buy « premium » motherboards with at least 8-9 usb ports, but I can’t find any that support ddr4 and time wont help I guess ;(
Hetstaine@reddit
Good luck my man.
Massive-Exercise4474@reddit
Nice. Last year I got a prebuilt with a I5-13th gen and 4060, took out the 4060 and put in a 5060 ti.
Shadow_Wolf327@reddit
Is that on 1440 p or 1080 ? Considering the same gpu upgrade myself
Hetstaine@reddit
1440.
Agzarah@reddit
Hmmm..not convinced with these 2 examples.
New to market products tend to start expensive and decline over time. That's what you've shown. 2 products that came out in 2021 at a high price. Then gradual decline. Then in 2026 both skyrocketing as did everything else.
This isn't really proof of "going BACK down".
Find something that went up substantially in price after launch and then declined.
Hrmerder@reddit
*Me who has Corsair Vengeance 32GB RAM but wanted 64GB... (doesn't help me to sell it now if I actually need it)
Frustrated..
PersnickityPenguin@reddit
No kidding
I bought a 16 GB stick of DDR4 RAM - 2666 I think - for like $60 and its now at around $130. $60 was already high as it was. Bananas
encidius@reddit
Mid-late 2023 was one of the best recent times to buy PC parts. $200 4GB NVMe drives, $200 kits of 64GB DDR5, it was magical. Glad that's when I built my pc.
alvarkresh@reddit
Uh graphics card prices basically collapsed in 2022, early 2023. Even the much feared 40 series shortage didn't really materialize, and if you wanted to get an RTX 4060 up to a 4070 Ti Super, you could easily get one without paying an assload.
FlyingsCool@reddit
I got a 4090 at a reasonable price.
FlyingsCool@reddit
They came back down. After covid, people stopped building computers so supply out stripped demand. Now that's reversed again because of data centers. I'm wondering if anyone is ramping up production, or do we have to wait until the infrastructure is buklt out.
Holiday_Sandwich3738@reddit
Cars are a great example of this. They sky rocked in price and now you have a year old model still on the lot and they still refuse to lower the price.
Seregosa@reddit
Probably because they bought it at that insane price and now don't want to make insane losses just to get rid of it, which is hilarious. It's when they overstep the prices people are willing to pay and then it's too late to change so they're kinda stuck as they want to at least recoup their losses or not make too big of a loss.
Would never buy a new car in the first place. My 14 year old car is running along just fine and just passed this year's inspection after a fast welding because the exhaust system had come loose, just put in a carplay stereo and wired a reverse camera and it has the functions I need, like 6-8k for good stuff and easy enough to do. Then you can buy another secondhand car for FAR less than a newer one costs when that one breaks but often you can sell it before that and recoup some losses, you'd have to buy many secondhand cars before getting even close to a newer one in price.
Sure, I would want a new car if I had the money and nothing to spend it on or if they were much cheaper. Would be great to not ride around in a rust bucket with more modern conveniences and automatic transmission instead of manual, but it's not worth much to me as it's just a way to get from A to B, not a status symbol, it's merely a transportation method.
hoxxxxx@reddit
i'm on the (very) used markets often, i feel like car prices came back closer to reality about a year ago but have now went up again
and soooo many dealers that just refuse to lower prices. i'm talking about cars sitting on their lot for 6+ months even a year and they still won't lower the price. delusional assholes.
midnightbandit-@reddit
TVs are very cheap. Many computers are way cheaper. For example the new Apple MacBook Neo is cheaper than the M1 MacBook air, but is just about as capable.
ponydingo@reddit
-mid 20s
There we go
ba123blitz@reddit
Lot of value you added to this discussion.
Nightlark192@reddit
Nah, not forever - just until technology advances to the point where you’d have wanted to do another upgrade. Of course by then the new insanely high prices will feel normal… 😢
I should have gotten 128GB of DDR4 instead of 64… now I’ll have to hold off upgrading again, probably to something like an Nvidia RTX 13090 and DDR11 RAM in the year 2035.
International_Mix350@reddit
same happened to me. i had to buy just 4 GB ram because my 16 gb ram was dead and i needed to use my computer
schm0@reddit
AI proliferation came right on the heels of COVID, that's why
JHaslam1969@reddit
Oh no, just had a terrible thought. What if some AI caused the release of Covid, in order to instigate AI proliferation!?
FaNg_Peep@reddit
I thankfully just purchased a new gpu, and psu. I really regret not getting a new motherboard, cpu, and ddr5. I play a ton of titles that would heavily benefit from the v-cache now I’m stuck waiting. Can’t go to am5 without ddr5 unfortunately
Wardendelete@reddit
Everytime I get reminded of this I get so fucking angry.
Zebracak3s@reddit
There was a huge wave of need for computers due to WFH and then by the time they were able to produce enough the demand vanished as everyone got situated with computers. Prices went down because there's was a glut of supply.
ldn-ldn@reddit
Inflation going down doesn't mean the prices are coming down. You need deflation for that.
Journeydriven@reddit
Certain things went down but it was always going to be temporary. Companies ramped up production to compensate for the increased demand, then everyone went back outside and demand went back down. They were stuck with the extra stock they predicted they'd need. They bring the prices down to get rid of it so they can bring it back up when stock levels out
Spartan2170@reddit
They also decreased production because of the excess stock, which has contributed to the AI supply shortages.
Head_Project5793@reddit
I upgraded before Trump took office because I thought the tariffs would drive up prices. Turns out it was just AI that drove up prices but either way
EndlessVisionz@reddit
For real im trying to put together a build for a gaming pc right now as my first one and ssd is over $600 with ram right there along i dont know what to do
Correct-Caregiver750@reddit
Consumer demand*
PersnickityPenguin@reddit
OpenAI is taking 40% of the world's RAM off the market, and they only plan to use 25% of what they are buying. Everything else is either going to be destroyed or into a warehouse. Let that sink in: $50 billion or whatever funny money is to buy computer parts to be destroyed.
Correct-Caregiver750@reddit
You don't know what you're talking about. The reason RAM prices went up is because they took operational capacity not literally buying up consumer RAM. How are people this stupid?
opticalessence@reddit
Based on looking this up with a Google search they literally are buying that much ram, 40% of all ram production, and only using 25% of it in the short term, so I guess I am that stupid for not seeing it differently.
BambooGentleman@reddit
There's a difference between buying a product on a shelf and buying what a factory producing said product can output.
To give you an analogy, people are amused that a poster assumed they were buying bread, when what they are really buying is oven time. They need special bread that you don't even want, but as long as they are allocated oven time the bread you want can't be made in sufficient quantities anymore and it takes like two to three years to build a new oven.
opticalessence@reddit
But they're also using up most of the same ingredients? So they're ordering huge loafs of bread that are not pre sliced but are error checking? And toast at a different voltage? I guess I wouldn't want those loafs of bread, but having to pay 2-3x the price for the bread I'm used to, is still being caused by vendors catering to them.
BambooGentleman@reddit
If you want to continue stretching this analogy then both are using flour, but it's probably better to not stretch it that much. If you ever held a stick of ram in your hand it was a piece of PCB that is usually green (but could come in more fun colors like red, blue or black) with some black chips on top. Those chips are the DRAM and that's what everyone wants.
But you want them on a piece of PCB that fits into your computer and they want it on a piece of PCB that fits into their special hardware. It's also used for some SSDs. GPUs need it, too.
Prices are up because currently there's a large buyer. So large, that he buys oven time for the next two years upfront. This makes DRAM sellers happy, so they don't need to sell to the rest of us and can price gauge. Which is done every couple of years anyway.
But this time there's a bubble happening. You could build more ovens. Takes about two years, maybe three. But what if the bubble pops? Then you don't need the ovens anymore. Do you think the bubble will pop within three years?
Either way it's not looking like prices will have a chance to normalize in the next three years.
opticalessence@reddit
Thanks for the analogy,.
I think those others were a bit harsh on the person who posted about open ai, basically calling the user stupid, since open AI using all the oven space to buy ram they're not going to be using all for like 4 years, and because they made secret deals with 6 different suppliers. I don't think it's ever been this extreme of an increase when its happened in the past dollar wise,, nor the anticipated duration of it. It just sucks for us normal consumers.
BambooGentleman@reddit
Depends what kind of time window you define as "the past".
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DRAM_price_fixing_scandal
Or more recently:
ratshack@reddit
Dude is picturing a dragon horde of DIMMs in an industrial warehouse somewhere just waiting for the hobbits to come.
frenetic_alien@reddit
I'm thinking more like OpenAI is going to use the excess DRAM wafers to feed their robot servants. Machines need to eat too right?
zannet_t@reddit
This seems to assume that demand always exists in a perfect vacuum, which would of course be a very stupid assumption
Correct-Caregiver750@reddit
No, what's stupid is expecting companies to behave like charities and not have prices react to basic economic events like...oh...supply.....and....wait for it...demand.
opticalessence@reddit
In the past it seemed like large companies were handled separately, it's not fair if a company with deep pockets is buying almost half the worlds supply and it's causing everyone else to pay more for the ram, because our offset cost, is paying the bill for them to have the ram.
I highly doubt they're paying the same price a consumer is. Which is why the 6 deals they made are secretive.
Hypothetical Example: If the only Christmas tree lot in town has 100 trees ready for the holidays and in order for the lot to be profitable they need to avg $100 per tree ($10,000) and makes some deal with a rich dude having a party to sell 80 of the trees for $50ea plus an invite to the party, then when the lot opens to the public, the remaining 20 trees are $300.
They think they can sell $300 trees to 20 of the wealthiest people, and the other families who have had a tree every year, won't have a tree this year. The business model is based upon ripping off and screwing over the average household \ customer who just wants to buy one for their family and house, it's bullshit.
zannet_t@reddit
Where did I say I expect companies to behave like charities?
And why do you fail to grasp that companies themselves create and/or manipulate market conditions, which undermines your entire point?
Both questions you won't answer because...wait for it...
bobo377@reddit
I’m sorry but this is an incredibly childish understanding of markets. Companies aren’t intentionally driving prices up by cutting supply, they just didn’t anticipate the AI demand explosion. Pretending like there is some global conspiracy by each component manufacturer to drive prices higher is ridiculous.
If Samsung could undercut every other SSD manufacturer with infinite supply for $15 less than their competitors, they would do it immediately and completely control the market. It isn’t some conspiracy or galaxy brain play for them, they just don’t have infinite supply. Demand exceeds supply, so they increase prices. And their execs are probably trying to determine how long the AI demand will continue so they know how to right size their manufactured supply over the next few years/decade.
zannet_t@reddit
I was never pretending there's some global conspiracy. My point is rather that companies are themselves active participants in the market who play a far greater role in determining market conditions than consumers, whose demand is generally a function of price fluctuations and isn't going to strongly ebb and flow outside of anomalies like Covid.
This is at best a naive sentiment and at worst deliberate ignorance. AI has been around for a while at this point. Consumer prices shot up way hard only after last fall. It wasn't that supply couldn't anticipate demand; it's that companies chose to allocate supply (like Micron did) away from regular consumers, who aren't in a position to act as a singular economic bloc to negotiate supply and pricing. Do you think data centers are paying 3, 4, 500 dollars for every pair of RAM right now? Do you think RAM suppliers have gone back to revise supply contracts several fold since last fall?
Despite that, you'd prefer to simplify everything down to supply and demand when like I said, neither exists in a perfect vacuum.
Now, I'm not blaming these companies for making whatever decisions they made. But what is clear is these companies each made business decisions to under-supply the consumer market and that's what's led to the massive spikes. I find that depressing--not that consumers themselves are completely blameless, but at the end of the day, regular consumers simply aren't going to be able to exert the same degree of influence on supply as companies with billions in capital. That's all.
Correct-Caregiver750@reddit
Because you don't seem to understand the concepts of supply and demand?
zannet_t@reddit
Womp womp.
As expected. To speak more and remove all doubt etc. etc.
FemaleDogEqualsBitch@reddit
Wow, basic economics! What a crazy thing
BambooGentleman@reddit
Also a bit of price fixing, because why not if you're the only game in town and the AI guys with infinite money want your stuff no matter the cost. You can point at the AI guys if consumers complain about increased prices.
zannet_t@reddit
Yes, "basic economics" (which, of course, you'd be stupid as shit to assume is the only principle at work) often functions in depressing ways these days.
Genuinely sad to even have to type out this reply.
Correct-Caregiver750@reddit
Because you're spoiled, entitled, and delusional.
zannet_t@reddit
Damn brah are you following my comments around? I didn't know you're interested in me like that but that's crazy
Correct-Caregiver750@reddit
Literally still in the same thread
zannet_t@reddit
And I was responding to you already. But you were obviously so assured you were right that you had to respond more to other of my comments lol ahhhh
Accomplished_Code888@reddit
omg stfu up both of you XD this is so childish and dumb, you're literally arguing on a fucking website
RichMahogany357@reddit
They only do it because they know that people are stupid enough to pay what they're asking.
Niccolado@reddit
That is why we need broader competition. From other countries than main producers of ram, ssd and gpus. Hopefully that could press prices down
Secret-Ad-2145@reddit
It's not so much desperation as basic capitalism. If people are willing to pay, the price can go up. If they aren't, they won't. People need computers so of course they will buy.
SuumCuique_@reddit
The correct reaction would be to not buy it and keep using old hardware as long as possible. Games are perfectly playable at less than 60 fps. And if a game doesn't run them don't buy it. Vote with your wallet.
neverfux92@reddit
I mean it’s a pretty gross tactic, but not as gross as people being in desperate need of these parts and will pay the money for them. People not having self control and spending money on things they just can’t live without is why these companies keep pulling this shit. The consumer has no one to blame but themselves for allowing this to happen.
zannet_t@reddit
That's fair. I don't think consumers are totally blameless either.
neverfux92@reddit
We’re not. Many people choose debt and payment plans to get something now and don’t care that they can’t afford it. Companies know this so they charge more and more. If we as a society could relearn how to live a life without excess, prices might reflect that. But that’s a pipe dream and will never happen. We will ride this unsustainable economy to its death rattle I fear. But then we’ll only have ourselves to blame.
IpodAndMp3@reddit
Welcome to late stage capitalism
vampirepomeranian@reddit
Right, and socialism is the theory that if you abolish profit, bread will somehow bake itself out of moral superiority.
Oops, the oven timer just rang. Time to go.
TheMooseontheLoose@reddit
Yes the current system is so great we shouldn't address anything because the man on the TV said socialism bad. Even if the changes aren't anything like socialism anything other than rampant price gouging via cartel price fixing, regulatory capture, tax evasion and blatant corruption is socialism and therefore bad.
vampirepomeranian@reddit
The six conundrums of socialism in the US:
America is capitalist and greedy - yet half of the population is subsidized.
Half of the population is subsidized - yet they think they are victims.
They think they are victims - yet their representatives run the government.
Their representatives run the government - yet the poor keep getting poorer.
The poor keep getting poorer - yet they have things that people in other countries only dream about.
They have things that people in other countries only dream about - yet they want America to be more like those other countries.
How's that for socialism?
Guy_Fieris_Hair@reddit
It is literally the basis of capitalism.
Regal_Knight@reddit
We need to break up all these large companies.
Ok-Sweet-6650@reddit
I disagree. Sure they may still sell some units, but not in the volume they did before. No way in hell. What was $500 4 months ago is now $1,400. That has shrunk their market.
Key_independence_@reddit
I would post the picture, but i was at Walmart for a 2tb ssd, and they had a 1tb wd black for $299 and a 2tb wd black for $449. I was about to crash tf out, I didn't buy either.
Mindeveler@reddit
Ehh, tbf if big companies didn't increase the prices, cunning people would have just instantly bought all the RAM and would resell it for even bigger prices.
At least this way the money goes to manufacturers not to some random John dude and will likely be spent in much more constructive manner.
And, well, some people are not willing to (or can't afford to) buy RAM that costs 4x the old price, but it's not like someone for whom it's really important (like a game dev company) is gonna stop doing their entire business just as a sign of protest when they need more RAM.
I don't see anyone being bad guys in this situation. It's just an unfortunate turn of events that people couldn't predict.
Anachron101@reddit
Just stop pushing this ridiculous thinking. That is the same as pretending that individuals can do something about climate change by driving smaller cars, when most of the emissions come from large companies.
The reason for this situation is simple: very few countries care about ensuring that the market stays competitive. Monopolies, duopolies and oligopolies have been created in the IT market and neither the US nor Asian countries have done anything against that.
The producers and main companies, such as Nvidia, also don't make their money in the private consumer business. Most chips aren't made for you and me, that's just the way it is. Pair that with the above and you have a recipe for huge margins and suffering consumers.
Nobody will give a shit if we stop buying.
AbsolutelyNoSleep@reddit
"most of the emissions come from large companies"
Nope. The largest sector for greenhouse emissions is transportation and over half of transportation emissions come from light vehicles like cars.
Samuel99118@reddit
Well if they sell the supply to compute power hoarder, what we end user as downstream can do is stop paying for those overpriced saas shits
TheOtherPete@reddit
Semi companies are ramping up production capacity.
Eventually the rapid AI build-out will stop and they will be left with too much capacity and then everyone will be slashing prices to keep up sales volume
The semi industry is rife with boom and bust cycles, this boom might be larger/higher than in the past but rest assured it will bust eventually
Different-Ship449@reddit
I expect more DIY kits to repurpose used data center parts into working home machines.
makingnoise@reddit
Several V100 SXM2 to PCIe solutions on Aliexpress and Alibaba at the moment.
Different-Ship449@reddit
https://www.techpowerup.com/gpu-specs/tesla-v100-sxm2-32-gb.c3185
FP32 (float) 15.67 TFLOPS
Damn, I can see why.
makingnoise@reddit
While it's great for scientific workflows that use FP32, as an older NVIDIA architecture it lacks support for the latest and greatest LLM developments over the last few years. Flash attention, FP8, etc. I thought long and hard about getting one or two for an out-of-warranty server that was given to me, and ended up going with a six-year old RTX 3090 instead because it is still supported and minimizes the need for hacky work-arounds.
JZMoose@reddit
I can’t wait for the flood of dirt cheap server parts in a few years
Canadian_Border_Czar@reddit
What's up guys thanks for tuning in, today we're going to explore, can you run GTA6 on a 5 x H100 SLI setup with 1 TB of RAM?
Domeoryx@reddit
Im praying for this to happen 😭
TwinStickDad@reddit
Yeah this is the answer. In early 2025 RAM was at a historical low price because memory fabs built out for the COVID / WfH boom in 2020/1 and then demand fell. They are currently building fabs for the current AI boom and demand will fall.
Companies are greedy but rational. If they can sell 1m GB of memory for $5/GB (total revenue $5m) then they would prefer to do that than sell 100k GB of memory for $15/GB (total revenue $1.5m). They will max out capacity and sell the memory for whatever the market dictates at that point.
Humble-Ad-9322@reddit
unfortunately some people need these items pronto and cannot wait for normal prices... I’m in film school and need two back ups for every projects, alas all my SSD’s are full. I’ve been trying to wait it out to no avail :(
oxedei@reddit
Why is this upvoted as the top post? History shows that even if hardware was significantly more expensive at one point (which has happened to ram before), it can return to a decent price.
Scarabesque@reddit
Because this sub has become rather large and with a more mainstream audience the person that first vigorously shakes their fist at the sky decrying the death of PC gaming will get the most upvotes.
VRAM, and RAM/NAND especially are as close to a commodity as we have in hardware, with a few companies creating pretty much identical products that OEM manufacturers will just buy as supply exists. As soon as demand drops, or production increases, or both, we'll see the price plummet again.
GPUs went up and down again several times in the past 5 years.
Hardware is one of those areas where the free market works extremely efficiently. It's also what made it affordable in the first place.
midnightbandit-@reddit
GPUs have done nothing but get cheaper. This is something people don't understand. People think a 1060 is the same as a 5060 and because the 5060 costs more than the 1060 that it means GPUs have gotten more expensive. A 5060 is more powerful than a 1080ti and is quite a bit cheaper. In absolute terms GPUs are way cheaper than before.
Scarabesque@reddit
The issue comparing tech and its value from different eras is that it's hard to determine what you're actually comparing.
MSRP of the 1060 6GB ($249, the FE model was actually $299 in 2016) cost pretty much the same ($333 in 2025) as the 5060 ($299 in 2025) when adjusted for inflation, but a lot of people (including prominent tech reviewers) have argued that what we are buying as the 5060 now - technologically - is more equivalent to what a 1050 was (in terms of die size and VRAM). I don't think that argument tends to hold up well and mostly agree more with you, though you could say going from 6GB to 8GB on a 60-class card in 8 years simply isn't sufficient - and I do tend to agree there.
Then again the 1080ti is a 9 year old card (as of tomorrow) and shouldn't really be held as a benchmark in itself anymore. :)
executordestroyer@reddit
The memories and experiences you have with people friends using the hardware is priceless compared to waiting for "value" missing out on all those formative experiences in the past. So I guess yeah the technological leaps were better due to how gpu nm works with decreasing gains that are harder to achieve with increasing labor effort. The pre 900 cards, 1000s, 3000s, seem the best value leaps people coud have gotten during those times.
executordestroyer@reddit
8 years I certainly hope so
Don_Draper_67@reddit
Because Reddit as a whole is full of doomers who are convinced that world war is coming, the USA economy is dying and will never recover, etc etc
pcikel-holdt-978@reddit
Don't forget the "ram cartel" investigations in the early 2000's that lead to a few people getting some prison time. Wouldn't rule out some market manipulation.
ResponsibleTap7415@reddit
100% just like food prices never went down to pre covid same with ssd and ram. They are already saying this is the norm for pricing. They are pretty much trying to eliminate home computing . Only thr rich can pay to play. The new setup will be rental. People can stream games through consoles.
Ok-Problem4403@reddit
I'm a small business owner, so if some piece of hardware dies I have no choice but to replace it immediately. It's not just a matter of pushing an upgrade down the road a few years, for me.
Lagines@reddit
Completely understandable and different to the idiot crowd im talking about!
Stunning_Box8782@reddit
So if your PC breaks tomorrow , you're just not replacing the part for years?
Seregosa@reddit
Of course people will, but they claim others are idiots because they can't imagine that scenario, they think people have a pc already and is upgrading rather than something breaking.
Still, one could get cheaper variants, like ddr4, less GB for the RAM or secondhand stuff until the whole thing goes away. Make do with less powerful stuff until things settle down a bit. But most people can't and won't wait if they somehow can afford it. Who knows, maybe you'll be dead by the time the prices go down? Many hypotheticals.
I overpaid a lot for the RAM when I built my PC in january but at least it was "only" 2.5 times the price it was before and it was the only part I paid more for. Now it's 6 times more expensive than the initial price. I'm going to keep my top spec desktop for several years, I'll get more than enough enjoyment out of it by that time.
BrandonZ0Rz@reddit
Yes? In this economy yes.
ImYourDade@reddit
Honestly if you have other hobbies that's completely valid, but tons of people enjoy gaming more than other stuff, and some people having a good working PC is a necessity
A_Random_Catfish@reddit
I think the guy is trying to point out that there are a lot of legitimate needs driving people to pay these prices, and it’s far more nuanced than “idiots will buy it”.
Different-Ship449@reddit
Well, there are nepo babies that also afford to get the latest and greatest, what is that, a week less stay in a tropical destination?
Alan_Turings_Apple@reddit
You don't have to be a nepo baby, gaming is a shockingly cheap hobby compared to a lot of hobbies.
Powersports, music, warhammer, shooting, I can think of a dozen or more hobbies of the top of my head that are more expensive and still within the reach of a median income.
Different-Ship449@reddit
I totally agree, I mean as far a building a computer with the rising costs of DDR5, Graphics Cards, and Storage. Whereas previously I would see continous progress to having more for less, currently we are seeing a reverse of less for more.
Alan_Turings_Apple@reddit
I feel like its just super volatile and has been for awhile. Its peaks and valleys have gotten really bad in AI though. The market will eventually correct, but we are basically at like 10 years of this shit with the 1-2-3 punch of Crypto, Covid, AI.
Different-Ship449@reddit
I'm tired boss
Alan_Turings_Apple@reddit
Me too brother, me too.
samcuu@reddit
The idiot crowd you're talking about, private consumers, is a really small part of the market. The majority of the hardware companies' customers are businesses.
If every gamer stops being an idiot and don't just always buy the latest and greatest thing to satisfy their mindless consumerism, it still won't make a dent.
ravenisblack@reddit
I think a heavy handed culprit in it all has to do with credit and options like AfterPay to purchase things. No hard evidence but I have a feeling a vast majority of people are putting these things on credit due to the accessibility of those payment options at checkout.
Silhouette@reddit
We're in the same position with maintaining essential equipment we already have. However we've also suspended earlier plans to update equipment and add new resources that we can get away without having for a while if we need to. Some buyers from the traditional markets for these components are presumably still paying the highly inflated prices but the volume of sales to those markets must be way down.
That's fine for the manufacturers and their resellers as long as the AI giants and their never-ending hunger for new data centres continue as they have been. Personally I wouldn't bet a lot of money on that making it to the end of this year with everything that's going on but who knows?
randylush@reddit
I’m just curious, what does your business do? Is it a tech business or some other business that has a normal need for information technology?
I feel like there is a mountain of perfectly fine workstations that are being forgotten and sold for pennies or thrown away. It seems like people “need” DDR5 and NVMe SSDs for browsing the internet, using spreadsheets, word processing and watching YouTube. Which makes absolutely no sense to me.
FrequentWay@reddit
Depends on the speed of your business. But we are talking high volume, high capacity RAM chips getting destroyed by the prices. Not every mom and pop setup needs 256GB of DDR5 RAM in their point of sales kiosk. Same with 8TB NVME SSDs.
Pitiful-Assistance-1@reddit
Used it pointless for business
Seregosa@reddit
I bought a 64gb ram kit for 700 euro when prices had started to increase (best deal left on the market), it's now up to 1200 euro. Used to be, what, around 200 euro last year?
I wouldn't have paid 1200, 700 was already far too much, but at least it wasn't 5080 GPU levels expensive, I'd rather buy 32GB of cheaper RAM and get a beefier GPU at this point.
Luckily the RAM was the only truly more expensive part, maybe lost 100 on my GPU but paid pre-increase price for my SSD, although I had to choose a more expensive/high end one because it was as expensive as the trashier ones, so I ended up with a g5 kingston 4tb for 400 euro that now costs 1200+.
Crazy sh*t. I don't see prices lowering in at least one year, they haven't even raised fully yet, at least not in sweden, and companies will want to make back what they spent on the stuff from the manufacturer. Once they order more for the new price, the price will be hiked up to high heaven. I don't see prices every going back to normal either, RAM will probably stay at least a few times more expensive, although maybe not 7-8 times as that's just unrealistic. After all, they've proven they can get away with it and if people buy at the prices they are now, they will definitely buy if they "only" increase the prices 3-4 times the original. Ain't no way the manufacturers will give up that golden goose.
blob8543@reddit
It's not small guys driving prices up, it's investors.
frenetic_alien@reddit
yeah and add to that scalpers and speculators.
LightRane@reddit
This isn't like video games, where the entire market is individual buyers. If every individual person stopped purchasing tomorrow, the business and enterprise market would still sustain it, and then they'll stop selling to individuals.
HidingImmortal@reddit
Supply and demand is a thing my guy.
If companies could have gotten away with charging $500 for ram before, they would have charged that much.
ThePoetMichael@reddit
Considering their main consumers are corporations, if the AI bubble pops and they stop the fountain of spending then maybe...
PabloGarea@reddit
This would work if not for the chinese, I truly hope if this prices go on that a Chinese corp steps in and tries to take the market with good prices, the same that happened to the car industry after COVID.
cablefumbler@reddit
DO NOT BUY. Buy second- and third hand instead, preferably from private consumers or small businesses who get rid of their old stuff.
If new sales drop by 90%, that'll teach them!
Let's see whether they keep prices up when no one's buying, except big datacenters.
They can only get away with it because big datacenters have huge demand right now.
GridmanDarkly@reddit
Not exactly. All they've proven is that they can sell bulk ram to AI companies for a huge profit.
The reality is private consumers are not driving their primary business model right now. A lot of these companies are going to gear themselves entirely towards developing commercial grade RAM for AI development and abandoned sales to private consumers because there won't be as much money in it.
The good news is, that's going to leave a massive vacuum for other companies to fill to meet consumer demands that don't have commercial contracts. It's going to take a few years for startups to get moving, but ultimately in 5 or so years we will all likely be buying RAM from companies we've never heard of that have only existed for a short time.
Meanwhile the AI bubble will eventually burst and a lot of the companies that we know and have come to rely on will either collapse as a result, or be forced to sell off massive stores of unutilized and unpurchased RAM. This will in turn cause costs to plummet. Rapid growth is always and inevitably unsustainable.
Crucial is a very good example of short-sighted re-alignment. They are almost completely leaving the consumer space that they have occupied for decades. But when AI collapses in on itself they won't have a buyer anymore. The company will either have to sell off a ton of RAM to make up for the huge loss of capital from commercial sales, or they will just go under.
Lelman2424@reddit
I mean what can you do ? You either don't build a pc or if you need one you will buy the overpriced ram.
abovewater_fornow@reddit
Consumers are not creating the demand. The AI industry is. Companies don't really care whether we buy right now or not. They have plenty of demand from the AI sector without selling to individual consumers. Prices will come back down when that demand goes down, and getting back an increase in consumer sales is needed. Might not go back down to prior prices, but they'll go down to more realistic consumer prices once that becomes a more necessary revenue stream again.
Lillywrapper64@reddit
AI industry isn't increasing demand; they're decreasing supply. afaik, they're not purchasing consumer-grade electronics, rather the factories that produce consumer-grade electronics are prioritizing manufacturing different components that are more suitable for the AI industry, and so supply of consumer-grade stuff has decreased
Xatsman@reddit
They are increasing demand for the same input. Yes technically the RAM AI datacenters use isn't the same, but it's made from the same precursor component so the distinction is meaningless for this discussion.
abovewater_fornow@reddit
Correct.
sob727@reddit
Eh, no
Computer sales and phone sales are projected to be lower. Not everybody pays up. I've been downsizing my ambitions myself to buy new servers.
resetallthethings@reddit
I was gonna put together a media server, AND even had the platform and ram
storage prices though got me reconsidering
sob727@reddit
I'm the opposite. I had most of the drives ahead. Sadly, not the RAM.
resetallthethings@reddit
wanna buy a 11700, 32gb ram and a mobo from me? lol
sob727@reddit
I was eyeing a server build with 512-768GB. So.... not quite there
resetallthethings@reddit
so close!
good grief man, what on earth you planning to do with all that?
sob727@reddit
I do datascience type stuff for a living
VoidNinja62@reddit
I was going to buy a Zen5 system and am sticking to Zen3 and DDR4 for the foreseeable future.
DDR5 just isn't worth the price. Most home users don't need that kind of bandwidth. The entire concept of DDR5 was because per-core bandwidth was starting to become a constraint with like 20-core CPUs on dual channel DDR4 etc.
I'm rocking like an 8 core Zen3 and its basically perfect. Computers have also stopped progressing as quickly as they used to. Going from a 130nm node to 90nm was huge. Going from 7nm to 5nm to 3nm is making incrementally small gains. 7nm Is already well beyond the wavelength of light where they have to use a polarization/scattering to split the laser to even approach distances that small.
eduardopy@reddit
Tbh 7nm to 3nm is a bigger jump than 130 to 90 IMO.
gtsiou@reddit
But this is not a matter of opinion. 130nm to 90nm had tangible performance improvements on a level that going 7nm to 3nm cannot match.
LeKy411@reddit
Paying ridiculous prices isn't fuelled by your lowly consumer buying 32GB of ram kit every 5 years. It adds into the equation, but it's large companies and institutions who have no choice but to pay the prices to keep the lights on. It happened curing COVID we went from $8k per server to $15K per server for the same hardware and we paid it. Now we are going from $30K to $42K with the majority of the cost being RAM and we are going to pay it. We are scaling back our upgrade cycle, but at the end of the day we have ageing hardware that is beaten to shreds and the cost to continue supporting it stops making business sense so we will pay the RAM price and continue operating. Will we scale back where we can sure......but if we need it we buy it.
NapsterKnowHow@reddit
The only hope is another US administration suing these very clear price gouging and also start breaking up some hardware/software monopolies.
midnightbandit-@reddit
If the AI bubble crashes there will be massive oversupply of DRAM chips. RAM manufacturers will have no choice but to cut prices because consumers don't have the spending power of AI companies. RAM isn't a necessity. It is very price elastic. Look at TVs and how cheap they are right now. Same deal.
Nobody_Here73@reddit
That is not how capitalism works ... At some point there will be overcapacity and price will go down.
KenD1988@reddit
You’re right.. but people are also panic buying. And FOMO buying. So it’s not a good business model to keep prices this high because eventually most people will just move on instead of paying those outrageous prices. Prices won’t go back to what they once were.. but they will go down and even out. At least that’s my opinion over what I’ve seen the last 20 plus years in PC building.
Useful_Address8230@reddit
That's the market. There is no real competition. Governments try to please small and medium enterprises for the votes but all modern important things are made by huge corporations and cannot be made by anyone else.
BrokeButFabulous12@reddit
This, but i also think that new companies will step in. Theres only a limited number of ppl that are willing to give 4x price to upgrade their rig. Ppl will upgrade less often due to higher cost, but i think the hole in the market will be filled with other companies eventually. Think of it as with the crypto, way back the gpu prices went crazy because they were all scooped by miners, but eventually the prices stabilized because ASIC miners became much more suitable for the task. I may be wrong but i believe the DRAM and SOCAMM chips for rams are not the same, sure part of the industry will switch to the SOCAMM but then again, that leaves opening for new companies.
v01dm4n@reddit
But looking at mouth-watering margins, more manufacturers should jump in thereby triggering price-wars. Keeping faith in capitalism and geopolitics, I am hoping they will come down one day.
dertechie@reddit
In a perfect market, that happens quickly. However, high end semiconductor manufacturing is far from a perfect market. There are huge economies of scale and the start up costs and timelines are monstrous.
DRAM manufacturing has its own unique challenges - you can’t just call up Global Foundries and run some DDR5 wafers on their 14nm process even if 14nm is about the same nominal scale as what Samsung, Micron and SK Hynix are working on.
The boom and bust cycle of the DRAM market has resulted in significant consolidation as manufacturers went bankrupt during busts. There are now four DRAM manufacturers that matter, which is up from three ten years ago. Samsung, SK Hynix and Micron are the established players.
CXMT is still establishing itself. They can at least fab good DDR5 and LPDDR5 now, multiple years after the big three reached that point. How long it will take them to make good HBM or DDR6 is unknown. To establish another DRAM foundry took the backing of the PRC and a lot of industrial espionage to get there. That’s not just stereotypes - there are several former Samsung employees currently on trial for leaking trade secrets to them and older tales of spying on Micron and SK Hynix. Even having the in house expertise to make use of that espionage is impressive.
Different-Ship449@reddit
CXMT also have been able to steeply raise their prices and capitalise on the demand, not many consumers before were willing to risk money on an unknown brand (to them); it could very well be a solid cheaper option after estabilishing a large enough user base to show their product is good enough to do the job.
dertechie@reddit
The maker of the IC is rarely advertised. Enthusiast products might mention Hynix chips but who made the chips is usually buried in the long form model number if it’s available at all. We tend to know something is Hynix A-die / M-die DDR5 or Samsung B-die DDR4 by knowing speed and timing combinations that other ICs simply cannot match at scale. Corsair could start selling DDR5-6000 C36 sticks with CXMT ICs tomorrow and the vast majority of consumers would neither know nor care.
CXMT is already over the hump of being “good enough”. I suspect that the pricing differential wasn’t enough to convince manufacturers that supply the US market to deal with the risks of buying from a company that is so often in the US government’s crosshairs. Now with demand so strong that risk looks a lot more palatable.
Different-Ship449@reddit
I was specifically thinking of KingBank that uses CXMT DDR5 after watching a hardware unboxed video showing the testing and results. But KingBank prices are high now as well.
dertechie@reddit
Every time I see that name it makes me think that they’re knockoff Kingston.
v01dm4n@reddit
How long is this cycle usually? Can we use past data to estimate a timeline for correction? Or is this time different?
dertechie@reddit
We don’t know how long this one will last. The sheer amount of money chasing RAM is unprecedented. We’re also in an awkward space where it is clear there is bubble behavior going on so the manufacturers do not want to go all in and be left holding the bag (which is how so many of those companies went bankrupt).
My guess is that consumers will first start seeing relief when enterprise moves to DDR6 in 2027/2028. Client will hold on DDR5 longer than it would in a normal scenario. CXMT will not be able to move to DDR6 immediately alongside the other three. This alongside CXMT’s aggressive expansion will help buffer supply when the rest move to DDR6. Without massive VC money chasing DDR5, it can return to earth, especially since client demand is much lower (a single high end server might use 2048 GB or more of ECC memory, which would be enough RAM ICs for 72 desktops with 32 GB each).
This will be similar to the way GDDR6 GPUs are affected by the squeeze but not to the same extent as GDDR7 (e.g. the 9070 XT is $150 over MSRP while the 5070 Ti is $250 over MSRP).
Mightyena319@reddit
Because things like dram fabrication plants are very slow to bring online, require a lot of specialist knowledge, and are eye-wateringly expensive to build. It's not an easy game to join
Different-Ship449@reddit
It's not like I can get Grandma to knit me some DDR5.
BCSWowbagger2@reddit
"CLAUDE, TEACH ME HOW TO KNIT DDR5 USING COMPONENTS AROUND MY HOUSE. MAKE NO MISTAKES."
Entonations@reddit
Fingers crossed for Chinese manufacturers 🤞
Correct-Caregiver750@reddit
You need tens of billions of dollars spent over several years to even get to a point of trying to make these. It's incredibly costly, incredibly specialized, and unless you're one of the few companies that's already doing it, your likelihood of failure is essentially 100%.
MrBeanDaddy86@reddit
That's the problem. There aren't "more manufacturers." It's just a handful of factories making this stuff—tooling up is nontrivial and takes multiple years.
kobemustard@reddit
Unless there is a real constraint like limited amount of rare earths making it so we can only produce so much per year.
ReadyAimTranspire@reddit
From what I understand the manufacturing processes are so incredibly precise and metered to maximize yield that it is impossible to to just say "make more". The fabs run at basically the maximum speed/efficiency ratio possible and run 24/7. Changing anything introduces variance that could potentially destroy 3-5 months of work that it takes to make these things, a disastrous financial predicament that they would put themselves in.
these-emu@reddit
Pretty much this, prices goes up and stays up and just becomes the new norm.
BobThe-Bodybuilder@reddit
This was an interesting video by Gamers Nexus https://youtu.be/jVzeHTlWIDY. All the RAM companies collude to bump up their prices, so if you need RAM, you simply won't find it cheap. My 2TB raid setup is showing issues and I've decided to literally just let it die. No matter how much I need storage, I can not afford it. If it was a little more expensive, fine, just pay the price, but the prices are genuinely absurd- Not even unreasonable, just absurd.
shiek200@reddit
I'm still crossing my fingers that once the shortage is over and companies inevitably DON'T lower their prices, it will create enough room for a competitive market to emerge, since we've effectively been at the mercy of a pc parts monopoly for decades now.
Duckdxd@reddit
Yeah lemme go make my own ram real quick
winter0991@reddit
It’s kind of like when you over work yourself at work everyone just sees it as possible, so why hire more help/ever go the other way?
Lillywrapper64@reddit
okay but much less people buy these goods at that price, meaning they make less money overall. equilibrium price is a concept that exists for a reason. the prices were previously set naturally by supply/demand and once this price shock is over, they'll naturally settle at a new equilibrium
coheedcollapse@reddit
As an addendum to that, the richest people in the world do not benefit from us owning our own hardware that we can do anything we want with. They do benefit from convincing every idiot in the world to pay monthly for access to cloud hardware that they will never own running software they will never own and games they will never own.
Don't get me wrong, there is benefit in working in the cloud in some cases, but there's nothing more appealing to the rich right now than the idea of taking away ownership and control of things from the rest of us.
Buzzl8year@reddit
This is not price making by producers, because the big prices are paid by AI companies.
There is very less for customer market, so the shortage raise prices. The ask for expensive RAM/ NAND products will be lower, but the availability for these products are still Higher. If customers didn't buy won't reduce prices. Thats a fault mindset.
caffeine-182@reddit
This is not how markets work. At all.
HarrisonGreen@reddit
Unpopular opinion - tech hardware has been ridiculously undervalued for years and only now after the AI boom are people seeing its true value.
Not everyone builds a PC for gaming. If you use your PC for work, it makes much more sense to get the latest hardware, even at today's prices, because it is an investment that will pay itself over time.
M_K-Ultra@reddit
Are enough people really buying this stuff at these prices to offset it though? Any numbers being posted anywhere that show this?
Alternative-Juice-15@reddit
Nah I totally disagree. Sure some people will spend it but most won’t. The profits are in higher volumes and prices will definitely come back down
Correct-Caregiver750@reddit
How do you think prices are set? They're based on supply and demand. Companies are neither good nor bad. They simply are.
MrBeanDaddy86@reddit
I always point to McDonald's. They jacked up the prices during COVID and they never went back down. People complained, so they just stopped raising the price as aggressively. But it's still far more expensive than it was six years ago.
Grintock@reddit
But wouldn't supply increase, because other potential producers see that price and want a piece of the proverbial pie? As long as the price to produce it is lower than the price customers are willing to pay, shouldn't new companies be wanting to join the market or existing ones want to increase their production?
Like, I'm asking because this is my basic economic understanding
travelsonic@reddit
I can't help but feel like this is an extreme oversimplification that leaves out important nuance, and puts too much blame on the consumer (when there is way more to that - AI companies buying up supply and potential future supply, RAM being something that computers of ALL WALKS OF LIFE - non-gamer consumer, gamer-consumer, businesses of all sizes, etc, and also takes away agency from these companies from decisions THEY make.
Repugnant-Conclusion@reddit
Not all component purchases are upgrading. Components fail. I had a RAM stick die two months ago, and it was either pay for overpriced new DIMMs or pay for overpriced used DIMMs or abandon the hobby.
WillieM96@reddit
There will always be someone who pays the prices. The question is how many? I built a system in 2021 with 16 GB of ram. It wasn't cheap at that time but it wasn't nearly as bad as now. In December of 2023, I didn't need more ram but I saw a 64GB CL18 ram kit on sale for $110. You bet your ass I bought it! It'll come down, eventually. How much? I have no idea. Just get the minimally necessary right now (if you have to) and be patient.
Have a price point in your head and when it hits, be ready to buy. In 2021, I wanted a 3060 TI but settled for a 1660 super. It worked well enough. I decided that when it went to MSRP, again, I'd pull the trigger. It wasn't until mid 2025 that things seemed to settle a bit. I almost bought a 5060 TI 16GB but I wasn't sure how long this calm period would last, so I splurged for a 5070 TI at MSRP (which still isn't a "deal" but I had no idea how long it would be at that level). Was that the right choice? Time will tell but I'm trying to make the best of this hellacious climate.
modsplsnoban@reddit
Eh that’s if things stay consistent. Demand drives up costs because there’s not enough product. The way to offset this is to increase supply. Supply drives down costs. Eventually demand cools which means over supply and cheaper products. Companies will have inventory that they don’t want to sit on.
As much as there’s doomerism here, product will always be available to the consumer. Companies like Nvidia and AMD will not pass on a couple billion dollars of consumer products. It’s still revenue that can be used.
Someone is not going to pass by $5 on the street even if they’re make $500,000.
Don_Draper_67@reddit
Not true at all. We’ve had ram supply issues in the past. It always returns to normal. Chill with the doomer thoughtz
schm0@reddit
The entire point of raising prices is to reduce demand. These companies are currently focused on meeting demand from bigger consumers.
WeirdRip759@reddit
This is pretty much everything anymore!
Proccito@reddit
My issue is that I havn't bought a computer in 8 years. So I will probably buy the ram for these prices, not because it's a reasonable price (it's not) but because I got more value from my older computer that way.
Alifelifts@reddit
Absolutely. From a business standpoint there's no sense in asking less if people are willing to pay more
Eckish@reddit
People are willing to pay more, but they also tend to still go for the cheaper option. There's a lot of competition in the RAM space. The logic you are giving only works if you effectively have a monopoly.
jeffreynya@reddit
business really have little choice though.
prepare4magic@reddit
That sucks but i believe you are right. I wish people would stand together and say NO to foolishness
antiramie@reddit
Eh sometimes it’s unavoidable. I need to buy a new MOBO, CPU, and RAM so I can update to Windows 11. Do I want to pay current prices? No. Do I want to keep using my desktop as is without security updates? Also no.
BigWormsFather@reddit
They don’t even need the normal consumer right now though. Components are being presold to AI companies.
chewedgummiebears@reddit
We're still seeing this in some sectors with the Covid-era price hikes and poor quality. It just never bounced back because people will pay for it and accept the crap quality as a result, and keep buying over and over.
Scooter_Dave@reddit
It's like a gopher. It comes up , it goes down . Once everyone realizes that you get better results with the old back 8 ball that you used to shake up , and ask a question. The A.I. will be a thing of the past . Stop supporting A.I. data centers in every community!
Solid-Equal-1183@reddit
The ironic thing is if all the memory and SSD's are being bought for crappy AI, who is going to be able to access all this AI if we cant get better PC's
North_Carry5221@reddit
Ain't apple who lost the ai race gonna start buying out ram and inflate it more cuz all the companies already have no more money from building data centers
Federal_Mouse1726@reddit
can’t afford the heart break reaction so uhhh imagine I did it
3vio7@reddit
I bought 32 gb 3600 in July 2025 for 40$ new
vanduong30103@reddit
I'll wait for 5 more years. I got away with my Xeon build.
AdhocAnchovie@reddit
Literaly im so chill with my gen6 intell i7 and 1080ti. I can play another 5 years of favourite games and not bat an eye.
Substantial-Bag-5956@reddit
which games at what resolution tho. 1080ti is on par with 4060 performance albeit with more vram. i have a 4060 ti and feel like upgrading
cdrknives@reddit
I love my 1080Ti. I think that was the last card to run right off the PCI bus, I think?
sully99999999@reddit
1050ti was. Then there was a low power 3050.
Lower_Past_4783@reddit
Yes, when the AI bubble bursts. we're already starting to see cracks.
MusicInTheAir55@reddit
People need to understand this isn't just computer parts that are going to be staying up, but many consumer items. Food, gas, clothing.. you name it. If we aren't getting increased salaries to match inflation & gouging then essentially what is going to happen is less people will be able to afford the basics. Owning a decent rig will become a luxury, as will many things, like eating steak or going on trips.
Unlimited growth increases the divide. With the amount of wealth that exists at the top 1% of the world we could level the playing field, making the lives of billions of people that much better, but alas we live in a world full of billionaires whose appetite for endless wealth is insatiable.
logitaunt@reddit
PC building will cease being a middle class hobby when you lose the middle class
In a k-shaped economy, only people on the upper half of the k would be able to pursue this hobby
Easy-Improvement-598@reddit
PCs only exist in data enters and everyone will use that data centers via cloud in their potato laptops in coming days
StopYTCensorship@reddit
I think so too. We're going to have monthly subscription PC's that are just thin clients into some megacorp's servers. Nobody except the wealthy will own their own shit.
Felidori@reddit
"The love of money is the root of all evil"
Sad_Tower9689@reddit
I respect what you’re saying but in reality you’ve not thought through your perspective enough to have a better understanding. The 1% aren’t to blame and it comes down to that “worth” number and you seeing that mentally as a bank balance when in reality the 1% are the 1% because of assets and their perceived value. Bill Gates has the Gates Foundation which is seeing tens to hundreds of billions slashed from his networth due to “giving away” his wealth but in truth he’s transferring MSFT stocks to the trust and the cash profit from things such as TerraPower and Breakthough Energy.
My point is the 1% can’t divide their wealth because it’s not cash. What good is it to you to own a tiny piece of Microsoft stock? a square foot of a Tesla factory? 200ml of an oil deposit deep inside a Saudi Desert? None of those things will help you at all unless you sell them and the person who buys the most becomes the very person we aimed to get rid of in the first place.
Latter_Drag4410@reddit
They will go back down eventually. However, we will probably have to shop for less expensive alternatives. for instance, if you want a decent gpu and not the nvidia or amd price tag..you go with the intel one. And I'm sure cheaper ram alternatives will pop up in the future. It's just a supply and demand problem right now.
Solid-3V1-tanji@reddit
ty
BC_Engineer@reddit
I think it will make a lot of people prologue their use of their devices. For example if you got your Pixel 8 from two years ago, now you may just use it until 2030 close to the end of its software updates. Just have the battery changed half way through. Same with your iPad use it until the security update deadline instead of replacing it every 4 years or so. As for my PC probably just keep using it for a decade.
TotemicLeonidas@reddit
When does the price of anything ever come down?
Pleasant-Monitor9741@reddit
When prices increase due to inflation, they tend not to come down. This increase is not due to inflation, it's due to a shift in the market being targeted by the manufacturers (AI companies), resulting in shortages for other markets (the consumer market).
beerovios@reddit
Welcome to late stage capitalism. Things will only get worse from here. Maybe some mitigation like we get back to 300 from like 500 but yeah the situation is dire on all fronts
Good-Assignment5964@reddit
AI will only make the prices get higher, they will never return to the prices we used to see.
sup9817@reddit
Will never drop back to early 2025 prices but prices will eventually go down from how extortionate they are now
SolidUnfair@reddit
Sadly, I believe we're long past that point. Demand is way too high and doesn't seem like it'll come down soon
CapableParfait4996@reddit
demand is high but most people dont buy 500$ ram atm
Certified_Comby@reddit
I hope it’s soon cause the DDR5 kit I wanted to buy used to be a third of its current price and it pisses me off cause I can’t play ASA with 16gb!
That_Lad_Chad@reddit
It's called a super cycle. It's intentional and planned. This has happened before.
Non-AI Enterprise demand is high, AI enterprise demand is high, consumer demand is high... But at the end of the day, part of this "crisis" was intentional to drive up profits for the three companies which manufacture a majority of NAND.
syclick@reddit
Once the demand for AI goes down, I’d expect prices to decrease. If the AI bubble pops like the dotcom bubble did, we could see huge price drops. The more dramatic the bubble pops, the more suppliers are going to be holding the bag with tons of inventory.
Chiffy_@reddit
Unsure how much this weighs but there is a general push by most tech corporations to in the long term picture, have tech, computing and data be subscription based where very few people actually own the systems they use So idk factor that in
Plenty_Chapter3648@reddit
in 2024 i bought 16g of ddr5 it costed me $50. and now? its %250-300. just insane
Future_Hearing_9399@reddit
I have the same question because recently i found a Lexar NM620 M.2 PCIe NVMe 2TB for like 130$ now that is it's usually price in the market (with no sales) before the shortage thing and it's making me hesitant idk if i should buy it or not
drumdrumdrums@reddit
Not sure if it was already brought up, but is DDR6 panned for next year? Any chance DD5 prices could drop after that?
PasonJatrick@reddit
When the AI bubble bursts. And it will burst someday not very soon. Not entirely. Just enough to dissuade RAM, GPU, and SSD manufacturers from exclusively supplying AI companies.
UKBARNEY73@reddit
Ebay is a boneyard, people are clearly scalping ram and nvme ssd's "like gutting fish and then throwing em' on the deck of the boat" .
It's got that low now that they have now dropped the bar below 256gb ssd's. Search ebay for laptops with no ssd's there is gen 11 intels lying there naked.... after the (Grape without the G).
Welcome to the hardware wasteland.
First-Item7121@reddit
I don't think that the new normal of bis gpu is 4k$. Add ram, ssd etc on top of that and you price out most pc gaming enthusiasts. We are currently in war time and hardware is bought out so that your enemies can't have it.
It has nothing to do with ai if you know how ai works it will just get bloatier and bloatier but not better necessarily. + People talk about ai replacing labor... But give me an example where people are actually needed almost everything is made by a machine/algorhytm nowadays.
Cars - made by robots.
Pizzas - made by robots.
Icecream - made by robots.
Sodas... Made by robots.
Tables, forks, any tool imaginable is all made by robots in a factory.
BestDriver1337@reddit
They already coming down. Right now is just market manipulation and lies. The chips haven't even been built yet. They know what they are doing.
dragonriderabens@reddit
No.
They’ll make up some BS excuse and then sell you RAM from the cloud
interwebpimp@reddit
You are witnessing the end of personal computing. In the near future you will pay for your computing to take place in the cloud. PC's will just be gimped Mac mini like terminals.
Nebyl_@reddit
Most probably no, but you can track the best deals on amazon.com or ebay.com via combination of tools like www.3dmark.com and www.best-gpu.com
Aggressive_Cold6537@reddit
I have never seen something rise in price and the manufacture reduce it once supply chain issues are resolved. The prices will only go up with inflation. Nothing ever gets cheaper
Msys_SK@reddit
there is a high chance that companies will (after AI burst) continue to sell at higher price.
rinkyu@reddit
I’m hoping this AI bubble pops harder than the .com bubble did.
MasterDroid97@reddit
Maybe. Nobody can tell. My take is that in 2028-2030 they will gradually drop to some inflation-corrected value plus a premium.
durangotang@reddit
I think late 2025 prices were too low potentially with poor margins for a lot of these manufacturers. If 64GB of DDR5 was \~$200 - and now it's $850+ due to production allocation competition (and some price gouging), then perhaps it reaches a new equilibrium of around $400-550 over time (2028) as more capacity comes online.
If the AI bubble pops post-2028, and all this extra capacity is built out, perhaps we'll be eating good once again. I sort of doubt it.
Or perhaps we enter a massive recession due to an energy shock, consumer demand weakens, some AI investment cools, and prices lower a bit (but few people will have any disposable income so it doesn't matter much anyway).
Or some combination of all three. Wild times.
Skepsis93@reddit
Yeah, I see two main possibilities and 2028-2030 is my timetable too. Either the AI bubble pops and data center demand falls or demand stays high but the manufacturers have finished building out infrastructure to increase production.
ninjastylle@reddit
I can tell you for sure that your buying power wont increase.
Thick-Photo526@reddit
The development of AI has driven this trend. Without alternative hardware or superior software, this situation will not improve.
Feisty-Ebb-1165@reddit
The A.I. bubble will burst - just as bubbles always do.
neckme123@reddit
its very rare price ever go down, this is the new normal.
Merci_____@reddit
Yes
BeanOnToast4evr@reddit
Fingers crossed for the Chinese ram, storage and gpu, I won’t buy them but they would certainly help with the pricing.
RedditLone@reddit
Didn't happen with the GPUs and that price spike started like almost a decade ago...
AffectionateAd7651@reddit
Holy fuck I'm glad I built my PC when I did. $183 for 2x32 now pushing $700?!?!?!? AI hates gamers.
Agzarah@reddit
Probably not. Production coata might go down, but the companies will just make more profit instead of passing the savings on to us. To any significant degree anyway
Lucky_Yesterday_1133@reddit
Price = supply/demand guys. That's it. Foundries always run on 100% capacity and lower prices when excess stock accumulates. The shortage is due unpredictability. Foundries don't want to build new fabs cause they are afraid the demand dries out. If demand keeps stable for a year they will invest eventually in new capacity.
PiR8_Rob@reddit
Did GPU prices return to normal after COVID?
logitaunt@reddit
It's debatable. The prices probably softened a little bit, but absolutely did not return to pre-demand prices.
resetallthethings@reddit
inflation adjusted we basically did
there was times in 23/24 current production cards were consistently under MSRP
Hell, there were pre-covid times that GPU prices were far from normal due to crypto mining.
PiR8_Rob@reddit
Do you even know what MSRP means? Nvidia was already price gouging before inflation hit.
resetallthethings@reddit
Yes
Didi you know inflation has been a constant thing?
PiR8_Rob@reddit
Oh, I suppose you think it's always going up? You're as dumb as I think you are.
buildapc-ModTeam@reddit
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PiR8_Rob@reddit
Exactly. This the answer to the current situation as well.
TheDoneald@reddit
It can’t last forever and consumers won’t pay what prices will reach. Then there will be inventory available at a super high price that sits there and the companies can decide if they want to reduce the price or not make a sale. Do you part by not buying.
chrlatan@reddit
3 factors….. supply, demand, competition.
Low supply, high demand, high prices. Where we are now.
High supply, low demand, low prices. Where we were.
Supply on par with demand with plenty competition, fair prices. Where we want to be.
Supply on par with demand without healthy competitons, prices too high and on extreme edge of affordability. Where we most likely will wind up.
So no.
Active_Scholar_2154@reddit
Yes
But integrated graphics might get to the point where gpus are pointless for most people.
Soham_656@reddit
Well, I think by 2030, prices will come down..
Dikkolo@reddit
It'll be hard to track 1:1 since tech will advance so you won't be buying the same exact products. My guess is that prices might chill out a bit or stagnate until inflation catches up and they seem affordable again, but there will still be some permanent lasting effect of the price hike.
Also I predict RAM will never go all the way back to being a cheap component and will instead situate itself more with CPU/GPU as the third "expensive PC component"
tugoubxs@reddit
You need a 2001-level tech bubble burst at least, otherwise, fat chance
Valkarist@reddit
The Crypto mining craze and COVID-19 shipping complications led to some crazy spikes back in 2020-2021 (although only for GPUs, really). A 3090 used to be $3200, a bit more than double MSRP, which is around where the 5090 is right now. A used 3090 got down to like $600 a year or so ago, though.
Things will stabilize eventually, all just a matter of how long that might be. Probably mid-late 2027 is when things will start to feel more reasonably priced
neverpost4@reddit
It all depends on whether build your own ecosystem can survive the upcoming drought.
No more OEM pc part vendors, ...
spartanmk2@reddit
AI Companies: Hoard all the RAM on earth Also AI Companies: How come you cant afford RAM in your PC to use our AI?
Advanced-Mention-370@reddit
There are ways to still get cheap nvme storage and ram that is ddr5 and at least 5600mt/s but you have to get creative and be okay with not having something that is name brand. I just finished my backup computer using 32gb of DDr5 ram and 4tb of nvme storage. Didn't cost me much more than $800 for the entire computer build. Granted I used an older GPU but it's basically an emulation station so that's fine.
Washburn64@reddit
Never.
NadEspera@reddit
I hope so. But too many unpredictible factors like wars here and there, nature disasters, pandemics, etc.
TheCrowWhisperer3004@reddit
Prices never return unless the increase was due to scalping.
They will just hopefully stop getting worse
Icy-Way5769@reddit
No they won’t 1. Industry has seen now they can get away with putting insane prices on stuff 2. They wanted generally higher prices long before the current insanity anyway (e.g. ram manufacturers even tried raising prices by artificially limiting supply long before the ai boom/ by destroying massive amounts of inventory)
Cell_Supreme@reddit
Don't care. This doesn't affect me at all. Stop buying and prices will come down.
Capaj@reddit
no
maestro826@reddit
lol..
Jicks24@reddit
Lmao, even.
paneer_dosa@reddit
If RAM (or VRAM) price goes down to its older self then GPU and SSD will as well. I have a 2TB SSD but I don’t have RAM 🥀🥀
EnTillPerson@reddit
Did food, rent, utilities, clothes, books, electronics, etc, go down in price after covid ended? No?
I guess you have your answer then.
Euphoric_Hunt2930@reddit
its already going cheaper. not selling much with these ridiculous expensive prices
Khandakerex@reddit
If someone here actually knew, then they'd make a lot of money trading in the stock market and become an overnight millionaire. No one knows, and im gonna be honest, prices tend to be stickier than most people think, yes prices can come down a little but to "what they were" might be a stretch, taking regular inflation into account each year is also a thing but pent-up consumer demand is too so there's a chance they lower prices a little bit and sell out instantly.
Gutter_Flies@reddit
I doubt it. Maybe down a little, but never back down to $~90 for 32gb ram until that amount isn’t good for nearly as much anymore. I will probably just never buy brand new ram again though. I already buy like 70% of components on the used market anyway, if I can find it.
M_Su@reddit
DDR5 prices will go back to 2025 prices in 2032 or so when DDR7 gets released and businesses buy that out
GPU prices are pretty stable on the 2nd hand market, new market will be constrained for at least 3-4 years.
SSD, I feel like it won't return to normal because cloud services, data centers, AI can provide servers, hosting, chatbots for profit, and be able to negotiate bulk prices in storage. Because businesses are quickly starting up and scaling with servers like AWS and using AI to build. Imagine buying Apple cloud/Google Drive storage for your photos and videos, but scaled to business sized proportions
Divstorted@reddit
Personally i got lucky lately on the ram i got, but i mean i hope it goes down sometime soon, even for me gpu seems kinda high no? (Ive never had a pc before so idk how prices were 2-3 years ago)
Ozi-reddit@reddit
nope, even when come back down down in '27-28+ inflation will still bump it past early '25 prices
Felidori@reddit
Once businesses see what they an get away with charging (as in people are still buying at massively inflated prices) then there is zero reason to go back to the lower price. Their only thought would be "why didn't we do this sooner?". Businesses exist to make as much money as possible, why would they not want to do that?
SuperSpy_4@reddit
I bought a 4tb m.2 drive and 64gb ddr5 6000 ram for about $431.68 on 11/14/2024.
You cant even buy one of these without it costing more than i paid for both. The ram is $949 and the m.2 drive is $489! I feel like i got lucky.
I still got the 32gb i replaced but i feel like i should save it in case i have a ram issue as im not sure if the price is coming down anytime soon.
ParadoxScientist@reddit
No because you have people paying ridiculous prices for the latest stuff when all they're doing is doomscrolling and occasionally playing a game that can run on a GPU from several years ago.
2raysdiver@reddit
Yes, yes they will. Some people paid $600 for a RTX 3060 in 2020. 16MB (MEGAbyte) cost over $600 in 1995. 16GB of DDR4 cost anywhere from $100 to over $200 in 2015. There was a time in the 2010s when 128GB SSDs cost over $300. 32GB DDR5 was $200 to $300 in 2021 (how quickly we forget).
In the past, there was always at least one component that was in short supply to come extent. We just came off a 2 year run where supplies of everything was high and prices were low. As someone who has been following the market since the early 90s (and been around the market even longer), that two year run was more of an anomaly than the memory shortage we have right now.
In the context of an entire build, yes it costs more to build a PC, but there are things like bundles that have been able to mitigate some of those increases in price. And prebuilts have been able to take advantage of bulk buying to keep there prices from rising as fast as individual components. For example, Microcenter's Powerspec G757 with 9800X3D, RTX 5080, 32GB, 2TB SSD went on sale for $1900 just before Christmas, down from $2100 earlier in the fall, and is only $2400 right now. We have seen similar things with some Costco and Best Buy brand prebuilts.
Where it really hurts, though, is the low-end budget build. For a couple of years, you could build a respectable entry-level PC with some room for upgrades for only $600. It costs almost $900 now, a 50% increase.
Jirekianu@reddit
If the bubble persists, probably 3-5 years. Unless demand keeps impossibly scaling up.
If the bubble pops this year. Then, around 2 years.
TomatoSpecialist6879@reddit
That's assuming consumer demand doesn't keep prices higher for longer, right now it's demand from all markets while corporate is outbidding everyone
Montanapartner@reddit
Exactly; many overlook that recently, flash memory and RAM was extremely underpriced because in a broader perspective, manufacturers heavily overproduced consumer RAM (partly based on the extremely rising demand in the Covid years, when everyone was sitting at home and needed or at least had the time and money to spend on a home PC). After pandemic, demand dropped. So those recent consumer prices we got used to weren't balanced; there was simply more stock than demand, so they kept going down. Now consumer production was reduced, and additionally the "competing" industry demand skyrocketed. Roles reversed, demand>supply, prices stay up
Canadian_Border_Czar@reddit
https://mfara.com/unlimited/
I think you're overestimating where RAM prices would be.
Even if they didnt drop significantly and followed historical trends you'd still only be looking at <$200 for 64GB.
RAM has almost always been cheap because it is cheap to make.
Montanapartner@reddit
I'm not sure what your point is.
Yes, RAM is cheap to make. That doesn't really matter when the triopol is prioritizing production of different RAM than what consumers need
Spartan2170@reddit
If the business demand drops off a cliff when the AI bubble pops (especially if it happens *after* these companies ramp production to meet AI demand) then it’s possible prices will drop because of a glut of supply. Not guaranteed, but possible.
Montanapartner@reddit
The problem is, companies use HBM RAM, while consumers buy the mainstream DDR RAM. Both products use the same resources, so they price-hike together right now, but you can't simply sell overmanufactured stock of HBM RAM to consumers even IF the industry demand crashes.
Marv18GOAT@reddit
If the bubble pops the economy will tank and no one will be able to afford anything let alone high end computer parts idk why people don’t realize that lol
No_Spare1827@reddit
well, no thats not what a bubble is. if a market bubble "pops" it doesnt mean everything comes crashing down, now there is a lot of imaginary money that was and wasn't promised but yeah the biggest bubble indicator is open AI if they go down its unlikely that everything or everyone else comes crashing down. for sure the PC parts being expensive will be inevitable but AI isnt going anywhere without regulation even if the "bubble bursts"
Spartan2170@reddit
The issue is that we’ve arguably been in a recession for a while, except the market hasn’t reflected that due to the AI bubble inflating a bunch of tech company stocks. If the bubble bursts before the rest of the economy improves (which seems increasingly likely, given other world events), then the market generally’s gonna be a mess.
Also a big part of what will likely cause the bubble to burst is the fact that AI isn’t actually making money. It costs a *ton* to operate and has fairly weak demand. If the bubble bursts because a bunch of AI companies start failing, it’s totally possible that a lot of AI applications start to scale back dramatically.
doomdeathdecay@reddit
That’s not a reason to prop up this dogshit
kashuntr188@reddit
Western Digital already has all of its 2026 stock of HDD sold. And companies are now lining up for 2028 stock.
If the AI bubble pops companies are doing down, everybody is going to own everybody money. I really do hope it pops cuz screw this.
Riaayo@reddit
If the bubble persists and data-centers continue to completely suck up the market, there won't be a consumer PC market in 3-5 years - certainly not a build-your-own enthusiast market/something that is affordable to the working class.
Even if it pops the likelihood prices go down when we've not seen them go down post-covid also seems laughable. These companies will happily keep prices inflated as long as the demand continues for them, and may very well just build in the scarcity of supply and rake up larger profits on less volume.
RedEyed__@reddit
If it were a bubble, nobody would invest into a bubble. What I'm trying to say: nobody know until it pops
travelsonic@reddit
The dot-com bubble would like to resurrect itself to say "Hello, remember me?"
People ABSOLUTELY invest in bubbles.
RedEyed__@reddit
You can only know this post factum.
Jirekianu@reddit
"hey man, you can't know this house is going to burn down. Who cares if it's made of dry straw and soaked in gasoline."
RedEyed__@reddit
Because it's that obvious, no one is willing to buy it
Jirekianu@reddit
What? I mean, you can absolutely look into the way a market is moving and realize it has no way to be profitable as a whole. Sure, some individuals are legitimately making some money in AI, but the actual field of it isn't getting anywhere near the returns to sustain even a small percent of the amount of money dumping into it.
Something like 95% of the AI projects aren't seeing a profit. The reason it's "booming" is because one industry buys hardware from one. Then they sell computer time for datacenters that aren't even built yet. They then put it on the books as income by selling speculative compute amounts to another client. On and on. So very little actual money enters the circle. And almost none of it comes out again.
When this shit pops it's going to make the dot com bubble and 2008 housing crisis combined look like a fucking firecracker next to the trinity test. If you took AI out of the GDP growth of the US? It would have been even, less than 1% growth.
PianoAndFish@reddit
People absolutely invest in bubbles, with the aim of choosing the perfect moment to cash out just before it bursts. In these scenarios there are a handful of people who make an unholy mountain of cash, some will make modest profits or break even, most lose everything they have and then some, but they all believe they're going to be the ones who are smart enough to pick the right moment.
Gakuta@reddit
RTX 6090 will be out by then but it won't mean much if there's no supply (or there is supply but price is too high). Chinese GPUs will gap into the market and compete with the RTX 3000 series which should be enough for a large number of games, that is if they decide to sell abroad. HDD prices will not decrease, the same goes for SSDs. RAM will take several more years. If adoption rates for new phones are low, things will go back to how they were faster.
DDisired@reddit
You're asking to predict the future, which is obviously unknown.
But if we take historical data in account, technology generally gets cheaper over time. In the past 40 years that's been consistent. It's only in the past 5 years that it's been a little more volatiles.
But I do think it will eventually go down, because companies are motivated by greed, and if there's such a big demand that it lasts for decades, there will be an uptick of RAM production, it's just that it's slow and takes years to manifest.
vogel7@reddit
Things get cheaper when the market allows it. The only reason technology is still very expensive is because the market (or, to be more precise, the men controlling it) created a plan to transform these companies into titans that can make or break any economy.
If the US economy don't allow it, then it won't happen. The only way for these technologies to become cheaper again is the total destruction of this new AI business. And that would mean the collapse of the US economy. We all know that
I could have some hope if the RAM companies hadn't switch sides completely. But they did. So, unless it all goes south, they won't return to their usual business model, focusing on regular customers.
resetallthethings@reddit
except that's not true
the dot.com bubble bursting didn't collapse the US economy
stuff re-adjusted and recovery happened and then progress continued
The AI stuff can and will change and adjust without necessitating collapse/destruction
vogel7@reddit
The .com bubble was completely different. US economy didn't depend on that for income growth. Now it does. Tell me: what's of their economy without the big 7?
Desther@reddit
Ram doubled in price in 2006 then crashed by 2007. Electronics is cheaper than it used to be and hasnt kept up with inflation.
logitaunt@reddit
Historical data is missing two extremely important contexts that should be applied here
1) we're going to lose imports from Taiwan sooner than later. It's going to happen
2) demand caused by AI companies does not exist in historical data
No_Cover_2242@reddit
Prices go up fast very sticky going down.
raloobs@reddit
Nope
jakc1423@reddit
The prices of everything are on a ratchet once something goes up for any reason it never goes back down.
varky@reddit
No, but once the supply stabilizes, inflation will probably catch up.
Oh, regular people are still screwed, tho...
jhaluska@reddit
Inflation adjusted, sure.
Dpek1234@reddit
Eh
We were at a low point in prices too , but wih tech advances?
16gb kit will be the mew 8gb kit at some point
GoldfishDude@reddit
Tech always advances. My grandfather once roofed a house in exchange for a 1gb hard drive for his PC. He was so happy because "I'll never need to buy storage again"
GoldfishDude@reddit
We've seen GPU prices soar in the past, and they came back down to where they were beforehand (roughly)
oo7demonkiller@reddit
magic 8 ball says not likely.
deathdealer351@reddit
Gpus have never come down... What will happen is ddr6 will come and be 400.. Ddr4 was just a long cycle..
bailaowai@reddit
Yes, adjusted for inflation. The semiconductor space is notorious for boom-bust driven by under and oversupply cycles. You can bet there are hundreds (thousands) of companies investing in capacity right now. The challenge for semiconductor manufacturers is that it’s so complicated and takes so long to get capacity online. That is a recipe for oversupply after a period of extreme price swings. I lived through this in the 80s, in the 90s, in the 00s, and it will happen again in 30s.
aithosrds@reddit
2025? I want GPU prices from 2015~ before anyone ever thought it was acceptable for a GPU to cost over $2000 when that used to be the total cost for a killer high end gaming rig with a flagship (1080ti) GPU.
mttlmb11@reddit
It’s never going back
Dpek1234@reddit
Just like gpus?
Oh wait....
mttlmb11@reddit
Lmfaoooo a 4090 is 4k so wtf are you talking about? Gpus never went back to what they were before Covid.
resetallthethings@reddit
much of 23 and 24 had GPUs regularly available for under MSRP
there were chunks of time before Covid where GPU prices were much worse due to crypto
It's a weird market that is easily affected by people using GPUs or their components for highly profitable endeavors vs individual entertainment
Infamous_Charge2666@reddit
Used 3090TI is still selling for more than what i paid for it 3-4 years ago
Stingray88@reddit
Yeah 4090 FE sells for over a grand used more than I paid for mine new.
SwiftUnban@reddit
Before the price increases for ram I was seeing 3090s going for $600-700 CAD. They’ll probably drop back down again.
i_give_you_gum@reddit
Yeah, but that's because the prices have spiked again recently. In 2024 GPUs were cheap after the demand for crypto mining fell off.
Dpek1234@reddit
How much?
From a quick look on a local site i see 2 for sale at 900 and 1000 euro respectivly
Progenitor3@reddit
Yes? Show me the 80 class Nvidia GPU that's $700.
94358io4897453867345@reddit
gpus are still way over msrp ...
almbfsek@reddit
well we have a simulation of the whole thing already. covid was the first big supply chain problems we have encountered. if my memory serves me well GPU prices were 2x 3x and then came back to MSRP.
tryingtoescapereddit@reddit
RAM and SSD will probably go down once the Chinese companies scale and enter more markets. GPU’s probably not as they require bigger driver/software moat around that so Nvidia/AMD duopoly will continue and we likely won’t see prices going down.
FullHouse222@reddit
I for one am rooting for our new Chinese overlords to perfect their FABs so we can finally get some cheaper shit on the market again.
lolwatokay@reddit
If it does, do you think the global economy will be in such a shape that you have a job to take advantage of it? GPU pricing came down a fair bit from the crypto bubble but it never returned to pre-covid levels, it also never returned to pre-roughly-2015 levels either.
Moist-Highway-6787@reddit
Yes, they will go back down because you make more total money globally with high volume sales and AI paradigms will likely change and become more efficient over time. This initial mass training phase with likely too much brute force and lack of good training approaches is likely to be some of the least efficient uses of semi-conductors in human history... that and crypto. ;)
EiffelPower76@reddit
Yes, sure, and it could happen sooner than you think
Aggravating_Bids@reddit
Even when the bubble bursts, corporations won't revert the prices back. Its the new norm
WetAndLoose@reddit
Why do people say this when it’s already happened numerous times before? Supply and demand relies on both less supply and higher demand to keep prices higher. If demand suddenly drops, the prices will have to drop as well. If they were able to sell at this price previously, they would have already been selling at this price.
xRyozuo@reddit
I don’t get your last point. If some fabs suddenly can’t produce products, external demand remains the same, but production has lowered, increasing the cost for the consumer. Demand wouldn’t drop just because the producers ability lowers. It’s the high cost that lowers demand because people can’t afford it
mrblue6@reddit
Because so many companies nowadays are doing exactly that. PC components have dropped after price surges, but other stuff hasn’t so people just assume it’s the same with PC parts.
Dpek1234@reddit
Profit maximization ≠ highest possible price
Some may pay but its simply not nearly as much as if it was a lower price
Better to sell 100 ramkits with 15 dollar profit per then 1 with 800 euro profit per
Prices fall, volume increases
The 800 euro 2060 super is more then the price of a 5070 today
xRyozuo@reddit
That’s assuming material supply costs stay the same.
Idk if they do or what even these materials are, but they’re part of the equation too
Unreachable1@reddit
You should go retake Econ 101.
iceteka@reddit
I'm just betting on a flood of used hardware to lower the whole market
oxid111@reddit
I can imagine offers like two hotdogs with a RAM stick at Costco when this stupid AI bubble burst
stingeragent@reddit
Its all demand driven. If people stop buying the price will go down. If people keep buying at inflated prices it will remain the same.
dabocx@reddit
Just like they didn’t go back down after the gpu mining spike? Or the last two ram pricing spikes?
Infrah@reddit
Yeah, the last 2 RAM price fixing schemes
qtx@reddit
When the bubble bursts the prices will drop. Why? Because all those data centers now need to offload all their useless hardware and they won't charge (current) retail price. So that means the OEMs need to price match.
EiffelPower76@reddit
Do you think of GPUs ?
For GPUs, it's different, it's not a question of norm, it's a question of Moore's law that has ended. If you want a faster GPU, you now need to pay more, that's the way it is. And there is always the need for a faster GPU
For RAM and SSD, the need is more limited, 64 GB DDR5 is plenty, and a 4TB SSD is plenty too
Flutterpiewow@reddit
Everything you're saying is wrong
badboybilly42582@reddit
I hate to say it but I doubt it. Companies will jump at any chance to price gouge to increase their profits. Look at the price increases we experienced during the pandemic years. I haven't noticed anything come down in price since things have settled pandemic wise.
If anything, things just keep going up and up while companies report record profits..... Put two and two together........
Hrmerder@reddit
Yes... Believe it or not prices will go down. Anyone saying otherwise are the same people who claimed 3060 8gb selling for $700+ or 3080 10gb selling for $1500+ would never go down.
Reasonable_Sky9688@reddit
Itll be a slow process but I find it hard to believe other manufacturers wouldn't eventually come into the market
STL_bourbon@reddit
Once companies realize people will pay the higher price, there is no incentive for them to ever lower it again
OddOpportunity5031@reddit
My local shop (biggest in country) has live feed and every day I see a minute ago, 15 minutes ago, half an hour ago, some idiot bought 400+ euros RAM kit. Some even go with a bit premium ones, like 450-500. So it seems like theres a market for them. Why would they sell 5 ram kits for 100 each when they can sell one for 500.
marx42@reddit
No one can say for sure, but it’s worth remembering that prices did eventually recover from the COVID DRAM shortage. Once the bubble crashes or supply/demand even out, things /should/ come down significantly.
Accomplished_Code888@reddit
Eventually, the AI bubble will pop. It will either become a serious problem, or we will have a president who isnt a moron who puts serious limitations on ai. Either way best you can do right now is stop supporting the companies doing this and just maintain what you have
Screaming_Bimmer@reddit
Yall really need to take an Econ 101 class
Zyclunt@reddit
Only with heavy AI regulation maybe, that could halt the data theft on steroids, so no, not happening
Zyclunt@reddit
Only with heavy AI regulation maybe, so, not happening
miroaseparchetul@reddit
No.
6Turning-2Burning@reddit
Probably not exactly to the price but close to it. I never thought prices would return to somewhat normal during the covid explosion but they went down.
DebBoi@reddit
No, they'll just stop going up. This is the new price from now on.
CryptoDominus@reddit
Investors are starting to be tired of the AI segment not showing any returns. My predictions is that this will last another year or two until we start seeing prices plummit for ram and storage . Everything that goes up has to come down. Will it be like before? no of course not! a new price will be settled . I said this would happen and everyone called me crazy. ATM theres the average Joe that is still buying at this stupid prices because they have the money for it and then... theres the bussiness man that has no choice but to buy ram and storage or even full builds on laptops and desktops to keep their bussiness running. Will make no difference to the price if one or the other stops buying because the capacity of RAM has been bought not just by open AI. There's also the otherside of things...The materials to build things is also rising in price. My advise is simple...buy if you have an extreme need for it if you have a computer and its "ok" then invest in something else and then when you think about it in 1 to 2 years...most likely the prices are back to a more acceptable level.
OilNo632@reddit
Will ai prove to be way overrated? I think yes. In a few years 100%
Strict_Economics_477@reddit
Yes. Idiot
KenD1988@reddit
Things will go back down but they’ll still be higher than they were in early 2025. Companies know people are panic buying so it’s not like they expect people to just continue to buy at these high prices… stuff might sell right now but in the long run people aren’t going to keep paying these prices. That’s not good business. You want products that sell steadily over time. So they will go back down some but I don’t think they’ll ever be as cheap as they once were.
GheistHund374@reddit
Until we (community friendly guidelines) the unspeakably wealthy people who have chosen to destroy the ability to enjoy what little free time we have, nothing will change.
TomorrowCrafty1804@reddit
AI processes made a huge boost in demands for those components. Supply cannot yet meet these demands, so prices rises. To maximize profit, companies are going to increase production to meet demand. So they will have a higher supply. The industry will thus benefit from higher economies of scale, making them actually cheaper.
And no it's not a buble, look how much IA is used more more. It's because it's useful, and it's only gonna get better.
audaciousmonk@reddit
Only if the AI bubble pops
Molly_Matters@reddit
After we go through the AI crash that ruins the world economy, yeah. Bit after that.
t_Lancer@reddit
they will go down. but never back to what they were, even if adjusted for inflation.
Devilsgospel1@reddit
Nope.
alvarkresh@reddit
Depends how fast the AI bubble crashes.
0011100100111000@reddit
Eventually. Unfortunately when is hard to say. These things do happen, but the 2020's have particularly sucked for this.
unleashed831@reddit
Prices will eventually fall just due to the nature of companies trying to undercut their competitors over time. As long as competition is available then eventually prices will fall, but then again I could be wrong.
tekkn0@reddit
Probably no, cause everyone is already paying for it. These corporations see it as advantage to make more money, so no real reason to lower the prices.
BigTortoise@reddit
People won’t believe it until the day comes, but yes. You may even find a new brand or two enter the marketplace to do so.
TwoHeadedPanthr@reddit
It depends on a lot of factors, if the large scale datacenter deployment keeps up or is able to materialize as planned then probably not. Right now there is basically no supply for the consumer market in the future so vendors can charge whatever they want.
Even if the bubble pops in a reasonable amount of time, the goal is probably to shift as much computing power to cloud as possible and force you to subscribe to access it.
When to bubble pops you might get some good deals on used hardware, but it could take a long long time for things to become normal again.
vagabond139@reddit
LOL
This is the new normal.
They see that time and time again consumers will just keep paying them so they don't see a reason to lower the prices back down to "normal". Get used to this being the new normal unless some major consumer right laws get passed.
Ten years ago in 2016 a 70 series card would set you back ~$350. Back in 2006 a 70 series equivalent would cost you $300. Now they are $1000+ and still climbing.
Even AMD is doing this. The 9070 XT replaces the 7700 XT which costed $400. AMD slapped on a extra $300 and guess what, people ate it right up. They in fact loved it.
Their greed is endless and it will stop for nothing besides the law. They will squeeze every single last dollar possible out of us.
ProjectNines@reddit
I sincerely doubt it. Why?
Let's look at the shortage of cars on the pandemic, because of semiconductors. Here in Brazil, prices skyrocketed, and some prices even doubled from original value.
Now, semiconductor demand is stable, but car prices stays the same. Why? Car manufacturers realized their cars are still selling, and they are getting away with it.
revship@reddit
I think once the infrastructure ramps up to meet the current RAM demand, it will level off, then when (hopefully) the AI bubble bursts, it will plummet in price. Here's hoping.
RobotechRicky@reddit
My anecdote story: Take a look at milk and eggs. COVID brought inflation but prices did not return to normal, but still a lot less than during COVID.
rotinom@reddit
Short answer: no
Longer answer: nooooooooooooo
NegativeElderberry6@reddit
Prices rarely go down
hellobutno@reddit
gpu no, RAM probably not, SSD probably
logitaunt@reddit
Honestly, I think PC gaming is cooked in the long-term. It's going to go back to being a niche hobby for power users. The days of being able to casually buy a pre-built for $1,000 with decent capability is over.
Literally all all Xbox and Playstation have to do is not f*** themselves in the ass repeatedly, and yet they somehow keep doing that
Hsensei@reddit
No, prices go brrrrrr
Steamwells@reddit
Most comments on this post are missing whats really going on right now. This whole situation is by design anyway, and yes, AI demand is compounding and accelerating it as well. Network connections are getting better and better, and big evil corps want your data. This means that moving you away from free consumer choices, and onto their streamable proxy box gaming solutions where you pay a monthly sub……is gonna be what happens. The wheels were already set in motion, and the only way out is if gamers take a hard stance and resist……but they wont, as many commenters have correctly pointed out……people will sign up and wave access to their data to play the latest and greatest games.
tinysydneh@reddit
Unlikely that it will get back to exactly where it was before, but it will likely get much closer than a lot of people here think.
EnigmaSpore@reddit
This is the first time ive seen ram get this bad but it’s absolutely unsustainable without ai writing blank checks.
It will normalize after they stop writing blank checks
Firefrom@reddit
No they won't
Just see what happened to GPUs
pm_me_ur_side8008@reddit
No. Because you have morons who buy the matest and greatest becuas they feel like they need it
bow_down_whelp@reddit
I've a 5090 64 gig ram and a 9800x3d. Most games these days are kinda shit so I might peace out on the next upgrade cycle with the games that are shit and it's so expensive
Ok-Equipment-9966@reddit
i just sold my 5090 because im just gonna play on console. PS5 also has wolverine and other exclusives that pc wont get that are insanely well made games and perfectly optimized (no stutters)
Valkanith@reddit
Prices will go down but not to what they were pre mid 2025 summer, especially with people willing to pay for higher prices
midnitewarrior@reddit
Enthusiast PC builds are dead.
People aren't building PCs like they were last year because RAM, GPUs and storage are outrageously priced.
Motherboard makers aren't going to weather the storm. Same goes for case makers and cooling.
Prices may come down in 3 or 4 years, but the ecosystem will be gutted.
Flyingwithsheep@reddit
if a chinese tech company manages to break into the market with something competitive then yes. as things are more than likely it’s going to get worse
TeamNorbert@reddit
COVID showed them its possible to spike prices...they just needed a more long term drive to gouge customers...enter the AI bubble. Hardware has never been more expensive. This is by design...its not accidental, its not circumstantial...it is the next phase in leveraging the economy to shift wealth up & establish an economic "slave" class globally.
stonecats@reddit
by 2030 we may see commercial levels of 0.5nm fabrication,
from the 4.0nm fabrication most of the ddr5 stuff is made of,
so this may decide the fate of prices more than AI data centers
as the industry plows it's profit windfall into the next generation,
or will it stick to just making a lot more of the current ddr5 stuff.
DarkShade-EVO@reddit
Doubt it. Even if supply vs demand return back to normal. No company would want to be the first to lower prices. It might lower a bit in the future but won’t go as low as it used to be
cool_slowbro@reddit
2025 GPU pricing being the bookmark for people saddens me
pasofol@reddit
My wild guess probably going to take 2-3 years if lucky. Unless we get a weird investor dump crash of AI then it might be sooner maybe 6 months or 1 years.
Squirty---@reddit
I can see the prices going down probably late 2026 or early 2027, whenever these AI company's stop buying DDR5 Ram, and GPU's then the prices would go down and Data centers are getting built all over the United States and it sucks cause they got all the money to spend.
ShiftAfter4648@reddit
Yes.
When demand drops. Stop upgrading every year
Gigaguy777@reddit
Yeah they're guaranteed to with enough time, no amount of doomposting is going to change the fact that historically this stuff always goes down in price over time. RAM had two price fixing scandals already, one of which affected SSDs too, and neither of them stopped the price crashing for several years before the AI boom. GPUs had two separate crypto booms, one of them with the pandemic added on, and both times prices came down after, try to be patient and don't let the loud masses trick you into thinking everything is always bad forever.
DueBreadfruit2638@reddit
Unlikely. Deflation is rare.
gloriousbeardguy@reddit
Nope.
erasedisknow@reddit
If people buy parts at the inflated prices enough that the corpos still turn as much of a profit or more than they did when stuff was cheaper, then they have no incentive to reduce prices ever.
elonelon@reddit
No, after crypto, they will go with AI farm, so yeah...2030
dahk16@reddit
I've noticed newegg is constantly running "doorbuster " sales. Keep an eye on it. I got a 99 dollar psu for 59 last week. Sometimes theres good deals. Sometimes they suck. Depends on what you're looking for. However. Its another way to show the only way we'll buy this stuff is if its priced appropriately. Ive been in the used listing on marketplace, ebay, and Facebook groups. I'd rather give my money to some random shmuck than to some massive company.
CopiousAmountsofJizz@reddit
Yes the supply has to oversaturate at some point.
Buzzl8year@reddit
In my opinion not in the next 4 years. The prices will raise, NAND just starts doubling the prices, RAM also will take the next step, although the buys are going down. They aren't available and with Shortage the prices will raise. Fast Videocards with 16GB VRam will also raise about 15 to 20 percent.
The new RAM Factories will start production in mid 2027. What donyou think about the prices 'til then?
And afterrweards they will lower about 30%, so todays prices for NVMEs 2TB/4TB are not so high now, but they are increasing in some weeks.
Someone who needs a NVME SSD with bigger capacity should buy now or in the the days
Crucial (Micron) is no longer available, this will accelerate shortage!!
Serene_Peace@reddit
There are only a handful of chip makers in the world and they've already been caught price fixing, they'll do it again I'm sure.
Zimmster2020@reddit
Yes, but not as soon as we would like
DSJustice@reddit
https://imgur.com/a/aBqI9uz
FiveAlarmDogParty@reddit
The only thing we can realistically hope for is either the ai bubble fizzles out and opens up supply or advancements in RAM tech push capabilities further and the ai market slowly declines causing increased supply as tech improves. But as long as there is a virtually infinite demand gorilla in the room (ai) there will never be normalcy in the market. I am really hoping for quantum computing to become the future for AI and other supercomputers so that consumer grade tech like GPUs and RAM can become more affordable but I have no idea how any of this works so take what I say as utter nonsense
SuperCaptainMan@reddit
If their is adequate competition in the industry and a lack of demand at current prices then prices will come down. However with Micron exiting the consumer side it’s not boding well for competition. It might require newer companies to enter the space but that is very difficult. Long story short they probably won’t ever reach pre 2025 prices but they might come down a little unless they collude.
Early_Koala327@reddit
I'm still waiting for 2019 prices....
WeaklyStomach@reddit
No
AndrewH73333@reddit
Sure, because the tech will improve so a computer part with triple the price will eventually have four times the performance, which will mean we’re better off. Just think of it as a four year pause on improvement.
parmasazi@reddit
Early 2025 was basically the good old days now
parmasazi@reddit
yeah ill take a 5 year wait over eternal gpu hell
kashuntr188@reddit
This is like people complaining that the new Samsung S26 doesn't give many upgrades to the S25 which was barely an upgrade to the S24 all the way back to the S22.
But then people still buy out all the stock during the pre-sale. So whats the point of making a nice phone with nice upgrades if you can just do minimal stuff and it will still sell like hotcakes?
39leon@reddit
I’m so glad I built my pc last year
parmasazi@reddit
the real horror is saving up just for prices to spike again
altiuscitiusfortius@reddit
They will come down when demand is less than supply. In 5 years when more companies are making pc parts, AND the ai bubble pops, there will be tonnes of supply and little denand
And also companies charge what they think consumers will pay. After 5 years of consumers paying high prices they have little reason to lower them. Maybe a token amount to pretend they're reasonable and not gouging.
However, the thing to remember about inflation is prices never goes down. They just start going up slower. Inflation is irreversible.
So in 2030 the price relative prices in 2025 may be the same in 2025 dollars but it will be 5 years and 20% inflation on top of it.
travelsonic@reddit
IMO this mentality seems a little inappropriate here at least with regards to current prices because of how much of that demand (including demand for supply that doesn't yet exist) is not on consumers, but these tech companies and their also-yet-to-exist data centers.
altiuscitiusfortius@reddit
I mentioned how the increased demand right now is from the ai bubble.
But businesses, ALL businesses in the world, charge the highest amount they think people will pay. They dont simply take their costs and add 10% markup.
unicron_ate_my_home@reddit
Tbh, I do not see prices coming down. Tell me right now if a $2999 5090 became available you wouldn't buy it? Right? We are cooked lol.
Liesthroughisteeth@reddit
Hardly anything goes back to original pricing without a great deal of market forces/pressure at work.
Companies are highly resistant to giving up profit, because markets are changing, production costs perhaps lowering, supply chain improvements etc. The temptation to maintain pricing that will generate even greater profits may be just too much for corporations and their shareholders.
Also the reason for shitification of products and shrinkflation. At least in my years as an adult consumer starting in the mid 70s.
Gazerpazerop@reddit
Hard to say but between China now having domestic chip manufacturers that sell equivalent ram kits for $100-ish dollars and the AI bubble close to bursting Id be surprised if it doesn't
OppaiSlaps@reddit
Probably not, just like Covid prices for GPUs never went back down.
vankill44@reddit
Considering the memory manufacturers were losing money in 2025 due to over supply to the level of having to reduce production and stop foundry construction, the answer is no.
fade2black244@reddit
Even if it does, some consumer focused companies will go out of business. It'll look different on the other side.
Secret_Cow_5053@reddit
No
BigDippers@reddit
No. GPU prices never went down. Neither will RAM. They'll go down a bit but never to what they were.
Krradr@reddit
No.
TheAncientOnce@reddit
I heard somewhere that the Chinese manufacturers of ram and ssd have been making negative profits until only recently because of how saturated the market already was by the time they figured out how to produce it themselves, by major players like Samsung. So unless the tech becomes even cheaper, AND the ai demand slows down, no chance they'd lower their prices
joker_toker28@reddit
"How do we tell him"
Doubt especially after tech bro keeps this pnzi scheme going. .....
Military and bug business will get first picks, consumers are a after thought.
Naustis@reddit
It won't change in the next few years. Huge companies are ordering insane number if these products planned for a few years ahead so there is no reason to lower the price
nikoZ_@reddit
No. Consumers are their own worst enemies. Too many rich kids with more money than sense. Look at all the posts with 5090’s, 64gb plus ram and 8tb storage, even now. Just stupidity.
Sobeman@reddit
No
Parking_Chance_1905@reddit
Has anything ever gone back down to a previous price, other than temporarily, for promotions etc...
Wookieman222@reddit
Eventually they will come down, but it probably wont be all the way down. They will still probably keep it 30% higher cause rhey can.
michaelnoblemusic@reddit
Nope. Gas never went back to less than $1 a gallon, either. What we have now is the new normal and/or the new "On Sale!" price.
Awhispersecho1@reddit
No. This is just 1 stage of the great reset/agenda 2030. One of the stated goals is you will own nothing, everything will become a service that is borrowed, rented, and shared including homes, vehicles, and yes, computing. Computing will be cloud only, no personal hardware. There will be a digital ID, digital currency, 24/7 surveillance, no more privacy, no fossil fuels, no travel, on and on. Wake up and look around people. Everything that is going on is to usher in the reset and everything it calls for. It's all planned, scripted, and staged. We are being priced out of everything.
They have already stated that HD's are sold out through 2027, OEM's are starting to offer rental options for computers in place of purchasing and owning. And GPU makers are cutting production by tens of percent. This is coordinated from all sides.
No, the prices will never return and within 2 years you won't be able to buy or build a new PC.
Vashsinn@reddit
Why? If people are paying it, why would they bring it down?
Intrepid_Weekend_328@reddit
I think prices are continuing to rise.
Maxorus73@reddit
I doubt it. Even if prices go down, by the time they do we'll have at least several years of inflation
Alan_Reddit_M@reddit
No
a_rogue_planet@reddit
Yes.
You really need to be quite young, ignorant, or both, if you think what you see going on in a very short term is the trajectory of eternity.
Monster_Dumps_2026@reddit
SSDs? Yes i think we'll see those come down relativley quickly as more chinese factories spool up to take advantage of the increased prices
GPUs and Ram on the other hand are more specialized components and the demand for these are WAYYY ahead of the supply. And they arent things people can just start making in a new random factory.
Im sorry to say but PC gaming may be fucked. Devs need to switch back to optimizing games. Because the golden age of the PC gamers getting RIDIC spec hardware for reasonable prices are over
awdrifter@reddit
It will happen. As newer stuff comes out, the AI data centers will replace their hardware with new ones, the old hardware will get sold. We'll see some cheap used DDR5 and AI GPUs for sale. I'm sure come Chinese sellers will figure out a way to make them run games on a desktop PC, like how they repurposed mining GPUs for gaming.
21WAP@reddit
No because they see people buying it at these ludicrous prices and go "This is fine." and just keep it there.
naughty_fishy@reddit
Not to early 2025 prices….
Quick_Bet5660@reddit
Yes the prices will come down eventually. I remember 2-3 years ago GPU prices were consistently over MSRP. Production will increase and/or demand will stabilize.
CommandShot1398@reddit
No
vogel7@reddit
When OpenAI can't pay what they've promised, and Nvidia can't make the GPUs they've promised, and Oracle can't build the dataservers they've promised...
Then yes. It can go back, because companies will be so fucked up, they'll need to focus once again in end users. But it'll take some time. I don't believe we'll see anything better before 2028.
karlfeltlager@reddit
Depends if you mean inflation-adjusted or not.
Yes, inflation-adjusted sure, plain dollar value, no never.
jackishere@reddit
Not until 2028 buddy
LawfuI@reddit
Probably not.
They might go down a bit once demand goes over but we'll never see original prices.
RAM manufacturers themselves said they would rather sell at higher profit margins than try to supply crazy demand.
Electrical_Fix_7615@reddit
They all fix the price on these things when they get an excuse too but, it seems the goverments in on the scam now.
Infinitrium@reddit
Nope, never
Doppelkammertoaster@reddit
Hopefully not. They were already too high.
Deep-Procrastinor@reddit
No probably not
grump66@reddit
Its a supply/demand paradigm with caveats. The most important caveat in my opinion is: IF the diy computer pc building niche market survives these industry driven price gouging cycles. The most recent criminal price gouging has occurred because a new, industrial player has entered the market. If they don't relent, prices will never recover, and the diy computer building niche market will be subject to their price guidance. But, if that industrial price/volume leader falls below the amount needed that is currently setting the prices, we'll see prices fall.
Don't hold your breath.
Different-Ship449@reddit
The consumer adapts.
It sucks to have a once relatively affordable hobby ruined by doubling and trippling up of prices. The options are to wait longer in between purchases or to go for something else entirely (like many covid hobbies).
Most expect prices to get better at some point, but I don't expect a return based solely on inflation. The GPU is the most painful since it too is affected by RAM (GDDR) prices, and NVIDIA has announced that their solution will be to make less cards.
There also seems to be a slient agreement that the major players are going to set back their releases, so we are also seeing a progress slow down which is good for those that have already bought, but bad for those who were waiting for the next thing to come out but are instead greeted by the same old thing priced higher.
kai535@reddit
Ask the magic 8 ball of AI and see
webjunk1e@reddit
Yes. This is not the first time something like this has happened and it won't be the last. Everything eventually goes back to normal. It's just basic supply and demand. In fact, one of the reasons memory manufacturers have been so slow and hesitant to ramp production (fueling the lack of supply) is because they're afraid demand will drop off precipitously, leaving them hold the bag on excess supply they'll have to fire sale.
Once things became a little more certain (like is this a new normal in terms of demand or just a temporary spike?). Things will level out. Demand will either drop to pre-crisis levels or they'll eventually ramp up production to meet the new level of demand. Prices will normalize afterwards.
CautiousHashtag@reddit
lol no, we’re cooked. It will literally continue to only get worse.
Glad_Razzmatazz8004@reddit
Short answer is no.
Gseventeen@reddit
Just look to GPU pricing after the cryptomining explosion.
Will never return to pre-inflated prices.
Zestyclose_Paint3922@reddit
Nop
DameOClock@reddit
Whenever the price point starts impacting sales is when prices will revert. If people keep buying the companies have no incentive to ever lower the prices.
jimmayy5@reddit
I’d personally just go for it and bite the bullet. No one can predict the future but imo the bubble isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. They’re gonna start using it for the military and just had massive funding again from governments. I do think the prices are near the peak, Atkeast for ram. It’ll just be GPUs and SSD going mental next
Grytnik@reddit
No, because people will still pay those prices.
MechAegis@reddit
I mean GPU prices NEVER really returned back to normal after 2017 BTC craze followed closely with COVID in 2020-21.
I am going to say no. There will always be a buyer even at these absured prices.
MyRedditUsername-25@reddit
Eventually, yes. Computer component prices have fluctuated wildly for decades. The cause for the increase may be new, but the behavior is not.
Stingray88@reddit
RAM and SSDs? Absolutely they will. The price per GB/TB will eventually drop below where they were in early 2025.
GPUs? I highly doubt it.
DarkflameQZM@reddit
Only if the AI bubble bursts.
So people need to boycott it as best as they can and refuse to pay outrageous prices for tech.
peroleu@reddit
No.
ofteno@reddit
I don't think so, companies don't operate on common sense more like greed
Tsiah16@reddit
No
2006pontiacvibe@reddit
Of course it will, with an asterisk. The prices for memory before the surge were artificially low due to a production glut. The prices could still go back to "normal" and be above those prices, because those prices weren't the "normal" baseline. The current rise in demand is temporary, and there's already been signs of a selloff of AI stocks, add to this the expansion in production we'll see in 2-3 years, and prices will almost definitely go down significantly. If we are lucky, we might enter another glut, and prices will go back to the previous times. Even as a young person, this is not my first rodeo with price surges and shortages. It's happened before, and it will happen again. Once the products can be made for cheaper, they will be sold for cheaper. since the consumer PC market has elastic demand. This can be seen clearly through non-affected goods like motherboards having large demand drops. People are already buying less, with the exception of panic buying in the fear of price increases (as just happened with HDDs). If the prices stayed this high, or even relatively higher (if the supply had increased) they would be sitting on money. I get that people are angry over this, I am too. The surge in AI datacenters and the fear they're going to use this to make everyone use cloud computers are driving a lot of heated emotion into this topic, and these are topics people can be justifiably worried about. I'm just tired of ignoring basic economics to push a "this time it's different" narrative. If anyone with a background in economics can correct me on this, I'd like to hear it.
BoxOfBlades@reddit
People asked the same thing during the mining boom when normal people couldn't get a 30 series card, and look what happened. You can look forward to a $1000 6070 ti
Miamithrice69@reddit
No
Geronimo2633@reddit
If only I had 2-3 more months before SSD prices started going up my pc would now have 48gb ddr4 SSD . Now I'm stuck with 8GB waititing 3-5 years to upgrade. Although I'm glad I was at least able to get the rest of PC components for normal price before shit hit the fan 🤣funny cause I took a loan which I paid with 0%tax in few months and today I'm free, was the best buy decision I had made lmao
turtlebeachbum@reddit
And then China takes Taiwan.............
Sad-Base1195@reddit
Has gas gone down from all the way back in 2008?
Hateno1loveonlyafew@reddit
If the companies want to protect the consumer pc market, they have to go somewhere near the price tag we had before this ugly situation.
Morlu@reddit
Not going back down anytime soon.
grifftaur@reddit
I honestly think it will require a recession. If a large customer base can’t buy a company’s products, then I think companies will be forced to bring their prices down to entice people to buy or at least adjust to the times.
Jabba_the_Putt@reddit
I think so and even lower perhaps, these things take time and we've ridden through the ups and downs before.
I expect production to catch in in a year or two and prices to come way down. If there is money to be made you can believe production will adjust to satisfy that need, it just cant happen overnight
Plumpshady@reddit
The MSRP on all these items is still the same guys. You can get a 5090 for $1999 still. You just have to be the first one or else all the scalpers buy them out and sell them for upwards of $5000. SSDs, and ram are all still the same price directly from the manufacturer
Old_wood_Inspired@reddit
To be honest probably not seems every one has put their prices up 20% on food etc so they probably will drop when the AI bubble slows down. So I expect that to be the same here.
CanisMajoris85@reddit
No. Virtually guaranteed. Close? Sure. Like $100-125 for 32gb ddr5 perhaps, not the $70 we had.
Dpek1234@reddit
Tech advances
32gb will at some point be the new 16gb
CanisMajoris85@reddit
Prices flatline. HDD prices hadn’t improved for years, NVMe drives just didn’t have much room to go down either. If we’re talking like 10 years from now, sure. But by then we’ll be most of the way through DDR6 ram if not already moving on to DDR7 perhaps.
Prices were only so good because of oversupply.
94358io4897453867345@reddit
Already is
WetAndLoose@reddit
It tends to be whenever there is some weird market shake up and all the prices rise they will eventually come back down but will still settle higher than they were before.
dont-delete-me_308@reddit
It will after midterm
IWillAssFuckYou@reddit
No they will not. We will never see those low prices again because the memory manufacturers will never provide that kind of supply again. Also, AI demand will always exist and will always make up a good chunk of all memory production (though probably not much as now). More likely than not, the prices will eventually go down but will remain permanently elevated above 2025 prices.
thiccdaddyswitch@reddit
Same questions are asked and answered every single day now.
jWas@reddit
No. They will never come down again. Welcome to inflation with no competition
TrailByCornflakes@reddit
No they won’t
Msgt51902@reddit
The powers-that-be better pray Dems don't get control again, else it will be a repeat of the RAM cartel smack down from the late 90s.
BigWormsFather@reddit
I doubt it.
FrenchDipsBeDrippin@reddit
I would imagine after WWIII ends things might level out
KoldPurchase@reddit
See this from another thread:
https://www.tomsguide.com/computing/asus-says-memory-shortage-should-start-to-normalize-by-2027-but-nobody-wants-to-be-the-first-one-to-lower-prices
Aurelian96@reddit
I dont think so sadly
They're taking advantage of events like the recent AI bubble to exacerbate their products' prices. It wont go back but who knows really
80MonkeyMan@reddit
I stop buying them now and let’s see who can hold it longer besides, the AI boom going to pop up anyway.
Progenitor3@reddit
No shot. At best they will go down from quadruple+ to just double or so. That's when the supposed burst happens in 3-5 years.
ShineReaper@reddit
No. They will maybe fall a bit, but not down to pre-crisis levels. Companies like to keep prices as high as possible.
GPUs also never returned to prices they typically costed pre-Bitcoin mining rush.
64gbBumFunCannon@reddit
No. Even if they reduce down in 2 or 3 years, inflation is going to keep the prices higher than they were before.
Assuming AI crashes and we can afford to buy parts ever again.
VoidNinja62@reddit
Back when I got a 2TB NVME for $62 I figured that was at-cost.
So that was definitely a price low we won't see again.
I'm hoping to see one day
1T NVME - $50
2TB NVME - $100
32GB DDR4 - $100-125
32B DDR5 6000 $125-150
YeezyThoughtMe@reddit
Whenever the AI bubble will pop then all the Ram, GPU, SSD prices will return to normal.
obrazovanshchina@reddit
That depends entirely on what one thinks the chances are of the Butlerian Jihad on our lifetimes it seems to me.
dangderr@reddit
With inflation, no, prices never return back to any “pre” level.
In 5 years, inflation is gonna be like 15-20%.
Prices for commodities (RAM/SSD) may drop down to inflation adjusted levels. Or demand may permanently increase so it won’t even drop there.
But it’s fanciful to ever expect something to drop down to prices from multiple years ago simply because of inflation.
TroyMatthewJ@reddit
what about people who want to buy a pc until then mainly to play pc games.
llamapower13@reddit
Probably eventually.
That being said RAM was exceptionally cheap due to oversupply so we probably won’t see prices return their lows of the last few years
Merrick222@reddit
Depends if AI crashes.
Even if it crashes it will take time to return to normal.
Companies are sold out for 12-18 months already.
Meaning they presold their capacity. Big tech bought the future product in advance.
Western Digital is sold out of SSD and HDD for all of 2026.
When the stuff on the retail shelves sells out it’s gone.
Dwarf-Eater@reddit
Who knows, just work a few extra shifts or stick with am4 for another 5 years. Just adjust to the times and keep on going..
Good-Assignment5964@reddit
I think, they will but it will take some time. Right know the prices got so high because of the ai infrastructures, but sooner or later this ai bubble will blow up and the prices will be low again.
AnthonyRespice@reddit
You shouldn't worry about price, you should worry about availability. The real question is if the consumer market for computer parts is forever broken.
In the 80s, there were these things called 'dumb terminal's you would use to access a more powerful computer. They are going to overbuild data centers, online computer price is going to fall due to overcapacity, and they are going to offer it to broken consumer and businesses through dumb terminals with low ram and processing, then track everything you do and sell it to companies and the government.
We might just be at the peak of consumer computer electronics. It doesn't get better than this.
The future is going to suck, my friends.
rainbowroobear@reddit
did the price of everything that increased during COVID, drop back off? no, wholesale savings got turned into bumper profits and there's no reason to expect the same won't happen again
Nnyan@reddit
How about you ask if anyone can pick lottery numbers for you. No one can predict that.
G00chstain@reddit
Not soon no
Popular_Tomorrow_204@reddit
Ssd and ram probably since China is going to break the cartel and its pricing. So maybe 2030 the prices could be even cheaper than they were before.
Gpus are a bit of a blackbox though. China doesnt seem to have the same interest there. The 3 current players (yes, Intel does exist) do practically not give a shit. AMD is too incompetent to do anything and Intel is still behind, doesnt even have 1% marketshare and the Company doesnt really care compared to CPUs.
Awesomeguy215@reddit
definitely not. Am sure one time this bubble will pop but to go to how it was no but definitely lower than what it is now.
ElectroMagnetsYo@reddit
When the bubble pops and demand plummets that’ll be used as the excuse to scale back production and constrict supply, so believe it or not it’ll cause prices to rise even more.
perrance68@reddit
no
Alarmed-Lead-5904@reddit
Lo dudo hasta dentro de unos años
SignificantFood7009@reddit
Everyone says no. BUT the issue is when electronics becomes the rich person luxury. Your now entertaining only certain individuals. Most companies would rather sell billions of units at a lesser price then 500,000 units at a higher price.
It will take time to make things cheaper again and more resources need to be available to supply demand.
Realistically 2026 won't be the year for this. Next year things should be looking up.
Patience!
Dazzling_Plastic_598@reddit
And while you're at it, will food prices go back to what they were in 1998? Will children be more like they were in 2009? Will the ecological profile of the earth go back to what it was eleven years ago and will Paris Hilton go back to being Paris Hilton?
WHO KNOWS? Nobody. Get over it.
MonkeySkulls@reddit
I think we had a ram crisis before.. but I don't think those particular past events will indicate what will happen now in the future.
first we had covid. billionaires and corporations, and then followed by small mom and pop businesses, basically everyone... saw the prices go up. and then things like the supply chain issues they talked about and what not went away. and for the most part prices stayed up.
in the US we now tariffs affecting our prices. obviously what I'm about to say is speculation, but I feel it's plausible. I can see the evil billionaire cabal wanting prices to go up so they can make more profits. The answer to that, is tariffs.
The thing those two things have in common, is the prices go up which benefits the billionaires and corporations. but the key is that it spreads the blame away from them. covid made the prices go up. The tariffs made the prices go up.
and how the general public seems to work, we get mad about the increase. but then we accept it. it becomes the normal. Yes some blame goes on the corporations. but some of the blame is going on to outside forces.
either way, the results as the prices go up. The public's mad for a while. The price becomes normalized. The billionaires and corporations make more money. The people pay more money.
I have a hard time thinking that this exactly how the ramp crisis is going to go. Even when the price is can come back down to normal, they they won't. at least not in a meaningful way. sure they might come down 10%. but if they went up 50% prior to that, that's not a win. government and the billionaires and the corporations want you to think. that they reduce the inflation and price is by 10% at the end of the day.
hopefully I'm wrong. but I'll bet 4 sticks of RAM then I'm at least partially right 😥
Glittering_Crab_69@reddit
Nope. The Americans fucked us all. Again.
MildlyAmusedMars@reddit
GPUs aren’t that bad. But no I’m in the industry. Its gonna get worse across the board very soon CPUs are not safe from this either
glizzygobbler247@reddit
Amd have already hinted at further price hikes in spring, gpus are still on a buffer, i expect it to get ugly
greggm2000@reddit
Prices will return to normal levels (+ added inflation), though obviously the big question is when, and that’ll be when the AI bubble bursts, as it almost certainly will. So, maybe late this year but more likely sometime in 2027. You just need to be patient, and by the time the next gen stuff is out next year, it could very well be a great time to do a build. We’ve gotten through bad times with parts pricing before, we’ll get through this one too.
VoiceofTruth7@reddit
Yes, might just not be quality ram.
This is the thing about business, if there is a pocket a manufacturer is going to try and fill it.
This is the whole point behind the xx60 series cards.
Prices will stabilize as they are but manufacturers will push lower quality goods into the old price point knowing they can charge more for a “premium” product.
Blue-150@reddit
Anyone saying they know is only confidently guessing. I predict that they will, with normal inflation, return to normal-ish pricing
Celcius_87@reddit
I hope so but it may be years before then...
RedditJunkie-25@reddit
Just save up slowly im doing that and will purchase a 5090 this summer and sell my 5080. I just bought a ram kit for $250 bundle 32 gb found a $750 64 gb kit and sold thr 32 gb kit for $550. Just buy and sell up and you can get the gear you want
starystarejstarego@reddit
No.
DrunKenKangarooo@reddit
I don’t think so. They will drop prices surely, because wage prices we have right now aren’t sustainable in the long term, but it won’t be the same prices as before all of this madness.
sitefall@reddit
Prices never just come on down once supple increases or demand decreases. It is always gradual. Assuming some bubble pops, new foundry opens, or for whatever reason, the bubble pops: companies will just discount it a little, from it's already inflated price... and people will buy it. "THIS IS A GOOD DEAL IN THIS ECONOMY"
Once the warehouses start filling up they will discount it some more, but just a little... and people will buy it. Repeat this until it's at a reasonable price again....
except no. Now there is uncertainty, they need to charge you more because they don't know if another bubble is going to happen tomorrow. If that happens they will have lost money selling their current stock to you for such a low price! So it's prices over what it was in early 2025. Then consider inflation -> now it costs even more. Then add $50 more or so because f**k you I'm Micron. There is basically no chance prices are 2025 level for the next decade, and no chance of them coming back down to "reasonable" for at least the next 2 years.
jdmillar86@reddit
I doubt the prices will ever return to prior levels in an absolute sense, but they may not keep pace with overall inflation, which is sort of kind of similar.
Current_Finding_4066@reddit
Just a matter of time
-l0Lz-@reddit
No they won't. They will be bigger to follow inflation plus above it.
They will be pushing cloud gaming too.
Werwolf1407@reddit
With the wars late '28.
Anyusername7294@reddit
Yes
Stupyyy@reddit
No.
MarkDecal@reddit
At some point demand will fall or production will increase.
parkour267@reddit
Like GPU will never be the same cuz the capitalists know they can get away with it.
Wonderful-Lack3846@reddit
No
We will have to adapt to the 'new normal'
YetanotherGrimpak@reddit
Nope. Not seeing it happen.
Maybe close, but not the same.
Empyre47AT@reddit
Nope.
Mago515@reddit
It depends? I mean if nothing changes, probably not through 2030 atleast. If the ai tech bubble pops this year and suddenly all the contracts on memory go away, we could see a sharp decline in prices across the board.