- DDR4 RAM is getting more expensive
- AI is partly driving that increase in pricing, but it's also a natural process
- Price increases are likely to continue
The PC components market has taken something of a twist as slower last-gen DDR4 memory is now a good deal more expensive than cutting-edge DDR5 RAM - or at least that's broadly true, and you can blame AI for this, in a roundabout way.
Tom's Hardware picked up a paywalled DigiTimes report that breaks down pricing in the supply chain for PC RAM sticks. Just bear in mind this is a picture for the entire RAM market (business and consumer), and I'll come back to why that's important shortly.
DigiTimes observes that memory pricing (for manufacturers of RAM) surged in Q2 of 2025 and has now stabilized at these high levels, but DDR4 is still creeping up. As of August, we're told the price of 16GB of DDR4 memory increased by 7% to $9.17 per chip, whereas DDR5 went the other way, dropping 3% to $5.99 for each chip.
In short, DDR4 kits are now 50% pricier than DDR5 (for the overall memory market). So, why is this happening? As mentioned at the outset, the problem is that AI is all the rage, and so the big memory makers - Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron - are switching to produce more DDR5 and HBM (high-bandwidth memory) for AI accelerators, as they're big profit spinners.
The need for that production is eating away at the capacity of assembly lines for DDR4, and so there's less in the way of those modules being produced, which is affecting supply negatively, and therefore exerting upward pressure on pricing.
Don't expect this to change in Q4, either, as according to the DigiTimes report, DDR4 pricing is likely to go a little higher still in the final quarter of this year.
Analysis: Out with the old, inevitably…
It's worth noting that old tech has production wound down naturally over time, of course, as it becomes more and more irrelevant, and this is the case with DDR4 now, just as it was with older RAM standards before it. As everyone gets new PCs with DDR5 support - and the price of that contemporary memory standard comes down - and PC builders stop using DDR4, it heads for the door. It's just that in this case, the AI market appears to be hastening this departure.
Right now, though, while prices on some DDR4 kits clearly have spiked, it's not the case that all price tags are going through the roof for DDR4. In fact, looking at 32GB RAM kits (a pair of 16GB modules, which is the best way to configure that memory loadout), there's not much in it for the pricing of DDR5 and DDR4 kits at the low-end, and the latter still has the slightly cheaper options. (Based on the current state of play at Newegg in the US, but there's likely to be variation, of course, with different retailers, and in other regions.)
So, this doesn't mean all DDR4 RAM is now much more expensive, but that this is broadly true across the whole market (including the enterprise world, not just consumer retail sites, as I touched upon earlier). There are still exceptions to this rule, and you can see that clearly enough looking at online pricing (at typical big consumer-facing retailers).
Still, with trends heading the way they are - and DDR4 inescapably on its way out - if you do want an affordable DDR4 RAM upgrade for an existing PC, it's probably a good idea to buy now rather than waiting, and grab one of those lower-priced kits still kicking around. We've also picked out the best DDR5 RAM for those on the hunt for that, including budget-friendly options as the current-gen standard gets cheaper and cheaper.
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