• Qualcomm introduces High Bandwidth Compute (HBC) memory architecture
• It leverages a hybrid design stacking LPDDR memory in a 3D space, leveraging multiple layers to essentially replace what the current generation of High Bandwidth Memory (HBM4) does
• The move, which makes use of Qualcomm's extensive experience with LPDDR, is not only power-efficient but also offers massive amounts of bandwidth and up to 768GB of stacked memory for AI workloads

Qualcomm is reigniting its Data Center ambitions, building on its expertise as a chip designer that excels in the low-power compute segment by focusing on an entirely new architecture: High Bandwidth Compute (HPC).

The solution is a hybrid take on existing LPDDR memory that Qualcomm has successfully stacked in 3D vertical space, not unlike the industry-standard High Bandwidth Memory (HBM) and its latest iteration, HBM4, while delivering significant power savings along the way.

The move is possible by Qualcomm offering a near-memory compute architecture that combines memory with a compute-based die, with the former stacked vertically on top of the latter, effectively enabling up to 133 TB/s.

An AI memory offering for the future?

While the current industry standard, HBM4, is already widely used, Qualcomm's promised offering is expected to appear by mid-2027 as part of its next-generation AI inference accelerator, the AI250.

HBC Gen 1 offers a theoretical 768GB of capacity that HBM4 struggles to match, and Qualcomm's published 133TB/s bandwidth is an achievement, given that modern HBM4 solutions offer approximately 3.3TB/s per stack at the higher end.

Some of these bandwidth claims, however, might be a bit of an unfair comparison, as while HBM4 delivers raw bandwidth, Qualcomm's solution (and its theoretical speeds) is possibly in play only because it performs much of the compute on-die, making for an apples-to-oranges comparison in some ways.

Qualcomm, however, scores important wins with an AI industry increasingly obsessed with power, or rather, the lack of it, to continue many of their planned buildouts by touting its efficiency wins where it claims anywhere between 6x bandwidth per watt versus HBM for larger batch sizes and as much as 200x efficiency gains when it comes to a mix of small and large inference batches, such as coding assistants.

Qualcomm's partner list includes Meta and Microsoft, with the former's multi-generational agreement to use Qualcomm’s processors for AI being highlighted as an important win. Microsoft's CEO, Satya Nadela, reassured investors by detailing the software giant's partnership with the chip designer across the PC, local AI, and data center segments.

Given that Microsoft is increasingly looking to address the environmental footprint of its AI data center rollout, with its CEO already reassuring concerned parties and communities that the Redmond-based tech giant aims to be mindful of the water and power footprints of both currently planned and future data centers, this makes efficiency an even more important theme of late.

Qualcomm's solution to 'eliminate the HBM tax,' however, does not exist in a void; Competing solutions such as High Bandwidth Flash, backed by Samsung, SanDisk and SK Hynix, are also shaping up as potential competitors that focus on a low-write, high-read situation that most AI inference workloads tend to be.

Perhaps more importantly, Qualcomm's solution and the impressive numbers it offers do not have any third-party's independent test results yet that could verify its efficiency claims, even as Microsoft's vote of confidence is seen as an important one for one of the most important players in the mobile SoC business as it gears up to take a share of a growing, but increasingly competitive datacenter pie in the coming decade.

• A lawsuit claims RAM suppliers colluded to fix memory prices
• It says they did this by shifting manufacturing to higher-priced HBM
• But I doubt the lawsuit will make memory cheaper for consumers

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ll probably know that prices of PC components are out of control right now. Costs of computer memory are some of the worst affected, making upgrading your PC next to impossible for all but the five richest kings of Europe.

Now, it seems that some people feel there is something deeply fishy about all these price rises. Indeed, a recently filed lawsuit has alleged that the globe’s leading RAM producers — Samsung, SK Hynix and Micron — colluded to deliberately constrain memory supply and push prices up as a result.

According to the filing (via AppleInsider), the three named companies shifted manufacturing capacity away from DRAM modules such as DDR3 and DDR4 — that is, the type of memory used in phones, computers, tablets and other consumer devices — towards HBM, which is used in artificial intelligence (AI) data centers and sells for a higher price. With lower supply, memory prices rose accordingly.

On the face of it, that's not illegal — companies are allowed to make strategic decisions to maximize profit if they wish. But what the lawsuit claims is that this move was a concerted, coordinated decision between the three firms, rather than each one separately responding to market conditions.

Because they have a stranglehold on the RAM market (up to 89% of DRAM market share and 100% of HBM market share, according to Counterpoint Research), the allegations of coordination — if proven — could amount to illegal behavior, potentially including price fixing.

Will this end the RAMpocalypse?

If you’re reading this and are desperate for some good news among all the PC component doom and gloom, you might be hoping that a favorable judgment in this lawsuit would open the door to lower memory prices and go some way towards getting costs back to reasonable levels.

Unfortunately, that outcome is unlikely. The lawsuit has not proven anything yet, and showing beyond doubt that Samsung, SK Hynix and Micron colluded to screw over consumers — rather than merely making independent decisions in response to the same crisis — will probably be exceedingly difficult to prove.

But even if the plaintiffs succeed in doing that, the lawsuit is likely to be a long, drawn-out process, with many appeals and potential reversals. And even then, it won’t change the reality that right now, prices are through the roof. We’re not getting any immediate relief, no matter what happens in the courtroom.

That skeptical view is widely reflected on social media. On Reddit, for example, user HorsePockets pointed out that HBM memory “pays way more than conventional DRAM and allows [the defendants] to transition away from being purely cyclical stocks.” Ramping up HBM production simply makes sense from a business perspective, they argued.

EloquentPinguin, meanwhile, put it this way: “If they truly think that DDR3 was wound down in favor of HBM, and not because it’s an almost 20-year-old technology with two well-established successive generations, then they might just be grasping [at] straws.”

That illustrates just how difficult this case could be to prove — and how little impact it might have on the ongoing RAM crisis. But the reality is that prices are completely out of control right now, whether or not memory manufacturers colluded to ensure that happened. Punishing the alleged culprits might feel cathartic, but it’s not going to put prices right any time soon. And that’s the real injustice here.

• Analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has added to the prevailing pessimism around the RAM crisis
• Of RAM destined for consumer electronics in 2026, an "estimated 15 – 20% is expected to shift to data centers in 2027, and that share could grow"
• Apple is trying to maneuver to use a big Chinese chip maker to shore up its RAM supply lines, we're told

Another negative sentiment has been aired about the RAM crisis, as a prominent leaker and analyst has underlined that data centers will consume even more consumer memory supply next year – and that Apple may look to China for help shoring up its RAM stocks.

Wccftech flagged that Ming-Chi Kuo posted on X, noting: "Of the memory capacity allocated to consumer electronics in 2026, an estimated 15 – 20% is expected to shift to data centers in 2027, and that share could grow."

This is part of a picture that Kuo paints, where Apple is not just worried about the cost of memory but, more specifically, the lack of memory supply, with LPDDR5 (low-power RAM for mobiles and laptops) dwindling substantially.

Kuo notes that this is the "real reason Apple is lobbying the White House to keep CXMT off the Entity List", meaning that in order to keep enough supply flowing, Tim Cook is trying to persuade the US government to allow Apple to use RAM made by the Chinese chip manufacturing giant CXMT.

In short, this isn't about pricing as such, but about "managing DRAM supply risk" in light of whatever future shipment targets Apple has for its products, whether Macs, iPhones, iPads, or anything else.

Analysis: calling the cavalry?

At the very start of the year, we were hearing about how much RAM supply data centers (and AI therein) are set to gobble up in 2026, and things aren't going to get any better for the consumer in 2027. Not if Kuo is right and something like 20% (or more) of the memory supply for consumer electronics is redirected to data centers next year. It's a worrying thought indeed, and represents an unwelcome notion of ever-increasing prices for anything that has memory inside it, from phones to PCs.

Apple is apparently trying to act to fend off the worst of the impact on its products, following its recent price hikes, and interestingly Kuo thinks that Tim Cook is very much the CEO for the job, and that this isn't a task that John Ternus, who will take the reins of Apple later this year, should be charged with.

Kuo observes: "Tim Cook is one of the few tech leaders who can still navigate both Washington and Beijing, so this is better handled before he steps down as CEO. Even if the effort goes nowhere, the media coverage can still leave the market with the impression that Apple tried but was constrained by U.S. policy. That may help ease frustration over price hikes and longer delivery times."

As for Apple's would-be Chinese chip-making savior, others have cautioned against relying on RAM from China to ease the current memory crisis. While Kuo points out that "CXMT states in its IPO prospectus that its capacity is far below domestic demand", meaning there's available supply to pipe through to the likes of Apple or other Western tech giants, that may not be the case in the future.

And as the VP of a firm that makes SSD controllers recently made clear, the Chinese government has a considerable amount of leverage over CXMT and other major memory chip makers in the country – and if the RAM crisis worsens, there may not be so much supply to be sold abroad (even if that'd be more profitable for the companies involved).

It's a complicated situation to navigate, of course, but as Kuo also touches on, this could be about Apple wanting to be seen to do something. Cook may fully realize that CXMT may not be the knight in shining armor coming to Apple's rescue, but even if it isn't, at least he's been seen making efforts to call for the cavalry.

Ultimately, with all the bleak predictions around of late – including Lenovo's assertion that RAM prices are 'never' coming back down and we're in a world of a 'new normal' for memory costs – it's difficult to believe that Apple has much room to maneuver in keeping a firm lid on the MSRPs of its Macs or other products going forward.

• Lenovo has said that RAM prices will likely "never" fall back to pre-crisis levels
• The company also predicted a "new normal" for memory pricing from 2030 onwards
• Microsoft expects the cost of memory to double in just over a year

If you were hoping we might get to the weekend without any more bad news on the RAM front, that hope is about to be crushed courtesy of Lenovo and Microsoft — and there's a side serving of blame for Apple, too.

First off, as German tech site ComputerBase reports (via Wccftech), over at ISC 2026 — the high-performance computing, AI, and quantum conference in Germany — Lenovo said that RAM prices will likely "never" fall back to the pre-crisis levels of a year ago, even after the bolstering of chip production output that's coming (from 2028 onwards).

Lenovo seemingly said "never," accompanied by some on-stage laughter, according to ComputerBase, and the tech site (bearing in mind translation nuances) clarifies that this is really referring to the next five years (or maybe a bit more) for the RAM industry, and not an 'absolute' future.

However, the report then goes on to mention that Lenovo sees a "new normal" from 2030 onwards with significantly higher prices than pre-crisis levels — even given increased production.

On top of that, Microsoft just announced hefty price increases for Xbox consoles driven by the RAM crisis. The firm stated, "Unfortunately, console storage and memory prices have increased by more than 2.5x, and we expect another doubling by the fall of 2027."

Ouch. Microsoft underlined that the memory price hikes are especially painful for console makers, as these devices are typically sold at a (slight) loss, as the revenue is made up in game sales (and subscriptions).

Lastly, Wccftech also spotted that Micron has fired some flak at Apple, although the memory chip maker didn't name Tim Cook's firm specifically, but it's clear enough where the shot was aimed. As Rolfe Winkler, who reports for the Wall Street Journal, explains in a post on X: "Tim Cook says the memory guys are at fault for Apple raising prices. A Micron executive I interviewed last night pointed the finger right back."

Sumit Sadana, who is Chief Business Officer at Micron, informed Winkler, "We told a couple of the customers who were being very aggressive with pricing at that time that this is not constructive." The argument here might be that partners (presumably Apple) pressing Micron on the price of their RAM hurt Micron's bottom line and ability to invest in more production capacity.

Analysis: double, double toil and trouble

Although it's difficult to weigh up the exact meaning of Lenovo's comments on the RAM crisis at ISC, it's clear enough that the PC giant believes the future looks very rocky. At best, pricing looks like it's in trouble until the early 2030s, and there's likely to be a 'new normal' coming into play here for that next decade.

While there appears to be some joking around prices "never" coming back down to the levels they were before the crisis, I think there's a fair chance that they actually won't. When the cost of a product goes up to such an extent as we've seen with RAM (and storage), it's feasible that it won't ever quite normalize. Okay, so maybe we'll see some curveballs that throw things out of whack — like the AI bubble bursting, or at least deflating a good deal — but I'm increasingly doubtful about the prospect of any relief.

Microsoft predicting a further doubling of memory pricing in not much more than a year is a painful prediction to hear, too.

I'm not going to dive full-tilt into the gloom here, though, because as I've said before, at least in the consumer space, RAM prices can only go so high before a ceiling is hit, which means most people will simply refuse to pay the asking prices. And thankfully, there have also been a couple of glimmers of hope this week: Asus predicted that its products won't be hiked by as much in the second half of 2026 (but they'll still go up), and there was a rumor aired that memory chip giant SK Hynix may switch production away from AI-targeted RAM (HBM) to conventional RAM sticks, at least to an extent.

I wouldn't get swept away with any optimism just yet, though, because for now, as these latest developments in the memory crisis underline, the pervading sentiment around the future remains largely negative.

• As AI data centers consume an ever-increasing amount of RAM chips, researchers are looking for cheaper, more scalable alternatives
• imec research seen by many to be the answer, even as engineering challenges continue to exist
• Two published studies using ferroelectric materials show capacitors essentially able to replicate modern DRAM functionality

It is no secret that AI has affected much of the world, with many welcoming the advent of a "smart" digital assistant, with others using it to speed up the more mundane tasks that previously required oversight.

On the flip side of the equation, some finding their jobs redundant, others being forced to upskill or pivot to different industries just to eke out a living in 2026.

There is however, one area which has been significantly impacted where the effect might have been understated so far: the PC hardware industry.

DRAM for data centers first

The reason the PC hardware industry (and, to a lesser degree, the smartphone and game console industries), or any industry that uses fast RAM and NAND flash for its core functionality, is affected is overwhelming demand in data centers.

With billions of dollars in buildouts and procurement budgets, the average consumer is unlikely to compete for memory with a data center being built by hyperscalers and with good reason: there is simply too much money at stake here.

The problem for data centers, however, is a different one: despite consuming nearly 70% of all memory produced in 2026, resulting in the worst memory supply crunch in the last 15 years, things are projected to only get worse, even as demand continues to grow unabated.

With memory giant Micron telling consumers to wait till 2028 before they can expect any relief in their segment, and SSDs heading down the same path, thanks to a similar situation when it comes to high-density NAND flash-based storage, AI data centers are also looking for a memory breakthrough that could allow for cheaper, faster memory in the near future to better handle their needs.

European chip research lab imec seems to be working on an answer, however. At the 2026 IEEE/JSAP symposium on VLSI Technology & Circuits, the event showcased two major advances that could enable new ferroelectric memory to become mainstream over the next decade, as it attempts to address the AI-centric memory shortage with a solution that better caters to data center consumers.

At the heart of the current breakthroughs is a ferroelectric capacitor that operates at low voltage, enabling a large number of write cycles and holding charge well, making it a potentially viable replacement for traditional DRAM-based memory.

The second is a transistor that they have managed to stack vertically, enabling a denser NAND-flash-style storage design while adding a back-gate modification to fix its memory-erasure issues.

FeRAM is not a new concept; first conceived in 1952, it holds massive promise, even as most researchers concur. It had, until recently, limited interest, but a world spending billions on AI data centers, with memory and storage increasingly scarce resources, has brought it back to the forefront, even if most of its gains still keep it limited to lab conditions.

“This work shows how imec’s multidisciplinary expertise, from materials science to advanced 3D integration, enables us to tackle some of the most pressing challenges in memory technology," noted program director at imec, Maarten Rosmeulen. "We are exploring multiple paths toward the memory solutions that will be required to sustain the rapid growth of AI and data-intensive applications."

It must be noted that imec does not operate in a vacuum; It shares its research with hundreds of industry partners, including chip designer Nvidia, photolithography systems manufacturer ASML, and fab giant TSMC.

Other industrial partners include Intel, Samsung, Micron, Qualcomm, AMD, and Apple, indicating that its research could eventually be integrated into future memory offerings by multiple interested entities, including other hyperscalers.

Should imec's research solve the modern datacenter conundrum by offering a cheaper, denser memory module using different materials, it could very well spark a new AI-centric war for high-end storage and memory.

But for now, it seems to require a considerable amount of time before it is production-ready, with imec admitting it was "addressing remaining challenges" while reminding interested parties that the entire breakthrough was still a proof of concept and still in the research stage.

• Price hikes on Asus products will be much reduced in the second half of 2026
• This is over in Taiwan, but should be reflected to an extent globally
• There's also a report that SK Hynix, a big memory chip maker, is set to slow AI memory production in favor of conventional RAM

There's been a pretty relentless string of bad news with the RAM crisis of late, but we're now hearing some more positive nuggets for a change (though temper your optimism, as this is all relative).

Firstly, VideoCardz spotted that the Economic Daily News in Taiwan published a report in which the general manager of Asus, Liao Yi-hsiang, noted that as of May 2026, the price hikes on some Asus products in that country amounted to nearly 30% (compared to Q4 of 2025).

The executive then confirmed that Asus would be raising prices further in the second half of 2026 due to the component crisis, but that the increase should only be a single-digit affair. Under 10% is quite a drop compared to knocking on the door of 30%, of course.

Liao said that price rises would be milder because the cost of memory and storage had recently decreased, and also that consumers are increasingly unlikely to buy if more large hikes are heaped onto Asus products. Especially given that there was quite a lot of buying activity early in 2026, as consumers in Taiwan acted earlier than they would have otherwise, with a view to securing purchases before heftier price increases made themselves felt.

The other nugget of positivity is that, as Trading View informs us, there have been some interesting rumblings about SK Hynix, one of the big three memory chip makers (alongside Micron and Samsung).

There are reports that "SK Hynix may slow the expansion of AI memory-chip production and increase its focus on conventional DRAM products."

This apparent shift away from making HBM (the mentioned AI memory) to conventional RAM modules (the ones in consumer electronics) unsettled investors, and led to shares in SK Hynix tumbling over 12%. (Samsung followed suit with a 12% drop, and a wider tech share slide was witnessed, particularly for companies linked to the world of AI.)

What's bad news for investors is good news for consumers though; if this report is on the money, SK Hynix reallocating assembly lines to produce more DDR5 RAM could be the beginning of the end of the memory crisis.

Analysis: is the AI bubble ready to pop? I doubt it…

You could leap to some big conclusions here, and the rumor around SK Hynix is a potential move that could have a significant impact for consumers. With some folks talking about the end of the 'AI bubble' in recent times — which feels like hopeful chatter indeed — it could be read as another indicator in that respect, too. However, it's way too early to make that kind of call (and I don't personally think we're seeing that by any means).

What we don't know is the extent of the apparent shift away from HBM, and anyway, the move could partly be about DRAM being so pricey now that it represents a tempting enough diversification in terms of SK Hynix's overall memory strategy (a theory raised in some quarters).

We should also remember that the chairman of SK Group (the parent company of SK Hynix), Chey Tae-won, has previously predicted that the RAM shortage may not be over until 2030 (a forecast more recently echoed by Nvidia's CEO). So, as noted, temper any optimism, but this is at least a positive sign from the big chip maker, as is the price prediction from Asus.

Regarding Asus, again there's a caveat — namely that it's an analysis for the Taiwanese market only. But if price rises in H2 2026 are only (roughly) a third of what they effectively were in the first half of the year, that'll surely be reflected to some extent globally. Also, it's very true that consumers everywhere will refuse to buy if pricing goes higher too quickly, which is something I've pointed out a few times before. This isn't something unique to Taiwan.

Finally, it's also worth noting that earlier this month, we heard some more positive news on the RAM crisis from David McAfee, AMD's VP and general manager of Ryzen CPU and Radeon GPUs.

As PC Gamer reported, McAfee said: "There is an enormous amount of capacity that is being built by the memory manufacturers to bring more production online, and that more production online is going to focus on DDR, LPDDR, HBM, like the newer memory technologies."

He added: "I don't expect a lot of DDR4 production to come back into the world, but those newer memory technologies, a significant amount of capacity is coming online. I think we'll start to see by the end of next year and into 2028 that that ramp really starts to take hold, and then it's just a factor of the forces of supply and demand, and how that affects memory prices."

OK, so this is really just a reminder of what we've already been told, but it's still worth bearing in mind that the expectation for some remains a considerable easing of the crisis by 2028.

• A memory expert has predicted big RAM price hikes this year
• They say we could see hikes of 40% to 50% in Q3, and further 30% to 40% rises in Q4
• They predict that 2027 is also going to be painful, with a 40% to 45% increase year-on-year

There's more fuel to the fire for the theory that the RAM crisis is going to get worse, and a lot worse going by this latest forecast — though I'd take it with some seasoning.

Wccftech spotted that Jukan on X highlighted a report from Jefferies, an investment banking firm that has been talking to an analyst in the world of memory who made these bleak predictions.

They include the expectation that memory pricing will increase in a big way as 2026 rolls onwards — we're talking a 40% to 50% hike in Q3 (compared to this quarter) and a further 30% to 40% rise in the last quarter of 2026.

Price hikes are "likely" to continue through 2027, the expert believes, with potentially a 40% to 45% increase year-on-year, which would leave RAM prices at a staggering level come the close of next year.

Only then will we get an easing of pricing in 2028, with memory prices potentially falling by up to 20% due to a combination of slowing demand and more production capacity coming online (with investment in the latter that's underway now finally coming to fruition).

Elsewhere on X, P Equity Research shares more of the Jefferies report, which underlines how cloud giants are apparently locking down 50% of total memory production (potentially rising to 70%), signing long-term contracts requiring massive (40%) prepayments. Due to this, consumer electronics makers are facing "severe pressure" and even leaner memory supply going into next year.

Analysis: running the doom gauntlet

This is the most doom-laden RAM industry prediction I've seen in some time, and there have been a few of those recently. In the order of 40% and then 30% price increases (at minimum) over the next two quarters would be a shocker — bordering on unthinkable.

Other forecasts are calling price rises, too, but not to this extent. As Wccftech points out, another investment research firm, Aletheia Capital, predicts rises of 30% and perhaps up to 15% in Q3 and Q4 respectively, and Jukan on X points to a current consensus of 20% then 30% hikes respectively.

Granted, that doesn't look good either, but the view of the expert that Jefferies spoke to feels rather alarmist in comparison. I've said it before, and I'll say it again: in the consumer world, there's only so much price hiking that people will stand for before they just close their wallets and buying activity starts drying up to a large extent (save for absolutely essential purchases). How much higher can RAM prices go, frankly, before we see those kinds of hardened consumer attitudes coming into play? Not a lot higher, I'd argue.

Although granted, it seems like the talk of price hikes easing off sooner rather than later is now being completely drowned out by the RAM pessimists. The expert who spoke to Jefferies also observes that Chinese memory chip makers won't come to the rescue to help correct RAM supply outside of Asia in the foreseeable future (meaning this year or next) either, a view we've heard echoed elsewhere, and one that (sadly) makes sense.

Meanwhile, following fallbacks to DDR3 memory in the past, we're also seeing that even ancient DDR2 RAM is having a resurgence in popularity in some scenarios, with prices for that memory shooting up as a result according to TrendForce.

As The Verge reports, Valve also just underlined how hard it is to buy RAM at anything approaching a reasonable price – with no room for negotiation whatsoever with memory suppliers, which impacted the cost of the Steam Machine (as predicted).

So yes, everything seems to be backing up the recent cloud of gloom cast on the PC industry by Nvidia's CEO, Jensen Huang, who observed that the RAM crisis will be around for "quite a few years", hinting that it's a demon we'll have to live with for the rest of the decade, pretty much.

Yet I still think this latest report goes a step too far with the doom mongering, and that consumers will simply vote not to open their wallets at all (in the main) at some point in the not-so-far-off future. It is, however, clear enough that more misery is coming in some form as 2026 rolls on, so we'll have to batten down the hatches for now and see how bad the storm gets.

Meantime, if you are in the market for certain components — certainly a new laptop or MacBook — I'd suggest you make a move before too long, as I discussed at length last weekend.

• Nelson Duann is a VP at Silicon Motion, a maker of SSD controllers
• In an interview, Duann made it clear that the strategy of Chinese memory chip makers is different to foreign suppliers
• They are obliged by the government to support the local market, and that could be bad news for theories about these chip makers helping to ease the RAM crisis globally

Chinese memory chip makers have been theorized by some as riding to the rescue in the global battle against the RAM crisis, but a new report puts that idea in a more doubtful light.

Tom's Hardware interviewed a VP at Silicon Motion, a maker of SSD controllers, and Nelson Duann told them that: "China has domestic NAND and DRAM makers, and their strategy is not the same as that of foreign memory suppliers. Because they receive government support, they also have a responsibility to help maintain the health of the local market."

In other words, the major memory chip producers in China — the likes of CXMT (the one we hear about most often) and YMTC — can't just sell to the highest bidder, as the government (local or national) puts pressure on them to support domestic manufacturers of system RAM and SSDs, or indeed phones and PCs.

Meaning while they may want to sell to the likes of data centers and grab those fatter profits therein, they can't.

Duann notes: "Foreign suppliers generally follow the highest-return opportunities and can allocate most of their supply to data centers. Chinese suppliers cannot do that in the same way because the government can provide guidance and encourage them to support certain local industries."

Duann also recently shared a pessimistic line of thinking on SSDs, and how the consumer retail market for these products has almost disappeared entirely.

Analysis: domestic protection

The upshot is that Chinese consumers may not face the same RAM crisis-related pricing woes as the western world given this governmental stance. There's a level of domestic protection built into the system here, putting people above profits in basic terms. (And also protecting jobs in the manufacturing companies that make products which need those memory chips, from RAM sticks to laptops).

What's interesting to consider here is the theory, which has been raised for a while now, that memory chips made in China could be used to serve consumers across the globe, given that production is being seriously ramped up over in the country to cope with the memory shortage.

We have even seen some evidence of this happening. These are mere hints (in terms of Corsair possibly experimenting with using chips made by CXMT), but Duann's comments raise a potentially serious stumbling block.

If the RAM crisis continues to get worse (many predict it will, and that this misery might last through to the end of the decade, a view that Nvidia's CEO subscribes to) there's every chance that China is going to ensure that production is directed to solve the problems on its own doorstep. No matter what profitable temptations might be waved in the face of the big Chinese memory chip makers.

All this is just theorizing, but it makes this possible escape route to some relief from the RAM crisis for those outside of China seem a bit less likely to happen. And it's not like there wasn't already considerable skepticism along those lines already.

On the brighter side, we heard this week that we're going to see Apple wading in and emptying some of its vast coffers in an effort towards relieving the memory shortage in some way, although exactly how that might pan out isn't at all clear yet.

• Nelson Duann, an exec in the SSD supply chain, has said: "The retail SSD market has almost disappeared"
• DDR5 RAM prices refuse to drop, although older memory modules are easing in price, but only very slightly
• System memory remains massively overpriced, and the same is true with many SSDs – and even hard drives are becoming more costly now

There's more news about the PC component crisis, in terms of SSDs – and how the retail market for drives is seemingly disappearing – and RAM pricing too, which is showing signs of easing a little in some respects, the notable catch being that this isn't the case with DDR5.

Tom's Hardware interviewed Nelson Duann, who is a VP at Silicon Motion, one of the major forces in terms of SSD controller manufacturers, with the exec observing that: "The retail SSD market has almost disappeared."

Duann elaborated: "The controllers we sell to module makers are now largely ending up in SSDs that are shipped to PC OEMs. The reason is that OEMs cannot obtain enough NAND directly from memory manufacturers, so they are increasingly sourcing SSDs from module makers instead."

What Duann is saying is that with such a great demand from data centers these days, the retail market – meaning SSDs in boxes on shelves (virtual or physical) – is shrinking to the point of vanishing. Drives are going to data centers or PC makers, so the selection available to consumers is very much dwindling.

On the RAM front, Notebookcheck.net highlighted a report from 3D Center which examines component prices in the German retail market for June, including memory and SSDs.

The price of DDR5 RAM sticks remained essentially level compared to June (they were up 1%, so next to nothing). With DDR4 and DDR3, prices actually dropped a bit – to the tune of just under 7%. With SSDs, pricing pretty much stayed level, with a slight increase of just over 1%.

Analysis: harsh realities

In the German market, memory pricing does appear to have held pretty much stable over the last few months. Or, to look at it another way, system memory has stayed exorbitantly priced throughout this year, still sitting at a level which is 400% more expensive than before the RAM crisis kicked in.

SSD prices have been stable for the last few months too, the difference being they went up in the first quarter of 2026, whereas RAM pricing actually fell (from a peak of 440%, believe it or not).

As ever, bear in mind that this is the German market – and just one source of stats – but it's at least not terrible news in that some folks have been predicting RAM could actually get pricier again as this year progresses. That could still happen, of course, but it doesn't appear to be doing so yet.

Based on the comments from Duann at Silicon Motion, mind you, we might expect SSD prices to start edging upwards again. If a prominent executive within the supply chain is talking about the retail SSD market 'disappearing', that must be a concern. It's worth noting that hard drive prices are now creeping up, too, based on 3D Center's stats – they are 58% pricier than they were a year ago, compared to 34% last month (and just a 14% increase back at the start of 2026).

For now, we'll keep watching these price tags and accepting the reality that there isn't much we can do about the situation – except refusing to pay massively inflated mark-ups. There is, of course, a line where consumers will do exactly that (in the main) which should theoretically keep a hard ceiling on RAM and SSD price hikes.

Meanwhile, given all this, if you can find a good deal on storage in the Prime Day sales next week, it might well be worth jumping on (especially in the case of larger SSDs, or external hard drives).

• The Nvidia RTX 3060 and 3050 are apparently making a comeback
• A graphics card maker in Asia has new models planned as budget alternatives, and this practice could spread to other regions
• Meanwhile, we're hearing that SK Hynix plans to accelerate development of its memory chip production capacity and triple it by 2034

The RAM crisis appears to have another side-effect, namely bringing back old GPUs, but there's some more positive news for the future from one of the big memory chip makers.

VideoCardz noticed the resurrection of a couple of Nvidia graphics cards that aren't even from the past generation, but the one before that: the RTX 3050 and 3060, which are GPUs from 2020 that have been brought back by Manli, a graphics card maker that mainly supplies Asia.

The Manli RTX 3060 which has returned from the dead is a 12GB model, whereas the RTX 3050 has 6GB of VRAM and a 70W power envelope, meaning that it can run off the PCIe slot (with no need to be connected to the PSU).

Elsewhere, the future of RAM is looking rosier, with news from SK Hynix, one of the major three players in making memory chips, that it's ensuring that manufacturing capacity is being ramped up in a big way going into the next decade.

Chey Tae-won, the chairman of SK Group, said in an interview with Nikkei Asia (via ComputerBase, as spotted by TweakTown): "Since we're proceeding with the plan to expand as much as possible, our calculations show that our wafer capacity will double within five years. But honestly, once all these facilities are built, it won't just double, it will triple by around 2034."

So that means by 2031, SK Hynix will have doubled its manufacturing capacity, and it'll only be a few years more until that's trebled, moving notably faster down the line. That said, this is a best-case scenario we're told, and those expectations could always slide.

Analysis: a notable acceleration

This represents SK Hynix putting its foot down on the RAM production pedal in a big way. We're now looking at eight years for a trebling of manufacturing capacity for DRAM and NAND flash memory chips, whereas previously the timeline for this was 20 years. Yes – two whole decades.

This is a measure of how much RAM demand SK Hynix is expecting going forward – and that the current memory-hungry environment isn't going away. As we've been hearing recently, if anything, the AI boom is set to continue and gobble up even more RAM in the foreseeable future.

As for the Nvidia GPUs which are being brought back to life, this may be just in Asia for now, but it indicates that this could happen elsewhere, too. There have been previous rumors about the RTX 3060 12GB making a comeback, so here we're seeing some hard evidence that this is actually happening.

Are you wondering why it's happening? Well, both of these GPUs are back to serve as budget-friendly options in a time where current-gen GPU availability is becoming more problematic, and prices are rising. (Indeed, at the higher-end for Nvidia GPUs, price inflation has been getting quite nasty this year, and the fear is that it'll only worsen).

The RTX 3060 was a popular offering for a long time, and the 12GB variant proved tempting for gamers who didn't want to be shortchanged by newer Nvidia budget graphics cards that only served up 8GB of VRAM. While you may question the wisdom of an affordable GPU that packs on the video RAM in this memory-starved climate, remember that this Nvidia card uses GDDR6 VRAM, not GDDR7 as seen in current-gen Blackwell GPUs, so it's a different kettle of fish in that respect. It theoretically allows for some extra breathing room to produce some more wallet-friendly graphics cards without tapping into precious GDDR7 resources.

Of course, we don't know how wide a scope this apparent revitalization of old Ampere GPUs might have, and it could be quite a limited affair. Time will tell.

• AMD's David McAfee expects DDR5 RAM prices to 'recover slowly in the future'
• However, the exec added that DDR5 won't return to 'normal' pricing levels for some two years
• Meanwhile chatter from the rumor mill claims Lenovo is going to implement another sizeable round of price hikes with its PCs

An AMD exec has told us that DDR5 RAM pricing isn't likely to normalize until 2028, and in other news, fresh from the memory and wider component crisis, Lenovo seemingly has more price hikes in the works for its PCs.

Let's start with the AMD story. VideoCardz flagged up the interview that 4Gamers conducted at Computex 2026, in which the Taiwanese site spoke with David McAfee, who is VP and general manager of Ryzen CPU and Radeon Graphics.

When questioned on the memory shortage (bearing in mind translation issues with the article), McAfee said he expects prices to 'recover slowly in the future' but that DDR5 RAM won't return to normal pricing levels for about another two years.

VideoCardz also highlighted a post on X from leaker Harukaze5719, which in turn points to a report from Sina Finance in China that tells a separate tale of the Lenovo price hikes.

Obviously, this is just whispers from the rumor mill, but the theory is that Lenovo plans to jack up prices in China by the equivalent of $150 in July. This applies to its PCs and laptops, and, in fact, to every product line Lenovo sells, we're told (though common sense would indicate that cheap peripherals, like a basic Lenovo mouse, won't get a $150 price hike).

While this is a (rumored) move over in Asia, it would clearly make sense that mirroring cost increases in the same order (perhaps even a bit more) would be implemented in other regions.

Analysis: more urgency for laptop buyers?

The AMD exec has essentially thrown his lot in with the forecasters who see the RAM crisis ebbing away during 2028. While that still means it has a fair way to go, this is actually a relatively optimistic prediction compared to some more recent thoughts – notably from Nvidia's CEO. Jensen Huang said the memory crisis will last "quite a few years", suggesting that we may have to be patient until 2029 or 2030 to see the worst of this over. Others have guessed that we'll be sailing rough waters with RAM pricing until 2030, too.

The sad truth is that at this point, if I could have a guaranteed end-in-2028 outcome for these RAM woes (somehow), I'd take that prospect – and run. Of course, there's the question of what McAfee means exactly by returning to 'normal levels', complicated by the fact that this is a translated interview. Broadly speaking, I assume this means that prices will drop back down to more palatable levels relative to now – though I don't see them ever returning to pre-crisis levels, frankly.

It's a bleak old outlook, for sure, although there is some hope in Chinese memory chip makers tackling the RAM shortfall to some extent with increased production from these Asian giants. McAfee alludes to this when mentioning Changxin Memory in China increasing its DDR5 production capacity, but others – notably Huang – seem distinctly unswayed by such arguments.

A lot, of course, could rest on what happens with AI going forward. However, with predictions of increased memory demands one way or another in that sphere – and no remote indication of the AI 'bubble' bursting, or clever tech innovations helping out as much as some folks think they might – I'm not optimistic on the whole.

On top of this, the news from Lenovo is a further blow. If you recall, the computer giant already hiked PC prices earlier this year, and so this is another helping of RAM crisis-related cost rises for laptops and desktops (and other hardware besides, apparently).

As I've been discussing recently, after the Nvidia CEO's recent end-of-decade prediction for the extent of the memory crisis, now really does seem to be the right time to buy a laptop. The news that Lenovo may be about to pull the trigger on yet more substantial PC price rises only puts more urgency into that theory, because this surely won't happen in isolation among PC vendors.

• Nvidia's CEO has said the RAM crisis will last for "quite a few years"
• The comment came ahead of the announcement of a multiyear partnership between Nvidia and memory chip maker SK Hynix
• It's one of the bleaker predictions we've heard, and it might be wise to take it on board if you're thinking of buying a laptop, PC, or components in the near future

If you were hoping the worst of the RAM crisis might soon be over — and we've heard some hints to that effect in recent times — you can think again, according to Nvidia's CEO.

Reuters reports that Jensen Huang just predicted that the memory shortage is a crisis that'll last for "quite a few years", and this doubles down on some of the more pessimistic forecasts about the RAM crisis.

Given that this comes from a heavy-hitting source – Huang was speaking ahead of the announcement of a collaboration between Nvidia and SK Hynix in a "multiyear technology partnership for next-generation memory" — it's a distinct worry for me.

As I noted at the outset, we've recently heard some more positive inklings, suggesting that the RAM crisis could be peaking and a recovery might arrive sooner than expected. That includes the ex-chief of Samsung's semiconductor business forecasting that the RAM shortage could possibly ease in just a year's time, or certainly by early 2028, partly due to the efforts of Chinese memory chip makers.

Previously, though, we've also heard that more RAM price hikes are on the cards due to disruption to shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, as well as predictions that the memory crisis could be prolonged until the end of the decade.

Interestingly, that latter claim of RAM pricing misery continuing through to 2030 came from the chairman of the parent company of SK Hynix, which Nvidia just signed its deal with, and Huang appears to have adopted the same line of thinking. For me, the declaration of "quite a few years" means at least three, and hints at more, effectively backing that previous 2030 worst-case prediction.

What does this mean for the average consumer? The words from the Nvidia CEO carry some considerable weight, I think, and this is a rather ominous development in my opinion, although it's not quite as simple as "if you think prices are bad now, just wait — so buy, buy, buy, while the going is still relatively good".

Of course, calling the going 'relatively good' given the price of RAM sticks themselves is more than a stretch, but the truth is that there are certain categories of hardware you should probably consider pulling the trigger on now, to avoid what might be even more painful price hikes by the time next year rolls around.

Here's what I think we all need to consider given the current picture and predictions relating to the RAM crisis, in terms of different types of hardware. I should caveat all this by underlining that it is just my opinion, and I may, of course, turn out to be wrong.

Laptops: don't hang around for too long here

What immediately sprang to mind when I read Huang's comment was that this additional gloom nugget is another sign that the time to buy a laptop is now. Or rather, perhaps as part of an Amazon Prime Day deal (later this month) or come Black Friday, with these big tech sales in 2026 likely to represent your best chance to get a new notebook at a relatively affordable price.

The trouble is that if the RAM supply situation really is set to be a very rocky road through to the end of the decade, even the big laptop manufacturers are going to run out of all their inventory of memory bought at (relatively) cheaper prices – and the same is true of storage (SSD price hikes have also been seriously nasty).

If all this plays out as Huang expects, continued pressure on just those two component categories are going to hike laptop prices substantially over a few years. And that's not considering other pressures such as with discrete GPUs (that use VRAM) on gaming laptops, or price increases on other notebook parts, notably CPUs which are starting to feel the heat a bit in the broader component crisis.

If you're thinking you'll need a new notebook in the not-too-distant future, and you can score a good deal with a laptop that's on sale this year, I can't see you losing out. It seems unlikely that you'll find something cheaper next year, put it that way — and if there's one piece of hardware I'd advise buying with some level of urgency, it's a laptop.

Do bear in mind, however, that more Windows 11 laptop makers are now dropping models back down to 8GB of RAM as a cost-cutting measure to reduce those sticker prices, and there are caveats for future-proofing here, which I've discussed at length elsewhere.

Desktop PCs: ditto, sort of…

I think everything I've written above about laptops is also true of desktop PCs to an extent, as the same pressures around the same components exist broadly, certainly for prebuilt computers. Matters are worse in so much as a desktop will usually have a discrete GPU (much more often than a laptop will), and the price hikes therein add some extra misery into the mix, particularly at the higher-end (although the same is true of gaming notebooks).

So, again look to the likes of Amazon or Black Friday sales, and if you need a new desktop, a discounted prebuilt might turn out to be a pretty smart move this year.

However, a DIY PC build is a bit different and more painful these days, as you are sourcing individual components all with varying price hikes, and some of those increases are huge – you're lacking any of the cost cushioning that you might get from a prebuilt (where the PC maker gets cheaper prices for bulk buying components, of course). In this case, I'd be far more cautious, as it's not exactly clear how things will play out with component pricing more widely as I'll come on to next.

RAM and SSDs: the real pain points

The RAM crisis kicked off all this pricing pain when it began back in September 2025, followed by SSDs (which also use memory chips, of course), and at this point, price tags on both are massively hiked.

Having to buy system RAM is as bad as it gets when it comes to the extra damage to your wallet, although the exact extent of that can depend on the type of memory you're looking at. Prices of DDR4 and DDR5 RAM have trebled or even quadrupled in price, though, which is ridiculous, frankly.

In short, I'm loathe to recommend buying RAM at this kind of premium to anyone. That said, Huang's comment here hints that perhaps memory does still have further to go in terms of hikes, and as Tom's Hardware recently reported, a Lexar executive just predicted a further doubling of RAM prices by the end of 2026.

So, in spite of some recent evidence of memory price stabilization or even slight decreases, it seems the worst isn't over yet. At the same time, there's a ceiling as to what consumers will pay in terms of price hikes before they collectively fold their arms and refuse to buy. Overall, it's unclear how this will play out, and while the Lexar exec's prediction feels alarmist to me, it's not a great overall indicator of where we're headed – particularly now in light of what Huang's chipped in with.

I simply can't recommend buying RAM at the price it's at, and the same is true for SSDs in many cases. Indeed, I have to wonder how much worse the prices on these components can get before it becomes farcical, frankly. But for now, I'd err on the side of playing a waiting game to see how these fresher predictions begin to pan out.

GPUs and CPUs: a more positive picture, but not entirely

As for computing components outside of RAM and SSDs, the main concerns are the other key staples of any PC – the processor and graphics card.

If you're in the market for a desktop GPU in the near future, I think it's probably a good move to buy (again, perhaps with a bargain in the next big sale – though I think we're less likely to see any sizeable discounts on graphics cards as opposed to, say, laptops). That's because pricing is relatively palatable currently for mainstream products, meaning mid-range and lower-tier GPUs – we've seen some solid deals on AMD's RX 9070 XT GPUs recently for example.

For high-end GPUs – meaning Nvidia models – sadly price hikes have been a lot heftier (what with more copious amounts of video memory being involved for one thing). It's quite possible these graphics cards could see further cost increases, though, into next year, but the RTX 5070 Ti and upwards are already seriously over and above the MSRP to the point where I balk at recommending them.

CPUs are a different matter, with price inflation being much more restrained here, and with the possibility of processors getting more expensive down the line, I think it's a safe bet to buy one now if you need an upgrade. There's even a new budget Ryzen 7700X3D set to launch next month, and we could see further additions along these lines at the lower-end from AMD apparently, so I think the picture for CPUs looks stable enough for the foreseeable.

• Researchers have created a NAND-DRAM hybrid, inspired by legacy camera tech
• Indium Gallium Zinc Oxide also promises benefits over silicon
• For now, this is just a prototype that needs further work

Belgian semiconductor research hub imec has unveiled what it claims to be the first 3D implementation of charge-coupled device (CCD) memory architecture, which revives technology we’ve already seen used before in digital cameras and camcorders, but for a totally different purpose.

With 3D CCD architecture, the researchers were able to break one of the biggest bottlenecks in AI computing today – the memory wall – where GPUs and accelerators spend more time waiting for data than processing it as a result of poor memory bandwidth and power efficiency.

The new design combines the speed and rewritability of DRAM with the density and efficiency of NAND to form a type of hybrid.

Old camera tech could actually lead to future generations of memory

CCD technology is nothing new – charge-coupled devices have long been used in digital cameras, broadcast video equipment, scientific imaging and even astronomy sensors, but CCDs have since been replaced with CMOS image sensors.

Traditionally, CCDs work by physically moving electrical charges between semiconductor gates, and this same principle applies to imec’s research to enable highly efficient memory movement.

Instead of arranging memory cells side-by-side on a flat plane, like conventional DRAM, the design stacks them vertically in a similar sense to 3D NAND, and this is important because DRAM’s limitations include leakage, higher manufacturing costs and a reduction in how quickly density improvements are happening.

The chips also replace silicon with IGZO (Indium Gallium Zinc Oxide), which promises lower leakage, longer data retention, easier low-temperature processing and strong compatibility with dense 3D stacking.

With this hybrid architecture, imec has already demonstrated a successful charge transfer at transfer speeds of more than 4MHz, but this is still very early-stage technology and the prototype only uses a small number of stacked layers. In theory, it should be able to scale as well as NAND, with commercial chips now surpassing 200 layers.

CCD architecture looks to promise reduced wear mechanisms and endurance that could even exceed NAND, making it ideal for highly intensive applications across AI training clusters and inference servers.

“Unlike byte-addressable DRAM, our 3D CCD device is designed to provide block-level data access, which is better suited to modern AI workloads,” Program Director for Storage Memory Maarten Rosmeulen added.

“The potential of this CCD device to be used as a buffer memory lies in its ability to be integrated in a 3D NAND Flash string architecture – the most cost-effective way to achieve a scalable, high bit density estimated to go far beyond the DRAM limit.”

The research also details future plans for the promising architecture, positioning it as a CXL Type-3 device, or one that complies with industry standards to connect GPUs, CPUs and accelerators. This is an important consideration, with hyperscalers now turning to CXL as AI models become too big for local GPUs alone.

As a prototype and research product, there are still plenty of hurdles to overcome, including thermal behavior, layer count scaling and of course real-world integration, however if it’s successful then the new hybrid architecture could seriously help to reduce one of the biggest costs in AI infrastructure, DRAM.

Looking ahead, imec proposes that the next phase may involve a totally new class of memory architecture rather than simply evolving existing designs further.

• Nintendo announced the Switch 2's price will increase in the US, Canada, Europe, and Japan
• It will now cost $499.99, effective from September 1, 2026
• All Switch hardware prices will increase in Japan, including Nintendo Switch Online subscriptions

Nintendo has held strong amid the memory crisis, successfully avoiding price hikes for its Switch 2 hardware — but all good things come to an end.

Nintendo announced it will increase the price of the Nintendo Switch 2 handheld; in the US, the price will rise from $449.99 to $499.99, effective September 1, 2026, as a 'response to various market conditions'.

A $50 price increase will also be replicated in Canada, seeing it cost $679.99, while Europe will see a 30 euros increase, also effective on the same date. Unlike other regions, Japan's price increase will apply to all Switch hardware, taking effect on May 25, 2026, with the Switch 2 costing 59,980 yen instead of the previous 49,980 yen.

Japan is easily the most impacted, as the Nintendo Switch Online subscriptions will also face price hikes, notably for its 12-month family plan, rising from 4,500 yen to 5,800 yen.

There is no confirmation on price increases in other European regions, notably the UK, but according to Nintendo Life, Nintendo states they will be shared at a later date.

This shouldn't come as a surprise, as the RAM crisis is causing havoc across PC and console hardware, due to shortages and increased demand from AI data centers. Sony and Microsoft have recently increased prices for PS5 and Xbox Series X consoles, respectively.

It was only a matter of time for Nintendo to follow suit, especially considering the general economic struggles. Fortunately, though, Nintendo has given most consumers (except for those in Japan) plenty of time to beat the price hike, which won't come into effect for another four months.

The warning signs have been around via several rumors and suggestions that Nintendo wouldn't be able to avoid adjusting the MSRP, and there's a decent chance that this won't be the last price hike we see for the Switch 2.

Microsoft has a tough task ahead to optimize Windows 11, with the reported project 'K2' described as an effort to effectively eliminate the issues of bloatware, excessive AI usage, and provide better gaming performance, and it wants to match the latter with Valve's SteamOS to win users' trust back.

I think that's a move from Microsoft that all of its users can get behind, because Windows 11 certainly needs it. I've had my fair share of complaints about the operating system for a long while, mostly with the frustrating and persistent bugs with each update.

However, since there's an ongoing memory crisis, leaving consumers with very few affordable options on RAM kits, I've discovered that Windows 11 and other factors around applications are only making life worse for its users. It's no wonder that Microsoft is now prioritizing optimization for the OS.

In the meantime, I've found another way to manage memory woes.

Windows 11 and apps are using more RAM than necessary

Using the Windows RAM & Performance Optimizer on GitHub by Priyom Saha, I've been able to decrease the amount of memory consumption at the click of a button.

Similar to many other RAM optimizers you can find available on GitHub, this works via a script, which eliminates unnecessary background applications and Windows 11's persistent bloatware, designed to run in an endless loop every 10 seconds. It's also actively monitoring and trimming RAM usage 'in real-time', which helps recover memory that could be used for more intensive tasks.

While using this tool, I've discovered that Windows 11 and its applications (including non-Microsoft apps) are using more RAM than necessary, and this was evident in drops of up to 6GB in usage. I've tested scenarios where Microsoft Edge (or even Chrome) is running in the background with only a few tabs open, and I would see RAM usage fall from 17GB to 11GB in a matter of minutes.

The drops aren't as significant on idle; however, I still noticed that when running the script, at least 1GB or 2GB of memory is recovered. While that isn't a huge amount for systems with 16GB or more, it's a bigger issue for low-end PCs or handhelds.

I must state that the problem isn't solely on Windows 11 here, as it's quite clear that other applications are in use, but browsers like Edge or Chrome, and entertainment applications like Spotify shouldn't be pulling so much memory, especially when committing to basic background tasks (at least in comparison to gaming or editing).

The combination of both Windows and non-Windows applications (e.g., Chrome), alongside the operating system's bloatware and usual background activity, is seemingly creating an excessive amount of RAM usage. It's exactly why it's pleasing to hear Microsoft address this with project K2 for Windows, and I'm hoping that we can start to see major improvements in the near future.

While we wait, though, there's always Saha's RAM optimizer.

If you were hoping for some relief from the RAM pricing crisis, April hasn't delivered on that front. Actually, there is a caveat attached here, in that there has been one more positive development of late – although it has a sizable sting in the tail, as we'll see later. But before that – and sorry to do this to you – we must wade through the quagmire of negative news that's been a running theme this month.

In fact, we only need to focus on the past week to see multiple developments that underline just how bad things have got with the RAM situation. Previously, we've heard about stock shortages of the Mac mini (and Mac Studio) theorized to be down to the lack of RAM supply, and then on Wednesday, the base model of the Mac mini completely sold out on Apple's online store. That's the M4 model with only 16GB of RAM, whereas before, it was the versions more heavily loaded with system memory which were (understandably) in trouble.

We also witnessed the launch of the Framework Laptop 13 Pro, dubbed the 'MacBook Pro for Linux users', which went down a storm thanks to many of its design decisions — with a notable fly in the ointment. That was the asking price for this notebook, with wallet-worrying starting prices, particularly in some regions where there are higher, much dearer baseline configurations. Naturally, those prices have been driven up by the rising cost of RAM and storage (along with other PC components besides, including CPUs and GPUs).

Also this week came the news that someone is making their own RAM in their garden shed (as reported by Tom's Hardware). Okay, so no, they aren't producing functional sticks of memory to slot into a PC, but an intrepid YouTuber did manage to craft working memory cells from scratch, after converting "a shed in my back yard into a class 100 semiconductor cleanroom".

This is actually a seriously impressive project, and I'd recommend giving the video a watch, as it's not just amazing what's achieved in this DIY effort, but it's also very educational in terms of how memory is manufactured (and how it works). Although be warned, it does get quite techie.

Surface downer

Another major downer was a rumor that Microsoft's next-gen Surface devices are likely to be, well, shall we say expensive. Or to quote the leaker in this case: "Prices are probably going to be so bad, no one will be able to afford the things anyway."

Yikes. And guess why? That's right, good old RAMageddon. And yes, okay, this is just a rumor, but we have already seen huge price hikes for existing Surface models, and those are very real. When they happened last week, they were taken as a sign that next-gen Surface hardware would also be a lot pricier, so that adds weight to this week's rumor.

And on top of all this, a further blow was dealt in the form of ASRock's new HUDIMM memory. While on the face of it, this was billed as a clever innovation for producing more affordable DDR5 memory, it does so by cutting performance levels considerably. Still, that doesn't mean it's not a useful choice to have for budget builds, because it is.

However, with companies coming up with longer-term solutions like this for the ridiculous pricing that's plaguing the memory market, this suggests the crisis really is here for the long haul (as in the rest of the decade). Which some analyst firms, and indeed memory manufacturers, have already said is the case — but this kind of development underlines it.

Continued bad news about SSD price hikes rather compounds all this, as that hardware is, of course, part of the pain regarding shaky memory supply.

Consumer refusal

So, that's the latest miserable mire of bad news on the crisis — but what about the glimmer of positivity I mentioned at the outset? This is the fact that we've actually seen some sizable drops in the price of DDR5 RAM, and by sizable I mean in the order of 10% to 20% (and there looks to be some relief with DDR4, as well, albeit in a much more limited way).

While that sounds great on the face of it, hold your horses, because the price of RAM has shot up by a ridiculous amount — to the tune of 300% or more (and it's far worse than that for some DDR4 modules going by recent reports). So those kind of 10% or 20% reductions aren't all that significant against this backdrop.

Furthermore, this price drop isn't a result of improved supply for RAM, but as the analyst company that highlighted the DDR5 drop pointed out, it's a softening of consumer demand. In other words, prices have got so silly that consumers are just sighing, giving up and refusing to buy, in the hope that prices will come down. And, of course, that's part of the supply and demand equation which will indeed cause prices to drop.

In short, it's not a positive thing in terms of better supply and stock, but a negative factor attacking prices and forcing them down, regardless of inventory levels of RAM in warehouses and on shelves.

Really, it's just another depressing facet of the reality of the RAM crisis. It also begs the question: is this ebbing demand due to the sky-high cost of memory our best, or indeed only, hope of price tags coming down?

From where I'm sat that seems to be the case. And what's more, this slump in prices due to buyer refusal is likely to have a limited impact, when all the fundamental issues that caused the RAM crisis in the first place remain in full force. Extra manufacturing capacity at memory makers is not going to meaningfully spin up to a greater level for a long time yet – that won't even start until 2028 – and AI demand for RAM looks as relentless as ever.

This week, we also heard again that AI's insatiable hunger for memory isn't going to be solved by Google's TurboQuant tech, clever though it is. The CFO of memory maker SK Hynix (via Wccftech) recently said: "Although memory-efficiency technologies may appear to reduce memory usage per individual device, in reality they are evolving in a direction that maximizes the amount of context that can be processed per unit of memory."

This is something I wrote about recently, and to sum up, what it means is that 'memory-efficiency tech' like TurboQuant will be used to drive better performance for AI, rather than saving memory (while delivering the same performance) — which will lead to more AI usage, and increased demand for RAM. So, there's no escape route there.

The optimism that is around, then – and it's very thin on the ground anyway – doesn't have much in the way of substance or foundations.

For now, it's true enough that as consumers, we can do our part in suppressing demand by refusing to buy – where that's feasible – and hope to see this make a continued impact on the currently lofty prices of RAM.

It's a slim and wispy hope, but it's about all we seem to have. Save for keeping our fingers crossed that somehow the AI bubble might burst, but never mind wispy, that feels like an extra-planar possibility, and not one that there's any chance of manifesting in this particular reality.

• ASRock has revealed a new trick to beat high RAM prices
• HUDIMM DDR5 RAM modules are considerably more affordable
• They cut back on performance, however, so it's a trade-off here

There's a new type of DDR5 RAM in town, and it's cheaper, but before you start rejoicing that all your memory-related prayers have been answered, bear in mind that there are weighty caveats attached here.

Tom's Hardware noticed the announcement from ASRock about its new HUDIMM DDR5 RAM module for motherboards with Intel chipsets. In a nutshell, these are designed to be a good deal more affordable, but to achieve that, performance is dropped considerably.

A standard stick of DDR5 (UDIMM) uses a two-subchannel architecture (2 x 32-bit), but with HUDIMM (the 'HU' stands for Half Unbuffered), you get a single 32-bit subchannel instead.

That sounds very technical, but what's happening is simple enough — the bandwidth and density of the RAM stick is effectively halved. And sticks that need fewer memory modules can, of course, be made a good deal more cheaply, because you're only buying half the chips to produce them.

As the company observed on X: "ASRock's HUDIMM architecture reduces chip count and cost, enabling more affordable and flexible system builds for users and system integrators worldwide."

Intel's Robert Hallock, VP and GM for its Enthusiast Channel Segment group, commented: "Innovations like ASRock's One sub-channel DRAM technology are crucial to ensuring desktop computing remains accessible despite the rising demand and costs for DDR5 memory.

"Intel's grateful for ASRock's support in bringing this to market for our 600/700/800-series chipsets, ensuring Intel users have more access to the benefits of DDR5 memory in the years ahead."

So, as noted, these new RAM offerings are compatible with ASRock's Intel 600, 700, and 800-series motherboards.

ASRock has hooked up with TeamGroup to produce these HUDIMM sticks, and needless to say, they'll be entry-level offerings. This RAM will also be manufactured for laptops, too, in the form of HSODIMMs.

Asus is reportedly looking into this type of memory, too, as per leaks on X, so we could see a broader shift towards HUDIMMs as the year progresses.

Analysis: sign of the RAM times

The catch is that the cutbacks made to this RAM mean that performance is going to be a lot slower. Is that a compromise you want to make? Perhaps it is, given the cost of DDR5 RAM right now, which has reached extortionate levels, frankly.

The twist is that ASRock's new way of working here can run alongside standard DDR5 RAM, which remains compatible in these motherboards. HUDIMM offers asymmetrical dual-channel support at the BIOS level, so you should be okay to put a HUDIMM next to a standard UDIMM, and they'll work fine in dual-channel mode (with 3 x 32-bit subchannels active — one from the HUDIMM, and a pair from the UDIMM).

If you had an 8GB HUDIMM stick alongside a 16GB UDIMM, this would, in theory, be a faster implementation than a single 24GB UDIMM stick. So you could, say, start with just an 8GB HUDIMM (or 16GB), and then expand with a UDIMM later (when pricing drops back down to a more reasonable level).

As Tom's points out, though, ASRock's marketing indicates a not inconsiderable 90ns latency with this RAM standard, and the proof will be in the pudding of how these sorts of theorized combos work out.

Meanwhile, HUDIMMs certainly represent one shortcut to lower DDR5 RAM pricing, but the compromise in terms of performance (away from mix-and-match scenarios) is going to be a heavy price in itself. Still, this may be an option some people wish to exercise, and I can't say I blame them, looking at what retailers are asking for run-of-the-mill DDR5 these days.

What this also serves as is a reminder of just how bad the RAM crisis has got, and the fact that hardware makers are looking at longer-term solutions such as this scheme isn't much comfort as to the prospective duration of this whole affair.

• More fake Samsung SSDs have been uncovered, and the drive maker has said it's 'taking consistent action against such counterfeits'
• At the same time, CPU sales are seemingly in a major slump, the worst seen in a decade, we're told
• With the PC component crisis just getting more intense, there is hope for some relief later this year – but the way it'll be realized isn't very comforting

As the PC component crisis intensifies, with CPU sales now apparently in a serious slump, we've had another warning about fake Samsung SSDs as scammers try to capitalize on expensive higher-end drives.

First off, let's look at the SSD nastiness, with German tech site ComputerBase reporting (via VideoCardz) that an Austrian buyer had the misfortune to receive two Samsung 990 Pro SSDs from a retailer that have both been confirmed to be fakes.

While the packaging of the 1TB drives looked authentic enough, and didn't ring any alarm bells, inspection of the SSDs did, as they had a blue circuit board (rather than the black color Samsung uses). They also used the wrong SSD controller (a Realtek model rather than a Pascal controller).

The real sign that something was very wrong, though, was the fact that these solid-state drives didn't work at all. (Unlike better fakes, which work, and can even appear to be the correct model when installed in a PC if you don't engage in anything other than a cursory inspection).

When Samsung was told about this incident by ComputerBase, the company provided a statement that read: "Samsung takes such reports about counterfeit memory products very seriously. We are taking consistent action against the distribution of such counterfeits.

"We recommend purchasing Samsung storage media exclusively through the Samsung Online Shop or authorized retailers. Consumers can also use the Samsung Magician software to verify that their product is genuine."

With the price of CPUs creeping up, maybe we'll also need to be wary of an uptick in processor fakes (such as the counterfeit Ryzen 9800X3D chips we've seen palmed off on unsuspecting consumers in the past).

More broadly, is it the case that pricier processors, and the squeeze from the memory crisis in general, are killing sales of desktop silicon? Apparently, this is indeed happening, as mentioned at the outset.

PC Gamer reports that TechEpiphany, who regularly posts figures from major German retailer Mindfactory, shared some recent data on X showing that processor sales have fallen sharply in the last three weeks (after being in something of a slump across the whole of March). It's mainly AMD Ryzen sales that have dropped actually – though that's partly a function of Intel sales numbers already being a great deal less at the start of 2026 – and it's an eye-opening slump.

Based on that data, and other sales figures drawn from the likes of Amazon, TechEpiphany posted on X that: "In 10 years of tracking retail CPU (and related) sales, I have never seen such a steep decline."

Analysis: an 11.5-level crisis

Saying that this is the single biggest slump which TechEpiphany has witnessed in the last decade is quite a statement regarding CPU sales. When asked 'on a scale of 1-10, how done are we?' in a follow-up post on X, TechEpiphany replied that we're at '11.5' currently.

Are processor prices really rising that steeply? Well, following rumors of major price increases late last year, they are going up, certainly, as there's a CPU shortage which is getting more serious.

However, this isn't just about processors in a bubble, but the entire custom PC market. With the prices of all components going up, and particularly RAM along with storage, building a computer from scratch – or looking at a substantial upgrade to a new motherboard platform for an existing system – has become a ridiculously pricey affair.

So, people just aren't doing that, and this is going to depress CPU sales, and indeed all components – not just the memory side of the equation, where the price hikes have been truly astronomical.

Counterfeit products being increasingly wheeled out as scammers try to profiteer from these high prices isn't going to help the situation, either. It's not great news that fake Samsung SSDs have now reached Europe, after an increase in Japan was already observed – though at least this latest bout of fakery wasn't as sophisticated as previously seen.

There's one hope here, namely that these stupidly high prices – and the PC market in general getting out of hand – is indeed resulting in a refusal to buy from consumers (as apparently seen with CPUs, but also RAM recently, too). That in itself could rebalance the supply and demand seesaw to some extent, and lead to prices falling. And as PC Gamer also spotted, MediaTek is tentatively predicting a more optimistic pricing trajectory for RAM in the second half of 2026 based on this kind of theorizing.

MediaTek's SVP and head of global sales, Eric Fischer, recently told analyst firm Counterpoint: "We're super cautious, maybe cautiously optimistic about the second half [of 2026], about where it goes because, at some point the prices are going to have an impact on the consumer's ability to spend – whether it's notebooks or [other] consumer products."

This is a sentiment we've heard elsewhere, but it isn't really all that comforting that the best hope for the RAM crisis to slacken its grip on our wallets is that pricing simply gets so high that people point-blank refuse to spend. But, here we are, and this is seemingly what it's come to...

Is TurboQuant a silicon bullet to solve the RAM crisis? No, it isn't, and if you were hoping that the compression algorithm that Google recently announced would be a major turning point for AI memory-related woes, I'm afraid you might have to think again.

Sadly, for me, the RAM crisis remains a towering specter that'll likely continue to be a considerable blight on the PC landscape for a long time to come yet. Certainly, a good deal of online opinion has crystallized around the notion that Google hasn't got an ace up its sleeve with TurboQuant.

Need a quick TurboQuant refresher? AI in the form of LLMs (Large Language Models) represents a huge RAM hoover, as we've seen, and that demand for memory has been a major driver in the current crisis. What Google's TurboQuant does is to reduce the memory use of AI, and not just by a little, but by a huge amount in a specific area: key-value cache memory usage.

That's reduced by a factor of six, in fact, and this cache is the LLM's short-term memory (to store the ongoing conversation, and give context in future replies), so it's an important breakthrough on the face of it. The compression used in the tech shouldn't degrade the quality of the output (answers to queries) noticeably, either.

In theory, then, with TurboQuant, an AI could keep performing at the same level while using just a sixth of the memory resources it did previously without Google's tech. That's why when TurboQuant was unveiled on March 24, the stock price of memory makers really tanked for a while, as it was seen by investors as a potential big hit to the future profits of those companies.

Turbo mode: efficiency or performance?

Okay, that's all well and good, but as this report in the Korea Times makes clear, analysts feel differently to Google (and indeed those investors) about the impact that TurboQuant might have, and what it'll mean for AI and RAM supply more broadly.

An analyst for Samsung Securities, Lee Jong-wook, observed that: "There have been efforts to improve AI models to optimize chip usage, but more efficient models tend to lower overall costs and, in turn, drive greater demand for AI computing. Rather than reducing semiconductor demand, such optimized models are being used to deliver higher-performance AI services with the same chip resources."

In other words, we won't see less RAM being used in AI data centers thanks to TurboQuant, but memory will continue to be gobbled up at the same rate, with the LLMs getting better performance instead. That improved performance will be preferred to achieving better efficiency for models (and any potential cost savings therein).

After that, better AI will drive more people to use that AI, and make these LLMs more accessible, creating more demand to satiate, requiring yet more data center resources (including memory).

Lee observes: "As long as AI companies compete on performance rather than cost, optimization will not weigh on semiconductor demand." And in the current climate, where the AI bubble is still expanding, and competition between the giant LLMs out there is fierce, the prevailing opinion is that tech like TurboQuant is not going to ease the pace of RAM consumption with the big AI players.

Another analyst, Kim Rok-ho of Hana Securities, adds some further thoughts: "Compression technologies are not new, and it remains uncertain whether they will be widely adopted across the [AI] industry. Even if such technologies become more widely used over the mid to long term, it will lower memory cost barriers, expanding overall AI use. There are limited chances of decline in demand for DRAM and storage."

The fact that TurboQuant isn't alone, and similar tricks have been tried with AI over the past couple of years, is a good point. Yes, Google is claiming it has something very different here – in terms of the tech not lessening the quality of the AI's output – but that remains to be seen in action.

There's plenty of skepticism on Reddit about how Google has spun or hyped TurboQuant, and the reality of the claims made about the tech. And of course, it's still just research at this point, and whether it'll be realized for deployment on a large-scale basis, well, only time will tell.

And again, Kim comes back to the theory that even if TurboQuant does become widely adopted, it's going to drive more AI usage, as opposed to driving down the amount of RAM used by LLMs.

Memory misery loves company

Even if you accept the arguments that TurboQuant is not the panacea for AI-driven RAM shortages – and I feel they're compelling and persuasive views myself – you might still point hopefully to other recent developments that suggest the worst of the memory crisis might just be over. Unfortunately, I feel that these hints are red herrings, too.

I'm mainly thinking of another analyst firm, this time TrendForce, which recently published a report talking about DDR5 RAM price drops in the US, Europe and Asia. While prices do appear to be easing currently, this is more about price tags reaching a ridiculous level where consumers just fold their arms and flat-out refuse to buy, than it is anything to do with supply improvements or bolstered stock.

Granted, it's good to see some downward movement with retail prices, I'm not against that – obviously – but nothing's changing regarding the contract prices of RAM for the big memory manufacturers, which suggests the overall picture remains much the same. As TrendForce acknowledges, in the lens of that broader view, this positivity is a "consumer-driven, short-term adjustment" rather than the start of a full-on turnaround.

Another optimistic nugget was laptop maker Framework being able to keep cost increases to a minimum with memory-related hikes this month. However, the company observed that "all indications are that this is a temporary reprieve and that we'll continue to see volatility and cost increases through the rest of 2026".

I don't doubt that, frankly, when we also see the prices of GPUs – which were already expensive – climbing again due to the rising cost of video RAM. Or nasty hikes with gaming laptops due to memory and storage price increases, or Mac computers with painfully long lead times for delivery reportedly thanks to the memory crisis, or… you get the idea.

This just isn't going away, and the predictions that we won't see any meaningful improvement in the well-off-kilter balance of RAM supply and demand until 2028 feel just as entrenched as they were a month or two ago — with Google's TurboQuant seemingly unlikely to ride in and save the day.

• The spot price of a 16GB DDR4 chip has dropped by 5%
• It's the first time this price has fallen in over a year
• While that's obviously a good thing, there's a lot of storm remaining to weather with the RAM crisis yet

We've witnessed another hint that the RAM crisis is deescalating — at least a touch — along with an interesting move by the Korean government to try to protect consumers from the worst excesses of PC component price hikes.

Tom's Hardware flagged up a DigiTimes report that claims the spot price of a 16GB DDR4 chip has fallen by around 5% over the course of the last month.

That may not sound like a whole lot, but it's notable because it's the first monthly drop that's happened with DDR4 pricing in just over a year. (Although recently, some of the rises have been tiny, with pricing effectively staying flat — but we haven't seen a dip until now).

Still, don't get carried away with optimism here, because this has happened against a backdrop of a 2,200% increase in the cost of a 16GB DDR4 module over the past year.

Tom's Hardware also noticed another development in Asia, with what could be an important move for Korean consumers — with perhaps some hope that other countries might adopt similar policies.

Based on a report by The Korea Herald, the government is going to repurpose more of the PCs it took out of service last year, increasing the number of these computers which are reused and donated to various organizations. It'll also provide more PCs to vulnerable groups, we're told, and expand the scope of a subsidy scheme that provides money for low-income households buying computers for students.

All of that is designed to take some of the sting out of PCs getting a lot pricier, and there's something else which is more eye-opening, too. A further report from No Cut News talks about the Korean government's plans to "monitor the distribution and supply and demand conditions of the PC and laptop markets to prevent unfair practices."

That seemingly involves a few government bodies – including the Ministry of Trade – keeping a close watch on the PC market, as well as RAM sales, looking into what could be deemed as illegal activity. "Strict measures" are promised if those selling components or PCs are judged to be engaged in any opportunistic profiteering.

This should help to keep prices down somewhat, or that's the theory anyway, although bear in mind these aren't official announcements, but just reports in the Korean media at this stage.

Analysis: hopeful signs — but let's temper any optimism

We've recently seen reports of DDR5 pricing falling across the globe, and markedly in China, where the price of 16GB modules of the cutting-edge RAM has dropped by up to 30% (in terms of sales on e-commerce platforms in the country). Seeing DDR4 also take a tumble is welcome, of course, even if it's not nearly to the same degree.

We can be hopeful for some prices drops for DDR4 at retail, then, although that wouldn't be a surprise, really, given the wallet-wrenching peaks in pricing that this RAM and DDR5 have reached. As I observed in my previous article about DDR5 prices receding, there's a point where prices get so high that a growing number of consumers simply refuse to pay them — and when that filters through as a drop in demand, a price correction inevitable ensues.

There are other possible reasons for these falls, too, including theories that OpenAI has hugely scaled back its RAM-eating ambitions, leaving AI demand not quite as intense as it previously seemed. Furthermore, in that same vein we have Google's TurboQuant. This tech aims to reduce the memory use of AI in a big way — at least in certain respects — although I think it's a bit of a red herring, and I've got a feature ready for publishing explaining why. (Look out for that imminently).

Any relief we're seeing now is definitely welcome, but don't make the mistake of believing that we're near some sort of full-on turning point with RAM pricing. Many analyst firms are betting heavily against that, and with good reasons, plus hardware makers are singing similar tunes. Don't underestimate the challenges the tech world is facing here.

Given the gravity of these pricing problems, might we expect governments elsewhere around the world to step in like Korea seemingly has? I very much doubt we'll see grand plans to monitor the fairness of the pricing of PCs or components, which is a seriously thorny area to even consider. However, schemes to provide low-income students or families with help buying a laptop – or repurposing old PCs of the Windows 10 variety – certainly seem like avenues to explore, or expand on, which have plenty of potential.

• Asus RX 9070 XT GPUs have been hit with a sudden price hike in the US
• Framework has warned that while memory costs have stabilized in some areas, this is likely just a temporary reprieve
• The laptop maker predicts that "We'll continue to see volatility and cost increases through the rest of 2026."

There's been a fresh round of price rises for PC components, and that includes price hikes for certain Radeon GPUs, as well as more RAM and storage-related unpleasantness.

We'll start with the graphics cards. VideoCardz noticed that Asus RX 9070 XT models have become more expensive at the firm's US store.

For example, the Asus Prime 9070 XT OC was previously $799.99 and has now been jacked up to $939.99, which represents a hefty increase of 17.5%. The newer white model of this graphics card has gone up by 7% and will now set you back $959.99.

The Asus TUF overclocked take on the 9070 XT is up by 16.5%, meaning the GPU now tips the scales at $989.99, very nearly a grand.

There's been no official announcement from Asus regarding any rising prices, and these hikes have been applied overnight, worryingly.

On top of that, modular laptop and PC manufacturer Framework has announced more RAM and SSD price increases (hat tip to Tom's Hardware), albeit these are not as painful as we've previously witnessed.

The Framework Laptop has seen a price increase for the prebuilt model with 64GB of DDR5 RAM, although there is some more positive news with lower CPU pricing (this is down to its original level for some configurations).

With the Framework Desktop PC, the company notes that it has absorbed RAM cost increases save for the 128GB model, which has had a price hike.

On the storage front, it says new SSDs the company is buying have "substantially higher costs" and to begin with, this means the 4TB version of the WD SN850X is more expensive – and other drives are likely to be soon.

Framework adds: "Our advice here is still that if you need high capacity storage, you should configure a system with it now while we still have inventory at the older, lower cost basis."

Analysis: a temporary reprieve?

Despite the fact that some cost increases have been absorbed, and the latest round of hikes is relatively limited, Framework cautions against getting comfortable with any notion that things might be calming down with regard to the memory crisis. The manufacturer warns: "We have seen costs stabilize in some areas, but all indications are that this is a temporary reprieve and that we'll continue to see volatility and cost increases through the rest of 2026."

There have been glimmers of hope regarding a RAM reprieve elsewhere of late, too — albeit mainly based on the cost of memory getting so high that consumer demand is seriously flagging — but those hints have been weighed down with similar caveats.

The Asus GPU price hikes are more alarming here, though, as they represent some swiftly applied increases, pushing the Radeon 9070 XT graphics card up over the $900 mark for a basic model. That said, this isn't representative of the overall market for AMD's 9070 XT in the US, as you can still get this GPU (at the entry level) for not much more than $700 (at least for some models).

However, is this an early signal that we might see other board makers also increase their 9070 XT asking prices? Possibly — that is very much the worry here, and we shouldn't forget that a few months ago, back at the start of the year in the US, you could still get these AMD GPUs for around the $600 mark, which certainly isn't the case now.

The AI boom has led to an unprecedented period for the PC hardware market, with prices for memory and storage soaring for both manufacturers and consumers. AI datacenters have effectively absorbed RAM kits, with companies like Micron turning their attention away from consumers to a full focus on AI.

However, the tide is slowly but surely beginning to turn in favor of consumers, as prices for RAM kits are starting to fall across some retailers in Europe, the US, and China.

Tom's Hardware highlighted that this sudden shift in market trend is simply because consumers aren't buying unaffordable RAM kits, alongside Google's TurboQuant compression method, which helps to reduce DRAM requirements on AI memory usage. Ultimately, the latter means AI companies won't need to hog memory as much as they have been.

Multiple listings on retailers' sites over the last few months showcased prices for 32GB and 64GB RAM kits that were more expensive than an entire PC build or a games console. It's not a surprise, then, to see prices eventually fall, which is a strong indication that retailers want to clear stock.

Now, you might think about investing in RAM kits as soon as possible, since prices are evidently dropping. Unfortunately, it's not exactly the right time to start making moves to upgrade your PC's memory — and it might be a long wait before any of us can do so at affordable prices.

Don't buy RAM just yet

Before the memory crisis hit, prices for RAM kits were so low and affordable that not many would give those planned upgrade paths a second thought. Whether it was 16GB, 32GB, or 64GB, consumers never needed to pay rent money to acquire them.

To highlight, the Corsair Vengeance RGB Pro DDR4 32GB RAM kit I purchased in late 2024 was £54.99 on Amazon. In today's market, that same kit can be found on Corsair's online store, and costs £273.99 / $280.99 / (around AU$405). That's more than quadruple the original price.

To make my point clear: don't buy RAM just yet, as prices are still far too high above what they should be. If consumers start buying at the instant prices slowly start to drop, it will give retailers the wrong message, ultimately creating a new standard of memory prices going forward.

It's going to take a little while for the market to return to a position of normality, where memory prices for DDR4 kits aren't ridiculously high, and where DDR5 kits don't require consumers to break the bank for what should be a minor PC hardware upgrade.

If we can hold out for longer, while hoping that the AI bubble gradually bursts — which we're already seeing positive signs of with OpenAI's Sora closure — then it's only a matter of time before reasonable and sensible pricing is restored. Until then, patience is key.

• Raspberry Pi 4/5, Pi 500/500+ and more face price increases
• But there's a new Raspberry Pi 4 3GB to optimize cost vs. performance
• Some 'classic' products using stock chips aren't being affected

Raspberry Pi CEO Eben Upton has announced another round of price increases across much of the company's range, pointing the blame largely at global chip shortages.

The latest increases range from around $11 to $150 depending on the model or RAM, driven by increased LPDDR4 DRAM costs affected by AI-induced demand.

Upton explained that RAM prices for the chips used by the Raspberry Pi 4 and 5 have increased sevenfold in the past year, but with higher-RAM models hit hardest due to strained supply, the company has thought creatively and introduced a lower-storage model to keep a lid on costs.

Raspberry Pi launched lower-RAM model in response to rising costs

"While we can’t avoid passing on a portion of these increased costs, we’re also doing engineering work to expand the range of memory-density options available to our customers," Upton wrote.

The new 3GB Raspberry Pi 4 model is now available to buy, slotting beneath the 4GB model and above the 1GB and 2GB variants, for $83.75. As for the latest models in the company's existing lineup, prices have increased across the board:

• Raspberry Pi 4 and 5 (4GB) +$25
• Raspberry Pi 4 and 5 (8GB) +$50
• Raspberry Pi 5 (16GB) +$100
• Raspberry Pi 500 (unit only and kit) +$50
• Raspberry Pi 500+ unit only +$150
• Raspberry Pi 500+ kit +$150
• Compute Module 4 and 4S (1GG) +$11.25
• Compute Module 4, 4S, 5 (2GB) +$12.50
• Compute Module 4, 4S, 5 (4GB) +$25
• Compute Module 4, 4S, 5 (8GB) +$50
• Compute Module 5 (16GB) +$100
• Development Kit for Compute Module 5 +$25
• Raspberry Pi AI HAT+ 2 +$50

There are some products that remain unchanged, including the Raspberry Pi 400 (4GB), Raspberry Pi 4 and 5 (1GB and 2GB) and 'classic' products like the Pi Zero/Zero W/Zero 2 W, Pi 1/3/3B+/3A+ and Compute Module 1/3+.

Upton sees the strain as "challenging but temporary," and expects prices to fall again once memory costs stabilize.

The news follows earlier December 2025 and February 2026 increases, which were blamed on competition for fabrication capacity, as large-scale AI infrastructure continues to absorb a growing share of global memory production.

• A new report from TrendForce gives us some optimistic nuggets of info about the RAM crisis
• It appears that retail prices are dropping in the US, Europe, and especially over in China right now
• The bigger picture hasn't changed much, though, according to memory chip makers, but we can still hope this is the start of a turnaround – at least for consumers

If you were hoping for some good news on RAM pricing, well, there are some glimmers of light on the horizon – though obviously we'd be very foolish to get carried away with any optimism.

VideoCardz spotted various positive signals that mainly come from analyst firm TrendForce, which has a new report (based off a bunch of sources) about how RAM pricing is now falling.

That includes recent observations we've already reported on, such as the German retail market seeing a drop of 7% for DDR5 RAM price tags in March (echoed elsewhere in Europe). The report notes that this is being reflected elsewhere, too, namely in the US and Chinese retail markets, where it's happening in even more pronounced fashion.

Wccftech recently flagged up that a Corsair 32GB DDR5 RAM kit had dropped in price by 20% in the US, for example, and in China, 16GB sticks of DDR5 have fallen by something like 25% to 30% since hitting peak prices in January through to February (this is on "local e-commerce platforms").

32GB kits in China have also dropped by 15% or more, we're told, and Harukaze5719 on X points to a drop of the equivalent of $15 over the past weekend, noting: "The market is in turmoil as prices have fallen sharply in just one or two days."

And on top of all that, we're told that spot prices have dropped sharply in one of Shenzhen's major electronics trading hubs, with 32GB RAM modules falling in price by as much as a third in some cases.

Part of the reason behind this happening is that consumers are looking at now sky-high RAM prices – which, despite the noted falls, are still ridiculously expensive, certainly in the US and Europe – and just refusing to buy. This is an inevitable 'softening' of demand from consumers as TrendForce puts it.

In the bigger picture in terms of tech developments, we also have Google's TurboQuant which reduces the memory demands that AI makes. And as Hardware Canucks flags up on X, Sam Altman has supposedly gone back on big RAM purchase announcements made for OpenAI previously, and that does align with the firm scaling back its ambitions on multiple fronts (recall the recent pulling of the plug on Sora, too).

Analysis: a welcome drop at retail

So, what to make of all this?

On the one hand, TrendForce notes of Bai Wenxi, Vice Chairman of the China Enterprise Capital Alliance and Chief Economist for the China region (via Chinastarmarket.cn): "Looking further ahead, he expected the structural supply-demand imbalance to gradually ease, with DDR5 16GB module prices potentially normalizing by end-2026."

That is, presumably, referring to the Chinese market, and no other forecasts are calling that RAM pricing will stabilize this year – at all. Even the brighter predictions are saying this won't happen until 2027 at the earliest (and many reckon 2028, and others still believe that normalization won't occur until the end of the decade).

Additionally, TrendForce makes it clear that Taiwan-based memory chip makers are "broadly maintaining strict pricing discipline", so their profits are not dipping meaningfully (yet). TrendForce says: "Contract prices have so far held firm, and server-side HBM and DRAM demand has remained largely intact, with major suppliers reportedly locked into multi-year agreements with key clients."

This mainly appears to be a drop in prices at actual retail, then – although that's obviously great news for consumers, even if the big RAM hoovers out there on the commercial side aren't getting anything much of a break.

The report concludes: "On balance, the current DDR5 price correction appears to be a consumer-driven, short-term adjustment rather than a definitive signal of structural demand deterioration."

Still, I'll take that, and there's quite a little flurry of more optimistic predictions here, which are definitely welcome compared to the general highly negative vibe around memory price hikes. As ever, we need to watch the coming months, and keep our fingers crossed that retail prices keep going on this downward track.

Handheld gaming has been in a great place for a few years, ever since Valve launched the Steam Deck in 2022, kicking off a raft of portable gaming PCs appearing in all manner of incarnations.

Since the Steam Deck muscled onto the scene, Lenovo, Asus, and Ayaneo have all been busy launching new handhelds, offering a wide variety of options from lower to higher-end devices. Some have struck a nicely affordable chord, although many have been criticized for being overpriced.

Valve's Steam Deck was (and arguably still is) the most popular among all the handheld gaming PCs on the market, giving gamers an easy way to dive into portable gaming for a reasonable price.

However, the situation with handhelds is swiftly changing, and not for the better. The AI boom has meant that prices for RAM and storage have skyrocketed, and the crisis is seemingly getting worse on a daily basis.

Notably, Ayaneo had its Next 2 handheld gaming PC poised to go sale, with pre-orders open and shipments scheduled for June 2026. Unfortunately, those pre-orders are no longer available, as the company has been forced to suspend sales for the new device due to rapidly rising component costs.

While Ayaneo is arguably a niche brand, one that pushes for higher specifications in a handheld that can provide gaming laptop-level performance, it's not the only company that has seen its line-up of handheld devices impacted by the ongoing memory chip crisis. And it doesn't look like it'll be the last, either.

The AI boom might destroy handheld gaming PCs

At this rate, handheld gaming PCs are in grave danger of gradually being phased out, at least as a mainstream force. We've reached a point where device manufacturers are struggling to keep up with the cost and lack of availability of RAM and storage, and consumers simply can't afford to pay entry-level desktop gaming PC prices for portable devices. All this is a direct result of the AI boom.

Ayaneo's case is a telling example here, with the company admitting that hardly any profit has been made from the Next 2 handheld pre-orders taken thus far, as the overall cost of production has risen so much.

Another prime example of the chaos being sown with handhelds is Valve's recent announcement that the Steam Deck OLED will be out of stock intermittently, and unsurprisingly, this is due to memory and storage supply issues.

The RAM crisis represents an increasingly difficult situation for Valve in particular, with the Steam Machine still in the pipeline for a launch in 2026 — and that has already faced a delay, once again, due to said crisis.

The affordability problems caused for both manufacturers and consumers are a recipe for disaster when it comes to handheld gaming PCs. The longer the AI boom continues, with data centers grabbing huge slabs of memory for AI tasks, the worse things will get for handheld production costs.

Ultimately, it all comes down to a nasty price to pay for consumers, who will be faced with ever more expensive price tags for handhelds that were already creeping into unaffordable territory even before the AI boom struck.

All this threatens to stall the progress that handheld gaming PCs have made since they grabbed their share of the limelight following the success of the Steam Deck. Previously this market was mostly dominated by niche brands like Ayaneo or Ayn, and those days could return — if the RAM crisis continues to make life miserable for handheld manufacturers, and consumer interest declines.

There are some tentative signs that the AI bubble could burst, notably with OpenAI putting the sword to Sora, and you never know what's around the next corner — it's not all doom and gloom.

However, I worry that even after the bubble eventually bursts — however long that may take — it could be some time before the supply of components normalizes. Predictions from analyst firms make that clear enough.

Hopefully, though, this component storm won't be raging for too long, and handheld gaming PCs will manage to weather it. That does, of course, remain to be seen, and unfortunately matters are looking pretty rocky right now.

• The chairman of a top memory chip maker has issued a worrying warning
• Chey Tae-won notes: "We need some time to build up more wafers, at least four to five years"
• That's a more pessimistic prediction than analyst firms are making

One of the top memory chip makers in the world believes that the RAM supply shortage and associated pricing crisis could last for the rest of this decade.

Reuters reports that Chey Tae-won, who is chairman of SK Group, made the depressing prediction that the RAM crisis might not be over until 2030.

Chey said: "So we need some time to build up more wafers, at least four to ​five years. The current shortage could continue until 2030, so we expect more than a 20% shortage of the ‌wafers."

This refers to the wafers used to make memory chips, and a particular difficulty right now is that AI is creating a big demand for a certain type of RAM, namely HBM or high-bandwidth memory. SK Hynix, a division of the SK Group, is the main supplier of HBM to Nvidia.

Chey explained: "AI actually wants to have a lot of HBM, and once you make the HBM... we have to use a lot of wafers."

SK Hynix is one of the big three RAM makers in the world, the others being Samsung and Micron.

Analysis: a worrying prediction — but SK Hynix has a plan

There's a lot of profit in selling this memory for AI usage — far more so than with consumer RAM, of course — and so priorities are skewed, and the latter is coming off worse.

Chey is forecasting that AI demand will continue to stretch supplies to the extent that it's going to take four years to build up production to keep pace with the required supply for the AI industry, as well as consumer products.

While we have witnessed predictions of the RAM crisis continuing until 2028, we've heard hints that it could be longer — and the SK Group chairman has certainly put a worrying extension on that timeframe here.

On a more positive note, Chey did also indicate that SK Hynix is formulating a plan to try to stabilize RAM prices. An announcement regarding that will come from the CEO, we're told, and hopefully it'll be forthcoming soon.

In the near-term, though, it's likely that the situation in the Middle East and its effect on energy prices won't make matters any easier for the supply chain in terms of the cost of getting RAM out there.

MSI just called 2026 the 'most challenging year since the company was founded' in terms of the knock-on problems the memory crisis is causing, and that's expected to impact the shipment numbers of the firm's budget gaming laptops.

• MSI's general manager has called 2026 the "most challenging year since the company was founded"
• The RAM crisis is hitting the laptop maker hard, and it's cutting back on production of low-end notebooks by 30% as a result
• There is brighter news elsewhere as DDR5 RAM prices are seemingly dropping in Europe – but not by that much

The RAM crisis is again exerting unwanted pressures on the broader PC market, even while some slightly more optimistic news has reached us on memory pricing over in Europe.

The dose of pessimism comes from MSI, which is going to jack up the prices of its 'gaming products' in the order of 15% to 30% this year. This is according to general manager Huang Jinqing on a recent earnings call, as per a report from Taiwan's United Daily News (via Tom's Hardware).

The increases are driven by the RAM shortage, and also problems with GPU supply from Nvidia — we're told there's a 20% shortfall in securing stock of the latter.

The result is that MSI will cut back on its low-end gaming laptops to the tune of 30%, so it can focus more on mid-range and higher-end PCs. The simple equation to keep revenue flowing is selling fewer devices at higher prices.

Huang said the PC industry is facing severe challenges, and that: "This year is the most challenging year since the company was founded" (text translated from Chinese).

On top of the shifting priorities with laptops, MSI is switching its motherboards to favor models supporting DDR4 memory. Whereas previously four times as many DDR5 motherboards were shipped versus DDR4, that situation has reversed completely, so the older standard is now coming off production lines in fourfold compared to the quantities of DDR5 boards. That's quite a remarkable turnaround.

Analysis: tough times despite some sparks of hope

As noted at the outset, VideoCardz noticed another update from German tech site 3D Center, which keeps tabs on RAM pricing over in Germany, and observes that the price of DDR5 memory dropped by around 7% in March compared to February.

So that sounds quite positive, and it echoes other observations from the European market last month, too. However, lest we get carried away, remember that DDR5 RAM is still quadruple what it cost compared to the price in September 2025, according to 3D Center's price watching. It's just that it has dropped back a little, after plateauing from January to February this year.

Obviously, it's good to witness any kind of downward correction — or indeed just to see that RAM pricing isn't going up — but there is, of course, a limit to how much prices will rise before most consumers throw their hands up in the air and (rightly) just refuse to buy. Unless they have absolutely no choice, that is.

And elsewhere, we're hearing gloomier news on RAM hikes, and as MSI makes clear, all this — and related supply issues around video memory for GPUs — is making life very difficult for PC manufacturers (or indeed those building themselves a new computer). We've already heard as much from the likes of HP and other big laptop makers, of course.

However, to call 2026 the "most challenging year" is quite a statement, considering that the pandemic in 2020 was a very tough time for the market (and it isn't the first time we've heard this sentiment in the tech industry this year).

Huang is predicting a 10% to 20% decline in PC sales this year, whereas analyst firms are pitching their estimations at a 10% drop for 2026. That's the best-case scenario as far as MSI's general manager is concerned, which is troubling to say the least, as is the fact that the budget end of the PC market is going to be hit hardest.

• DDR5 RAM prices have reached new highs in the US
• Even the cheapest 32GB kits can't be had for less than $360
• That's 20% more than two months ago, as system RAM keeps getting more expensive despite previous signs that the crisis was abating

RAM pricing continues to prove seriously painful with DDR5 modules, and the situation at US retailers is so bad that you can't get a basic (entry-level) 32GB kit for anything less than $350 now.

Tom's Hardware highlighted pricing on Amazon in the US observing that some common lower-end 32GB kits – which comprise of two 16GB DDR5 sticks – are now $360. Just a couple of months back, those same kits were priced at around $290 to $325, showing that prices are continuing their seemingly inexorable rise.

Indeed, looking at Newegg and Amazon now, I can't see anything below $360, save for one offer on a Kingbank 32GB kit for $350 on Newegg – note that this is a Chinese brand, and there are caveats therein (although the product is sold directly by Newegg, I'd rather buy from one of the trusted RAM makers we typically recommend given the saving is only ten bucks here).

What this shows is that despite some signs of a pullback in RAM price rises – which had been observed in some regions last month – the overall direction is still upwards, albeit not at nearly the steepness of the hikes we saw at the end of 2025.

As one Redditor observes in the reaction to this finding: "RAM prices are genuinely insane now. I bought a new RAM kit at the beginning of September, and if I were to buy the same kit now it would cost more than my graphics card. I have an RTX 4090, so that is absolutely absurd."

Analysis: blame the bots – a double whammy of AI misery

We're looking at a roughly 20% rise in prices over the past couple of months for DDR5, then, and as Tom's notes, the situation is made worse because bots are now being brought in by scalpers.

Price gougers are snapping up RAM kits that arrive at more affordable prices – and that's very much a relative term now – using said AI-powered bots. Of course, it's the demand for RAM in terms of the AI explosion – that and issues around memory chip makers cutting production levels in the past, when there was a glut of supply – which has caused the current RAM crisis.

There's been further bad news from Framework (via VideoCardz), with the laptop and desktop PC maker having to put up the pricing on its DDR5 modules to $13 to $18 per Gigabyte (GB). To put that in perspective, at the end of last year, the price was $10 per GB, with a rise to $12 to $16 last month.

The storm around RAM pricing shows no signs of calming down for the time being, then, and the outlook remains gloomy. (Of course, you can still get sporadic deals on high-end RAM, albeit the savings made are only relative to the huge price hikes, and the outlay is still a painful one).

The alternatives to buying new RAM are to look at used memory on auction sites – although there's no guarantee with the quality therein – or to get yourself a bundle deal (such as a motherboard with RAM included, or maybe a three-in-one CPU plus RAM and motherboard package). Those kind of deals are likely the best route if you're looking to build a PC, but obviously they won't be of much use to anyone simply wanting to upgrade their current system memory.

• HPE CEO Antonio Neri reveals plans for an "agile pricing posture" in response to memory shortages
• Customers are also being encouraged to reconsider configurations
• The company has a $5 billion server order backlog at the moment

HPE has changed its terms to now allow price increases after a quote has already been issued if component costs rise before shipment, in response to ongoing pricing volatility and global hardware shortages.

The move is largely driven by rising prices for DRAM and NAND, which typically make up around 50% of a traditional server's bill of materials.

Speaking on an earnings call following its Q1 results, HPE CEO Antonio Neri said the company would be adopting an "agile pricing posture" with shorter quote commitment cycles to protect its margins.

HPE says it'll change quoted prices if costs rise

"We have amended our quoting terms with the right to reprice existing orders for commodity cost increases between quoting and shipment," Neri said.

Besides looking to bolster margins by passing on price fluctuations to customers, HPE has also expanded long-term supply agreements with silicon and memory partners so it doesn't have to pass on those price hikes so much.

In the meantime, the company is warning customers that they should reconsider alternative configurations to manage demand. Neri credited European customers for altering course in response to chip shortages without being put off by price hikes.

Despite troubling times in the world of chips, HPE still posted a 150% year-over-year increase in networking revenue to $2.7 billion, though a large part of that was driven by its acquisition of Juniper Networks. The networking business represents around 30% of HPE's total revenue, but more than half of its operating profits.

HPE also admitted it has a $5 billion server order backlog at the moment, but CFO Marie Myers expects AI hardware orders to ship in the second half of 2026.

All in all, HPE "exceeded [its] expectations for profitability and cash flow measures," and company shares are up around 3% since the announcement.

• Scalpers are targeting DDR5 RAM as AI demand tightens global supply
• Automated bots hit DDR5 listings six times more than real shoppers
• Over 10 million scraping requests were blocked in a single campaign

You’ve likely seen the chaos scalpers can cause, as limited-edition sneakers, flights, major concert tickets, and the PlayStation 5 have all seen prices soar as bots snap up stock in seconds and flip it for profit, effectively shutting ordinary buyers out of the market.

DDR5 RAM is the latest target for scalpers, as facing mounting shortages, automated buying tools are moving in fast, making a bad situation even worse.

The surge in AI workloads is driving the squeeze. Training large language models and running inference servers requires vast amounts of memory, and manufacturers are shifting production toward higher-margin AI-focused products such as HBM, tightening consumer DDR5 supply in the process.

10 million blocked scraping requests

Recent research from the Galileo threat team found scalping bots are hitting DDR5 product pages almost six times more often than legitimate shoppers. In one campaign alone, more than 10 million scraping requests were blocked.

In a one-hour sample, bots made 50,000 requests across 91 DDR5 listings. Each product page was checked an average of 551 times, which translates to stock checks every 6.5 seconds.

This wasn’t limited to flashy RGB kits for PC enthusiasts. Bots targeted the entire supply chain, from consumer modules by Corsair, Crucial, Kingston, and Lexar to OEM and industrial suppliers like Micron and Apacer.

Even upstream components such as DDR5 DIMM sockets from Amphenol and TE Connectivity are being monitored, pointing to strain across the entire supply chain.

The automation is deliberate. Nearly every request carries cache-busting parameters, sessions consist of a single page hit and exit, and there’s no browsing or cart activity.

Traffic runs in a flat, mechanical pattern seven days a week. When technical hiccups occur, activity drops instantly and then snaps immediately back to full volume, a rhythm no human shopping pattern follows.

Just like with sneakers and consoles, automated buying is locking out regular customers. The difference here is that the frenzy isn’t fueled by hype, it’s fueled by AI infrastructure.

The RAM crisis is a thorn in the side of many PC hardware manufacturers and companies, actively causing disruptions to launch schedules, pricing plans, and availability. Unfortunately, Valve knows that tale all too well, and the memory shortages and price hikes couldn't have come at a worse time for the corporation.

Valve initially slated its Steam Machine console-like PC for an early-2026 launch, but the ongoing memory crisis has forced it to delay a specific release date and pricing announcement.

The RAM crisis (or what I like to call, the RAMpocalypse) and storage shortages have both led to the Steam Deck OLED's drop in supply, as Valve announced the handheld console's stock is delayed indefinitely.

It's quite clear, then, that the PC hardware market is in disarray, which could threaten Valve's plan to launch the Steam Machine at a reasonable and affordable price — at least in a similar way to the Steam Deck's modest cost.

While the Steam Machine's launch is still slated for the first half of 2026, the impact of memory shortages across the market tells us otherwise.

Until the AI boom settles down and RAM becomes readily available again, I don't see how Valve won't disappoint fans with the Steam Machine's price, even if it's no fault of their own. However, there's one decision Valve could make to save its mini gaming PC from annihilation, even if it's a choice that likely won't sit well with consumers.

Valve has to delay the Steam Machine indefinitely

Nobody wants delays when it comes to PC hardware or software, and we've seen the negative reactions that often come as a result (a prime example being Rockstar's GTA 6). However, I fear that the safest choice Valve could make is to indefinitely delay the launch of the Steam Machine.

That won't be a straightforward decision either; there's no way to accurately predict when this RAM crisis will finally be put to bed, and an indefinite delay could mean Valve will be waiting beyond 2026 to commit to its Steam Machine launch plans.

As it stands, the AI boom is still going strong and isn't showing any signs of slowing down, as investors and companies turn their attention to data centers and all other tech involving AI.

Even if Valve launched the Steam Machine now, and it came with a surprisingly affordable price, I could see it being hit with an eventual price hike in the near future. That's supposing that the RAM crisis is still ongoing over the next few months, of course. We've seen the likes of Microsoft and Sony implement price increases on Xbox (including the Asus ROG Xbox Ally X) and PlayStation consoles, respectively, and Nintendo is rumoured to be considering a similar measure for its Switch 2 system.

Valve was unsuccessful with its previous Steam Machines, which were developed by its partners, such as Alienware. While its failure was down to multiple factors, one of the main reasons was pricing, especially considering the strong competition from popular game consoles at the time.

It would be a massive shame if history repeated itself, and I'm really hoping that the Steam Machine's potential isn't destroyed by a high price, resulting from the RAM crisis. But I'm afraid that's where matters might be heading if Valve sticks to its first half of 2026 launch plan.

The Steam Machine looks poised to bring the required competition to the game console market, and it's a chance for Valve's SteamOS to grow and push for more game compatibility on Linux. So, let's hope that the RAM crisis doesn't spoil that.

• The RAM crisis will bring "seismic" changes to phones, a new report says
• That means rising prices and changing specifications
• The changes could be long-lasting and potentially permanent

If you’ve been thinking about upgrading your computer, it’s been hard to avoid news of rapidly rising component prices caused by the ongoing RAM shortage. The impact on all the best phones has been less clear, but a new report has highlighted how it could drastically affect the smartphone world over the coming months.

The report comes from tech analysts IDC (via Bloomberg), and it makes for some pretty bleak reading. According to IDC, the global smartphone market will shrink 12.9% in 2026, sparking a “crisis like no other” in the industry. Indeed, IDC says that past upheaval will pale in comparison, saying that “The tariffs and pandemic crisis seem a joke compared to this.”

The outlook for consumers is pretty miserable. In response to the memory crunch, Bloomberg says that smartphone makers are “reining in specifications, eliminating unprofitable entry-level models and pushing consumers to buy more premium devices.”

And this might not be a temporary change, either. IDC’s Senior Research Director Nabila Popal believes that “The smartphone market will witness a seismic shift by the time this crisis is over – in size, average selling prices and competitive landscape.”

For its part, Bloomberg believes that the current situation will extend into 2027 and that “even when supply is replenished, returning to the old pricing structures now appears unlikely.”

Bad news, especially for Android

The ongoing RAM crisis has been caused by the extreme demands of the artificial intelligence (AI) industry, which has eaten up most of the component supply for its data center needs, and it’s now having a knock-on effect on consumer devices.

As Bloomberg puts it, “The demand for advanced memory to power artificial intelligence tasks has drained global supply until well into next year and now jeopardizes the business model of many smartphone makers.”

The state of the industry is particularly bad news for Android phones, where profit margins tend to be thin and prices are often low. IDC noted that entry-level devices could be particularly badly affected, as memory makes up a larger share of manufacturers’ costs at this end of the market. Companies like Lenovo and Xiaomi have already warned that prices might have to rise.

Premium companies like Apple might weather the storm a little better, as their higher profit margins might allow them to absorb more of the cost increases instead of passing them on to consumers. That said, Apple CEO Tim Cook recently conceded that the supply shortage could have a “bit more of an impact” going forward than it did last year, raising the question of whether the company will have to raise prices.

IDC is not the only research firm to hold this pessimistic outlook. For instance, analysts at Counterpoint recently claimed that “2026 is shaping up to be the worst year in smartphone history” due to a “full-scale supply shock” triggered by the RAM shortage.

IDC’s Popal sounded a gloomy note by adding: “The days of cheap smartphones are gone, as even when the crisis is over, we don’t expect memory prices to go back down to 2025 levels.” According to Bloomberg, some 170 million phones costing under $100 were sold in 2025 – an entire segment that now looks “uneconomical to maintain.”

• A Redditor bought a 32GB Corsair RAM kit for $300
• They ended up being sent 10 of those kits
• That's a total of 320GB of RAM, or $3,000 worth of memory (actually more going by current pricing)

We're seeing a distinct increase in scams around RAM sales of late — now that DDR5 is so expensive, it's inevitable — but here's something that worked the other way around, and very much in favor of the buyer this time.

As posted on Reddit, somebody ordered a Corsair Vengeance DDR5 RAM kit with a 32GB capacity, paying $300 for the privilege.

What they received, though, was a box of 10 of these 32GB kits, which of course is worth $3,000 — based on the price apparently paid, anyway, which seems cheap. (If we look at Newegg in the US right now, for example, the cheapest Corsair Vengeance DDR5 kits I can see are around $400, so this pile of RAM is actually selling for quite a bit more than three grand in theory).

We must, of course, be careful as to whether this is a genuine story or one that's been fabricated to grab some attention. Obviously, there's no real proof, although the photo of the stack of RAM kits in the box looks genuine enough — but that's all we can really go on here.

So, arm yourself with a whole lot of seasoning, but while this kind of error is doubtless very rare, it can happen — albeit not usually on this scale.

Analysis: warehouse woes?

Assuming this is a genuine tale of an order fulfilment slip-up, how might such a mistake occur? Clearly there's been an error in the inventory system somewhere, and as the other Redditors discussing the incident conclude, it's likely a mistake in the warehouse where a staff member scanned the box of 10 kits as a single item – and nobody further up the chain thought to double-check on this.

Whatever the case, the reality for most of us is that buying RAM is now a miserable affair, especially DDR5 – and you're way more likely to run into a scam than any kind of mistake like this.

That said, these things do happen, and there's another poster in the Reddit thread who claims that a friend received five RAM kits when they ordered one – and contacted Amazon to let them know about the mistake. Apparently: "Amazon customer service basically told him to keep them as it was their mistake, he was offering to send 4 back and they just told him it didn't matter."

As for what the Redditor who was sent these 10 kits is going to do, they say: "I'm selling to the community for under the new inflated msrp."

As another Redditor put it, "My dude is out here Robin Hoodmaxxing", and that's an understandable sentiment given just how painful RAM pricing has got – but of course there could be other potential ramifications (pun not intended) with this approach to the seller's mistake.

• HP says memory accounts for around 35% of the cost of a PC, up from 15-18% in one quarter
• The company, and analysts, expect volatility to continue for some time yet
• HP consumer devices are still selling strong, but Canalys anticipates costly impacts

HP has revealed the cost memory now accounts for around one-third (35%) of its PC bill of materials, up from around 15-18% last quarter, making a seriously sharp increase.

And worse still, the company is expecting memory chip price volatility to continue well into next year, largely driven by demand for AI data center components which is straining consumer supply.

Looking ahead, HP expects the RAM's percentage in the bill for PCs to rise before it stabilizes or decreases, spelling out potential knock-on price increases for consumers.

HP says computer memory is getting more expensive

To mitigate some of the price hikes, HP has secured long-term supply agreements and qualified new suppliers to diversify its supply. And even though the company blames AI for pushing costs up, it's also using AI in its supply chain planning to cut costs across areas like logistics.

The company is combining multiple approaches, including increasing end costs and reconfiguring devices, to retain healthy margins and not to pass on such sharp price hikes to consumers.

HP Interim CEO Bruce Broussard praised strong Personal Systems performance including "continued momentum in AI PCs." The company posted a 6.9% year-over-year increase in quarterly revenue. Personal Systems (PS) revenue rose 11%, with Consumer PS revenue up 16% and Commercial PS revenue up 9%.

HP isn't alone in feeling the pinch, though, as the entire industry gears up to absorb or pass on increasing costs. "Demand for conventional DRAM is surging alongside HBM as AI inference workloads scale, driving an exceptional short-term price rally,” Omdia Senior Principal Analyst Lino Jeng noted.

A separate Omdia post hints at a potential decline in the semiconductor market, had AI not stepped in and created such a surge.

Looking ahead, Omdia's researchers predict continued "supply-side pressures" and "cost increases being passed through to customers" following 40% to 70% rises in PC memory and storage costs throughout calendar 2025.

• Lenovo has warned its partners of March price hikes for select products
• The price hikes are a result of the ongoing RAM crisis
• Lenovo is yet another company to be hit by the RAM crisis in 2026

The RAM crisis is spiraling out of control, with multiple PC hardware manufacturers, companies, and resellers forced to implement price hikes – and unfortunately, the latest victim is a renowned consumer PC brand, Lenovo.

As reported by CRN, Lenovo has warned its partners of upcoming price hikes for select products, including consumer PCs, in March, due to the RAM crisis caused by the ongoing AI boom.

Partners have been encouraged to place orders on or before February 28 to stay aligned with "current pricing assumptions," specifically stating that orders received on February 28 that aren't shipped by March 31 "will need to be repriced", further highlighting Lenovo's urgent push for partners to avoid March's pricing adjustments.

Lenovo's North America VP and Channel Chief, Wade McFarland, stated: "Pricing is influenced by both order and timing and fulfillment timing, and Lenovo reviews pricing periodically in response to evolving market conditions."

Regarding those price increases and orders for its wide range of hardware, Lenovo stressed, "We've absolutely had to adjust and continue to adjust [terms]. There's no way around it."

It's quite clear that the impact of the RAM crisis is substantial for Lenovo, and it won't be long before consumers see price changes on its devices, likely including the Lenovo Legion Go 2 handheld gaming PC.

Consumers should act fast too

It's now easy to say that the current state of the PC hardware market is unprecedented, with demand for memory from AI datacenters causing almost a total collapse in stability.

Prices are higher than ever before as the crisis is forcing manufacturers to rethink strategies, and Lenovo joins the likes of Valve, which is facing memory and storage shortages and has its Steam Deck OLED handheld intermittently out of stock as a result.

While Lenovo's urgent message is to its partners, it's also one consumers should consider. Prices for its handhelds, laptops, and consumer PCs are likely going to see major price increases, and now may be the only chance to beat the inevitable impact.

The market is a chaotic state of affairs, and now the only question we can ask is how much worse can the RAM crisis possibly get?

• DDR5 RAM prices appear to be dropping in Europe
• Price tags have eased by around 10% to 15%, albeit that evidence is a limited snapshot of the market
• On the downside, Chinese RAM — which some hoped would be an affordable alternative — isn't looking so good

There's a hopeful sign that RAM prices might be finally dropping — although there's also a more negative piece of news that's crept in to balance that out somewhat.

First off, the good news, which as Tom's Hardware reports is that the prices for DDR5 RAM appear to be easing in Europe.

The tech site noticed a claim on Reddit, showing a graph of the price of an 'average' 32GB kit of DDR5 memory in the EU — which all sounds very vague, but points to a drop of about 10% (roughly) in price since the start of February.

Seemingly this graph is from price-comparison data compiled by Tweakers.net, a Dutch tech site, and there are anecdotal observations in the Reddit thread that this is what's happening in Europe.

Tom's also did its own quick check of five popular (big brand) DDR5 memory kits at Amazon Germany (using CamelCamelCamel price tracking), finding that a couple of products had indeed dropped quite considerably — by around 12% to 15% — since early February.

So, there does appear to be an easing of prices at some major retailers over in Europe, which is good to see. Tom's also looked at the US market, and found some evidence of much smaller price drops, but nothing that you'd read much into (yet).

While that's something of a welcome relief, then, Wccftech also spotted a more pessimistic sign, as flagged by Chinese tech site IT Home.

As you may be aware, there's some hope that more affordable RAM from Chinese manufacturers might step in as a relatively wallet-friendly option for western buyers if imported — but this isn't likely to happen, we're told.

In fact, KingBank, one of the big RAM makers that uses memory chips from CXMT — which was recently highlighted as a potential cost-friendly savior for the overinflated RAM market in the west — has jacked up its pricing to levels similar to what we've seen in Europe and the US.

Wccftech notes that a KingBank 32GB DDR5 kit on JD.com now runs to the equivalent of over $500, meaning it's pretty much the same price as the big brands in the US. You may still be able to score a decent price on DDR4 memory, perhaps, in the near-term — although with all the risks that buying from the likes of AliExpress entails.

Analysis: peak pricing reached?

While the Chinese RAM news is far from great, I'll take any positivity at all frankly, and the glimpse of memory prices in Europe now falling is very much welcome.

Okay, so this is probably more about prices reaching such a peak that buyers are increasingly holding off buying — in other words, a reflection of a wobble in demand, and a refusal to get drawn into panic buying, rather than a bolstering of available supply that's easing RAM prices in Europe.

But the net effect is still that prices are coming down, rather than heading inexorably upwards at a ludicrous pace, and I'll take any solace I can get here. We need to keep watching prices going into March, of course, to see whether this downward trend might continue — albeit with a gentler decline maybe, but any further drops will still be a positive sign that perhaps the market is starting to settle down (finally).

I can't say I believe that'll happen with any conviction, mind you – but you never know, especially if buyers are going to get more stubborn about trying to wait this out. The problem with that tactic, of course, is that the RAM crisis isn't predicted to go away any time soon, and the likelihood is that it'll continue into and throughout 2027, if the sentiment of various analyst firms is on the money.

• Chinese RAM is available on AliExpress and other third-party sellers at slightly cheaper prices
• Not all options are cheaper than mainstream RAM kits in the west, though
• This is not a solution to the RAM crisis, but it's an alternative some people may want to explore

The RAM crisis feels relentless for consumers looking to buy PC memory, with high prices across the board for RAM kits from mainstream manufacturers – but fortunately, there's something of a possible temporary solution.

As reported by PC Gamer, an alternative to a traditional mainstream brand (like Corsair or Kingston, for example) in some regions is to buy Chinese RAM at AliExpress, Temu, or other third-party online sellers.

Essentially, you're importing a RAM kit made for the Chinese market, and that idea has suddenly got a lot more appealing due to the skyrocketing prices for RAM sticks from mainstream US and European brands.

The good news is that RAM kits like Cusu and Dudga (which you've likely never heard of) are available to ship to other regions at slightly lower prices compared to the mentioned mainstream offerings.

For example, 16GB of Cusu's 3200MHz DDR4 RAM (2 x 8GB sticks) is available at AliExpress for around $120 / £80 / AU$135. That's discounted due to a sale, mind you, and so Chinese RAM options aren't a silver bullet to completely solve pricing issues.

However, they are a viable alternative for those who don't mind importing, and I've noticed that third-party sellers like AliExpress feature big discounts fairly often.

To put the above price in perspective, a Corsair Vengeance 16GB DDR4 kit features similar specifications but costs $159 / £158 / AU$199.

This isn't a solution to the RAM crisis

To make one thing clear, not all Chinese RAM modules on AliExpress or similar Asian marketplaces will have cheaper pricing than kits being sold in the west. Indeed, I've spotted a fair number of options that are actually priced equivalently (or even more) to what's available with existing mainstream options like Corsair RAM.

That said, if you hunt for a bargain in Asia, you've got a better chance of finding a compelling discount. But you must also remember that there's risk as well as reward to be found here.

It's important to note that while these Chinese RAM kits share similar specifications to those we're familiar with, there's no guarantee they will perform as well as they should. AliExpress isn't the most reliable vendor compared to buying directly from mainstream RAM makers or reputable retailers like Amazon or Best Buy.

Further remember that support will be an issue with a product shipped from Asia, should anything go wrong with the RAM.

For those reasons, I would suggest proceeding with caution if you're considering a purchase along these lines, but this is undeniably one way to escape the RAM crisis without overpaying.

Mind you, it's always possible the RAM crisis might settle down, and mainstream prices could drop lower. There's even some tenuous evidence this could be happening, but whether it'll continue is entirely another matter.

• The Asus ROG Xbox Ally X's price has increased in Japan and Australia, amid a RAM crisis
• The handheld's price appears to be gradually increasing across multiple regions
• Neither Asus nor Microsoft has confirmed why the price increases have occurred

The ongoing RAM crisis is taking the entire PC hardware market by storm, with prices skyrocketing and manufacturers forced to rethink their launch strategies, notably Valve and its Steam Machine — and we may already be looking at the next victim.

As reported by PC Gamer, the Asus ROG Xbox Ally X's price in Australia has increased by AU$200, from its original AU$1,599 ($999 / £799) retail price, to AU$1,799. This is very similar to the recent price increase in Japan by 30,000 yen, which places the handheld's price at 169,800 yen for consumers.

Neither Microsoft nor Asus has confirmed why these price increases have occurred, but it's worth noting that the lower-tier ROG Xbox Ally is still at its original price in both Australia and Japan, which features 16GB of RAM and 512GB of storage space.

Meanwhile, the Ally X features 24GB of RAM and 1TB of storage, and based on those specs, we can infer that the reason for the price hike in both regions is likely due to the memory and storage shortages.

Valve is the latest to be impacted by the shortages, with the Steam Deck OLED now out of stock intermittently in multiple regions. We've also seen that Sony is reportedly delaying the launch of the PS6 to 2029, while Nintendo is considering a Switch 2 price increase, all of which are a result of the RAM crisis.

It's not a coincidence then that the ROG Xbox Ally X's price has suddenly increased in Australia and Japan in the same week, particularly for the model using more RAM and storage. Those higher-tier components will naturally be more sought after by both consumers and AI data centers, and are more costly for manufacturers to produce due to the shortages in the PC hardware market.

Unfortunately, that spells potential bad news for other regions outside of Japan and Australia.

Price hikes in other regions beckons

PC hardware has seen price hikes across the board since the start of 2026, and the impact from the memory and storage shortages seems to be hitting multiple regions at a breakneck pace, with no signs of stopping.

I'm willing to bet that other regions are next in line for price hikes on the ROG Xbox Ally X, and these issues may very well last throughout 2026, as the AI bubble (which is why RAM kits are so expensive now) continues to grow.

The RAM crisis also has the potential to encourage scalpers, particularly with upcoming and current systems like the Steam Machine or the Steam Deck OLED, respectively, as the latter is still in stock in the UK and other regions. The crisis is a messy situation for all companies, manufacturers, and consumers, which appears to be getting worse each day with new reports of halts in production, unprecedented price hikes, and shortages.

The sooner the AI bubble bursts and shortages aren't as prevalent, the more stable the market will become — but judging by the current state of affairs, that's not happening any time soon.

• Valve has confirmed the Steam Deck OLED's stock woes are indeed due to the RAM crisis
• The Steam Deck OLED is out of stock intermittently in some regions
• The Steam Machine may be in danger of another delay, an unaffordable price point, or low availability at launch

Valve is currently working on its upcoming Steam Machine device, which is a hybrid gaming PC and console and slated for early 2026, but many of us have been concerned that the memory crisis could scupper those launch plans. Unfortunately, a recent development regarding the Steam Deck confirms our suspicions.

On the Steam Deck store page, Valve has admitted that the Steam Deck OLED is out of stock intermittently in some regions, "due to memory and storage shortages", as we previously predicted. Both the 512GB and 1TB OLED models are currently out of stock in some regions, specifically the US, with the LCD model having been discontinued a while back.

While the RAM crisis being the driving force behind stock woes isn't a huge surprise, it's potentially bad news for Valve's future hardware plans, especially as it could force the company to also discontinue the Steam Deck OLED, without having a Steam Deck 2 in the works.

More worryingly, though, it places the upcoming Steam Machine in danger of another delay, an unaffordable price point, or low availability. The console-like mini PC has already faced some scrutiny due to its 8GB VRAM GPU, which is arguably insufficient for modern gaming.

With the current memory and storage shortages, Valve likely won't be able to replicate selling at a loss like it did with the Steam Deck.

Valve is damned either way

If Valve decides to launch the Steam Machine at a high price (I now expect it to be at least $1,000), it's not going to sit well with most consumers. However, if Valve still manages to keep prices within a reasonable range — or in other words, sell the Steam Machine at a loss — the financial strain may be more damaging to the company than ever, due to the unstable PC hardware market.

It leaves Valve in a position where an indefinite delay of the Steam Machine may be the best option; to avoid the RAM crisis from impacting its retail price, but all signs suggest the memory shortage isn't slowing down, or rather, it's only just getting started.

However, the intermittent stock supply of the Steam Deck OLED actually hints at Valve temporarily halting the handheld's production and prioritising its inventory for the Steam Machine, particularly in the storage capacity department.

This is the worst time for Valve to launch the Steam Machine, especially since the Steam Frame is also slated for an early 2026 launch. Valve has earned its reputation as a consumer-friendly company, and I doubt that unaffordable pricing for the Steam Machine will completely change that.

However, I'm certain it will rub some consumers the wrong way, and the RAM crisis could once again cause pain for PC gamers looking forward to new tech.

• Samsung begins commercial HBM4 shipments as AI memory competition heats up
• HBM4 reaches 11.7Gbps speeds while pushing higher bandwidth and efficiency gains for data centers
• Samsung scales production plans with roadmap extending to HBM4E and custom memory variants

Samsung says it has not only begun mass production of HBM4 memory, but also shipped the first commercial units to customers, claiming an industry first for the new high bandwidth memory generation.

HBM4 is built on Samsung’s sixth generation 10nm-class DRAM process and uses a 4nm logic base die, which reportedly helped the South Korean memory giant reach stable yields without redesigns as production ramped up.

That’s a technical claim which will likely be tested once large scale deployments start and independent performance results appear.

Up to 48GB capacity

The new memory reaches a consistent transfer speed of 11.7Gbps, with headroom up to 13Gbps in certain configurations.

Samsung compares that with an industry baseline of 8Gbps, putting HBM3E at 9.6Gbps. Total memory bandwidth climbs to 3.3TB/s per stack, which works out to roughly 2.7 times higher than its earlier generation.

Capacity ranges from 24GB to 36GB in 12-layer stacks, with 16-layer versions coming later. This could increase capacity to 48GB for customers that need denser configurations.

Power use is a key issue as HBM designs increase pin counts, and this generation moves from 1,024 to 2,048 pins.

Samsung says it improved power efficiency by about 40% compared with HBM3E via low-voltage through-silicon-via technology and power distribution tweaks, alongside thermal changes that increase heat dissipation and resistance.

“Instead of taking the conventional path of utilizing existing proven designs, Samsung took the leap and adopted the most advanced nodes like the 1c DRAM and 4nm logic process for HBM4,” said Sang Joon Hwang, EVP and Head of Memory Development at Samsung Electronics.

“By leveraging our process competitiveness and design optimization, we are able to secure substantial performance headroom, enabling us to satisfy our customers’ escalating demands for higher performance, when they need them.”

The company also points to its manufacturing scale and in-house packaging as key reasons it can meet expected demand growth.

That includes closer coordination between foundry and memory teams as well as partnerships with GPU makers and hyperscalers building custom AI hardware.

Samsung says it expects its HBM business to grow sharply across 2026, with HBM4E sampling planned for later in the year and custom HBM samples set to follow in 2027.

Whether competitors respond with similar timelines or faster alternatives will shape how long this early lead lasts.

• Corsair has new packaging for its DDR5 RAM
• Some kits are in a sealed plastic clamshell rather than a cardboard box
• Lower-tier RAM still comes in the old box, but a security label is being added

Corsair has introduced countermeasures with its product packaging designed to foil scammers who are stealing memory sticks by swapping them out for old RAM modules and returning these fakes to retailers.

Tom's Hardware highlighted a Corsair blog post in which the memory manufacturer explains that it has changed the packaging for some of its RAM.

With Corsair's Vengeance DDR5 RAM kits with two sticks (for example, a 32GB kit which consists of a pair of 16GB modules), the company has switched to using a sealed plastic clamshell rather than a cardboard box. This is with its RGB memory, and also the plain DDR5 sticks with no fancy lights.

This means the RAM is clearly visible to the buyer before they purchase the item, and indeed it's easily inspected by staff at retailers to help combat incidents of fake returns, as mentioned at the outset. Corsair notes that people are switching products out for 'non-genuine modules', which are usually ancient (effectively worthless) RAM from an old PC, or even just dummy RGB lighting modules as seen recently (see the image below).

As an additional measure, the clamshell packaging has a 'tamper-evident belly label' so you can clearly see if it's been opened before.

Analysis: clamshells and security labels are likely to become more prevalent

It's a sorry state of affairs, really, but this is where the RAM crisis has led us. DDR5 RAM has become so ridiculously expensive that it's as much of a target now as seriously pricey high-end graphics cards. (These have famously been victims of similar return-related scams, where buyers have ended up purchasing a GPU box that has a rock in it, or a lump of metal, or perhaps a bag of rice).

So, it's not surprising that Corsair has taken action in this way with these pricier products in their most common variant (dual-stick RAM kits, because you want your memory split into two modules for the fastest operating speeds).

In case you were wondering, Corsair's lower-tier RAM modules still come in a traditional paper box format. However, the memory maker clarifies that these will get a security label on the box for some additional protection from scammers, in an update that's seemingly rolling out soon.

The new packaging for DDR5 modules is already here, and indeed has been in place for over a month, so you may have caught sight of it in retailers (as this Redditor did a couple of weeks back).

Not everyone is a fan of this clamshell plastic packaging, mind, as sometimes it really isn't easy to get into, degenerating into quite a struggle if you only have a flimsy pair of scissors to try to carve your way into the pack. Also, plastic is not an ideal choice in terms of the environment. Corsair does make it clear that these cases are made from recycled materials, though, and I think it's a fair enough move to try and outfox the scammers, especially given the kind of expenditure consumers are making to grab a good DDR5 kit these days.

It's entirely possible that other RAM makers may implement similar moves to help combat scammers.

• Valve's Steam Deck OLED is out of stock in the US, and reportedly in some regions in Asia
• The RAM crisis appears to be the culprit, as Valve is likely facing memory and storage shortages
• Valve is yet to officially confirm why its OLED handheld is out of stock

As Valve continues to prepare for its upcoming Steam Machine 'console-style' PC and the Steam Frame VR headset, concerns about pricing and availability are growing – and a recent development may not do much to ease fears.

Valve's Steam Deck OLED is currently out of stock in the US, and apparently in Japan too, as reported by Tom's Hardware. This includes the LCD model that was discontinued in December 2025 (for US consumers), and is on the verge of leaving the market in all regions once stock finally runs out.

While Valve hasn't confirmed why stock for the Steam Deck OLED has suddenly dried up, we can infer that the ongoing RAM crisis may be the culprit – or at the very least, that it's having a significant impact on the matter.

There's a significant memory shortage for many PC manufacturers, ultimately driving up the cost of production for devices like the Steam Deck OLED, as demand for RAM has skyrocketed due to the rapid expansion of AI data centers.

It's also worth noting that stock in the US for the Steam Deck OLED was stable in the latter half of 2025 and earlier in January this year, until a sudden major drop in February. The sudden shift to no stock is a telltale sign that the RAM crisis has either forced Valve to reconsider pricing for the OLED models or push for a bigger production focus on the Steam Machine – or worse, an early sign of the Steam Deck OLED's discontinuation.

While Valve hasn't directly commented on the Steam Deck stock issues yet, the RAM crisis is confirmed to be a direct cause of the Steam Machine's recent delay, as Valve is taking its time to consider pricing and availability, citing 'memory and storage shortages' (no surprise there).

It's not a reach, then, to suggest that Valve's beloved handheld could be facing the same issues right now, especially since the PC hardware market is in such an unstable state. We've seen the likes of Microsoft and Sony forced to increase prices for the Xbox Series X | S and PS5 consoles, respectively, but this was seemingly for different reasons (including the recent US tariffs imposed by Donald Trump), as Sony recently stated that it has 'secured stock' of PS5 units and won't be raising the price due to RAM shortages... not yet, anyway.

With the Steam Machine's release still slated for early 2026, Valve should be sharing updates soon on pricing and availability, which should finally address consumers' concerns about affordability. However, the Steam Deck OLED's lifespan on the market might finally be in question, especially if this memory shortage continues.

We’ve all seen the news – massive data center-driven demand (mostly for AI) has sent prices for RAM and other microchips skyrocketing. That’s not hyperbole either – DDR5 is about 4x as expensive as it was in mid-2025, while many SSDs have doubled in price.

Some memory brands, such as Crucial, have exited the consumer market entirely. While the underlying tech has major upsides, clear signs of an AI investment bubble seem to only be fueling demand, as companies lock in purchases now, while the going is still good.

That leaves consumers in a tough spot – prices for loads of products are already on the rise, and every sign points to the trend continuing for the next few years. Many manufacturers are reducing base-level specs and using slower parts in premium machines.

So while we don’t want to come across as alarmist, if you do plan a major upgrade or tech purchase, in the key affected areas, there’s a strong argument for buying sooner rather than later.

To help out, I have put together a list of key areas that have already seen price rises, but where it’s expected to get worse. As well as the categories that are OK for now, but are worth keeping an eye on.

Even more so than ever before, it’s very important to make sure you are getting the best deal when buying new tech, so to help, I have included important buying advice, plus listed relevant guides from TechRadar experts.

Key tech with the largest expected price rises

The main products and tech categories with rising prices are those that use a large amount of RAM or storage. While that is more obvious when it comes to standalone hardware components, it also has impacts for all sorts of other gear.

Want to skip ahead? The links below will take you straight to each section.

• Laptops, desktops and other pre-built machines
• Consoles and handheld gaming machines
• Hardware components: RAM, SSDs, GPUs
• Phones, tablets and portable devices
• Storage: from SD cards to USB drives

Prebuilt computers

While prices are already up, you should expect continued rises in desktops, laptops, Mini PCs and even the humble Raspberry Pi. The key underlying price increases are for RAM and SSDs, and these are also the areas most likely to see stagnant or downgraded spec.

Budget and mid-range laptops and desktops typically have thin profit margins, so will tend to pass on cost increases sooner than higher-end machines.

Right now there’s still a decent amount of laptop stock built before the most recent price rises. These offer some of the best deals – especially as some are even discounted due to getting replaced by updated models.

Below are some great buyer's guides to the best pre-built machines:

• The best laptops
• The best laptop deals
• The best student laptops

• Best mini PCs
• The best desktop PC
• The best gaming PC
• The best budget gaming PC

Consoles

Storage and RAM price increases have impacted console pricing already as they already have high manufacturing costs and struggle to break even at the best of times. Not to mention, accessories like PS5 SSDs are only getting more expensive.

Sony has said that while their current inventory has helped soften the impact of increasing costs, they may be passed on to consumers in the future. Nintendo says they are monitoring the situation, but experts think a price rise for the Switch 2 is likely in 2026.

There’s also been leaks about potential Xbox cost increases. Even Valve’s highly anticipated Steam Machine has been delayed.

Higher profit console bundle deals will likely help buffer the impact at first, so will be worth looking out for offers with games or controllers included.

Looking at a console upgrade or just need more storage? We have you covered:

• The best SSD for PS5
• Best gaming console
• Best Xbox Series X hard drives and SSDs
• Best handheld games consoles

Component hardware

While RAM has been hit hardest (with more pain to come), GPUs, SSDs and even mechanical HDDs have all seen significant price rises, with no sign of leveling off in 2026.

Nvidia has warned it may not have new gaming GPUs in 2026, and the RTX 6000 series launch will likely slip from 2027 to 2028. Rumors also suggest AMD graphics cards are likely to see more price increases and maybe even memory reductions this year.

Most retailers price stock in batches, based on order cost, so expect to see sudden jumps as they restock, not gradual increases. Being flexible with your builds is key – even consider system builders, rather than DIY, as it can actually be cheaper in many cases.

We enthusiasts often snub big name brands like HP and Dell and their boring, lower spec builds, but thanks to larger volumes their system prices often lag behind the rises seen in stand-alone components or smaller builders, and they are worth double checking.

Looking to buy RAM, an SSD or a GPU? Our buyer's guides have everything you need:

• Best large SSDs and hard drives
• The best DDR5 RAM

• The best AMD graphics card
• The best mid-range graphics cards

• Best NAS hard drives
• Best external hard drive
• The fastest external SSDs

Phones, tablets and portable devices

While not yet having a major impact, rising RAM and storage costs are impacting portable devices. It’s more apparent on the affordable end, where the increases are a bigger part of the total cost, but we expect this to extend to more premium options through 2026.

Apple is likely in a better position to buffer the rises due to large scale and purchasing power when negotiating pricing and relatively high margins. In contrast, many affordable Android phone brands have little choice other than quickly passing on price increases to customers.

We also expect phone specs (especially RAM and storage) to stagnate through 2026, or even go backwards.

The takeaway here is that if you need an upgrade, then premium devices can offer better value for money – at least for now.

Need a new phone, tablet or other portable device? These guides cover what's best:

• The best phones
• The best cheap phones
• The best Android phones
• The best Samsung phones

• The best tablets
• The best cheap tablets
• The best iPad
• The best Android tablets

• The best smartwatch
• The best smartwatch for iPhone
• The best cheap smartwatch

All things storage

While SSDs have seen the biggest increase, with costs doubling in many cases, it’s also hitting other areas. Even traditional mechanical HDDs have seen price increases of up to 50% due to demand for data center bulk storage.

Where it will hit consumers hardest is in everyday storage like SD cards and USB drives. SD cards had been steadily dropping to bargain prices over the last few years, but now they are up by 50% (and often higher, for larger sizes) in the past 6 months. While still somewhat insulated from the hikes, some USB drives (especially larger capacities) are up to twice as expensive compared to the same time last year and brands like PNY scaled back Black Friday flash drive promos.

These increases also affect the pricing of devices that bundle in SD cards, from dash cameras to gaming consoles. Watch for shrinkflation too, as sellers switch to lower capacities to reduce costs. If in doubt, compare to reviews of the previous generation models and see how new bundles compare.

Need more storage and don't want to get priced out? Check out our guides for the best deals and buyer info:

• The best SSD for PS5
• Best external hard drive for Mac
• Best NAS hard drives
• Best external hard drive
• Fastest external SSD
• Best Xbox Series X hard drives and SSDs
• The best large SSDs and hard drives

Other tech categories we are watching closely

The situation is still developing, but there are a growing number of predictions for price increases beyond microchips.

For example, recent analysis from TrendForce (a market intelligence and consulting firm) suggests the cost of panels used for TVs and monitors is on the rise, and combined with increased demand, will likely result in increased prices through 2026. Many Smart TVs are also seeing price pressure due to the CPUs and RAM they use.

Audio gear isn’t immune either, and everything from soundbars to high-res audio DACs might be next to see prices go up.

Changes to chip production also mean that many of the little controller microchips in all manner of devices, from smart appliances to simple USB chargers, will also start to cost more.

Looking at a new TV or monitor? Here are some handy guides:

• The best TVs overall
• The best OLED TVs for all budgets
• The best gaming TV for all budgets
• The best 65-inch TV for every budget

• The best monitor
• Best portable monitor
• Best business monitor
• The best ultrawide monitors
• The best monitors for PS5 and PS5 Pro
• Best monitors for working from home

How to navigate the price increases

While price rises in components are easy to spot, many existing models of our favorite tech, like laptops, have managed to maintain prices. But as 2026 new models hit, we are seeing significant price increases compared to the last generation.

There’s also clear shrinkflation going on – mid-range and premium laptops and desktops that had a base spec of 32GB of RAM and 1TB SSDs now have models with 16GB and 512GB of storage but no reduction in price. We have even seen a resurgence of 8GB of memory on supposed mid-range machines.

Considering you want to make sure a purchase now will stay relevant for many years, it's more important than ever to consider your usage, and make sure you don’t end up buying a machine that won’t hold up long term.

Don’t skimp on RAM, and 16GB is the minimum we recommend. Storage is one area it’s ok to scale back if you don’t expressly need it – the cost of a larger SSD is often vastly more than years of cloud storage.

Watch for manufacturers reducing the spec of other unrelated components to try and make the cost more palatable. For example, there’s a rising trend of cheaper 1200p displays in laptops, which are a big downgrade from higher resolution screens.

Windows lovers might even do well to consider Apple machines – so far the brand has held fairly firm with prices and is better equipped to shelter its buyers from price fluctuations than smaller companies. There are even rumours that Apple is preparing to launch a new, cheaper MacBook in 2026 – albeit with reduced specs and RAM.

As always, it’s important to check out reviews for any products you are interested in, to find out if the manufacturer has skimped on any key components to keep the price down.

How long will the price increases last?

It’s not possible to say with any certainty, but it’s expected to last through to at least 2027, and even then potentially take years for increased supply to bring prices down to early 2025 levels.

That said, there are also plenty of unknowns that may make the situation much worse. For example, the majority of the world's chip manufacturing comes from Taiwan, and any disruptions to the Silicon Shield would have large global impacts.

The US government also continues to use tariffs in a way that can destabilize supply chains, resulting in price increases in unpredictable places.

On the flip side, China is rapidly ramping up its own microchip production, and leading PC manufacturers are looking to RAM made by ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT). The new memory is also likely already entering the consumer market under names like KingBank and Gloway which at least provides a little more competition, though not price relief.

So for now, don’t delay a tech purchase or upgrade if you need it, but make sure you do your research and shop smart.

What tech products or categories have you seen going up in price? Let me know in the comments!

Want to know more?

Here's a range of the latest TechRadar stories that further explore the latest tech price rises.

• RAM price crisis gets worse (again) as DDR5 hits a new painful high – and a worrying trend is creeping in
• DRAM prices set to almost double by March 2026, and yes, we all have our AI overlords to thank for that wonderful news
• Good news! RAM prices seem to have finally stabilized - bad news, it's probably because memory prices are so high, that it's forcing most of us to give up buying anything
• Is RAM the new Bitcoin? DDR4 memory prices are rising so fast, some tracker graphs are running out of space - and I fear 2026 could well see a 10x price rise
• The RAM crisis in a nutshell: Amazon reveals 'flash deal' for DDR5 RAM that's over twice the price it was four months ago

• 64GB DDR5 RAM kits that cost $200 not so long ago are now more than $1000
• RAM pricing surge has turned routine PC upgrades into luxury purchases
• AI demand is partly to blame for the ongoing RAM crisis but it's not the only reason

It’s not a good time to be a PC builder right now. Buying RAM used to be something you did without much consideration, now you have to think not only about how much memory you need, but how much you can actually afford.

If you’re in the market for some DDR5 RAM you’ll need deep pockets as PCPartPicker shows 64GB DDR5 kits breaking the $1000 mark.

Not too long ago, that same capacity would have been treated as a sensible upgrade rather than a luxury purchase. For context, if you'd gone shopping in August 2025, you'd be expected to pay under $250 for 64GB of DDR5.

Still on the up

Even a month ago, averages were closer to the $600 to $700 range, already uncomfortable but nowhere near four figures.

In a matter of weeks, prices cleared $800, kept climbing, and pushed past $1000, turning what used to be incremental increases into a near vertical rise.

That pace is warping how the data itself looks. On some PCPartPicker price tracking graphs, long stretches of flat, stable RAM pricing are being visually squeezed together to make room for the sharp rise at the right edge.

Years of calm RAM history are compressed into a thin band so the latest spike can even fit on screen.

While it’s easy to point the finger at AI’s unquenchable memory thirst for the current crisis, it’s not the only reason.

DRAM production hasn’t kept up with demand. Older memory types are being phased out, newer ones are steered toward higher margin customers, and consumer RAM is left exposed whenever supply tightens.

RAM is now so pricey that memory sticks are being stolen from display PCs, warehouses, returned systems, and even offices - something that would have sounded absurd when 64GB cost a fraction of today’s prices.

For builders and buyers, the message is hard to ignore. Although some forms of memory are rising slower than others, it’s going to be a while before things stabilize and even longer before prices get close to feeling “normal” again.

• FTL-free SSD concept streams data sequentially with device-assigned addresses
• StreamFast claims thousand-fold reduction in memory needs for large SSDs
• Design targets cooler drives, lower power use, and simpler high-capacity storage

Hammerspace founder David Flynn is pitching a new SSD architecture that strips out the Flash Translation Layer and its controller DRAM, replacing both with a file-system-centric design called StreamFast.

According to Blocks & Files, the concept is being developed under a new StreamFast business working with the Open Flash Platform group, while Hammerspace itself will continue focusing on its system-level software.

Flynn says the current SSD model burns memory and power because controllers rely on an FTL stored in DRAM to track data locations.

The DRAM crunch

“It takes one byte of RAM for every kilobyte of flash on the SSD,” Flynn told Blocks & Files. “Think about that. If you’re going to have a petabyte flash on an SSD, that means you have to have a terabyte of DRAM with it.”

He links that overhead to the wider DRAM crisis, where manufacturers are moving capacity toward high-bandwidth memory for GPUs from companies like Nvidia and AMD.

The proposal is to remove the FTL entirely and let the file system interact with flash directly.

“We need to get rid of the block abstraction and move to something which is more native to flash,” Flynn says.

StreamFast instead uses device-assigned sequential addresses. The SSD writes incoming data streams one after another, then returns those addresses to the host file system.

“The magic is that the device assigns sequential addresses to arbitrary strings of data that are streamed to the device,” Flynn said.

Because writes are sequential, the host can replay the stream after a failure, rather than track every address in memory.

“With the StreamFast file system, it’s a byte of RAM for every megabyte of flash,” he said.

That’s a thousand-to-one improvement over the usual ratio. By Flynn’s own math, a 1PB SSD would need about 1GB of host memory instead of 1TB inside the drive.

Removing the FTL also cuts write amplification and reduces heat, since controller DRAM often forms the thermal hotspot.

“This simplifies the construction of the SSD to the point where it’s much more reliable,” Flynn said.

The company is working with partners across the flash ecosystem, although when Blocks & Files mentioned SK Hynix, Flynn was cagey.

“Can’t talk about specifics of our partnerships yet, but stay tuned. And I was out in Korea just a couple of weeks ago,” he said.

Flynn also claims the cooler, simpler drives could fit power-limited environments, including sealed or even orbital data centers.

• John Carmack has shared an idea for using fiber rather than RAM
• This is a vision of the future for replacing RAM modules in AI workloads
• While it's highly theoretical and a long way off, there are other possible nearer-term solutions to reduce AI's all-consuming appetite for RAM

John Carmack has aired an idea to effectively use fiber cables as 'storage' rather than conventional RAM modules, which is a particularly intriguing vision of the future given the current memory crisis and all the havoc it's wreaking.

Tom's Hardware noticed the cofounder of id Software's post on X where Carmack proposes that a very long fiber optic cable – and we're talking 200km long – could effectively fill in for system RAM, at least when working with AI models.

Carmack observes: "256Tb/s data rates over 200km distance have been demonstrated on single-mode fiber optic, which works out to 32GB of data in flight, 'stored' in the fiber, with 32TB/s bandwidth. Neural network inference and training [AI] can have deterministic weight reference patterns, so it is amusing to consider a system with no DRAM, and weights continuously streamed into an L2 cache by a recycling fiber loop."

What this means is that said length of fiber is a loop where the needed data (normally stored in RAM) is being "continuously streamed" and keeping the AI processor always fed (as the AI model weights can be accessed sequentially – this wouldn't work otherwise). This would be a very eco-friendly, power-saving way of completing these tasks, too, compared to traditional RAM.

As Carmack points out, this is the "modern equivalent of the ancient mercury echo tube memories", or delay-line memory, where data is stored in waves going through a coil of wire.

It's not an idea that's feasible now, but a concept for the future, as mentioned – and what Carmack is arguing is that it's a conceivable path forward which possibly has a "better growth trajectory" than we're currently looking at with traditional DRAM.

Analysis: flash forward

There are very obvious problems with RAM right now in terms of supply and demand, with the latter far outstripping the former thanks to the rise of AI and the huge memory requirements therein. (Not just for servers in data centers that field the queries to popular AI models, but video RAM in AI accelerator boards, too.)

So what Carmack is envisioning is a different way to operate with AI models that uses fiber lines instead. This could, in theory, leave the rest of us free to stop worrying about RAM costing a ridiculous amount of cash (or indeed a PC, or a graphics card, and the list goes on with the knock-on pricing effects of the memory crisis).

The problem is that there are a lot of issues with such a fiber proposition, as Carmack acknowledges. That includes the sheer quantity of fiber needed and difficulties around maintaining the signal strength through the loop.

However, there are other possibilities along these lines, and other people have been talking about similar concepts over the past few years. Carmack mentions: "Much more practically, you should be able to gang cheap flash memory together to provide almost any read bandwidth you require, as long as it is done a page at a time and pipelined well ahead. That should be viable for inference serving today if flash and accelerator vendors could agree on a high-speed interface."

In other words, this is an army of cheap flash memory modules slapped together, working massively in parallel, but as Carmack notes, the key would be agreeing on an interface where these chips could work directly with the AI accelerator.

This is an interesting nearer-term proposition, but one that relies on the relevant manufacturers (of AI GPUs and storage) getting their act together and hammering out a new system in this vein.

The RAM crisis is forecast to last this year, and likely next year too, potentially dragging on for even longer than that with all sorts of pain involved for consumers. So, looking to alternative solutions for memory in terms of AI models could be a valuable pursuit towards ensuring this RAM crisis is the last such episode we have to suffer through.

• Ayaneo announced the Next 2 handheld's specifications and price
• The new gaming handheld will cost up to $4,299, and its early bird price is $3,499
• The Next 2 will be available via Ayaneo's Indiegogo campaign this February

Gaming PC hardware is taking a huge hit thanks to the ongoing RAM crisis, with rising prices and even the delaying of the highly anticipated Steam Machine. Unfortunately, it appears as though things are only just getting started.

Handheld brand Ayaneo has revealed a wealth of new information about its upcoming Next 2 handheld gaming PC including the fact that it will cost $4,299 / around £3,160 / AU$6,130 for a 128GB RAM and 2TB storage model. That's more than an RTX 5090!

Its early bird price is set at $3,499 / around £2,570 / AU$4,990, for consumers who want to save a little by backing the Indiegogo campaign.

The Ayaneo Next 2 is a beefy handheld gaming PC, equipped with AMD's Ryzen AI Max+ 395 processor, a 116WH battery, and a 9-inch OLED display. Those specifications are almost equivalent to those of a budget gaming laptop, as the Max+ 395's performance is similar to that of an RTX 4060.

While the Ayaneo Next 2 was always expected to be an expensive handheld – since all Ryzen AI Max+ 395-powered handhelds are – the $4,299 retail price tag could be a step too far, even for consumers willing to pay high prices for handheld devices, and it's largely due to the RAM crisis.

It's not just the 128GB model either, as the base model matches the RTX 5090's $1,999 MSRP, equipped with the less powerful Ryzen AI Max 385 processor and 32GB of RAM.

A model with the AI Max+ 395 has 64GB of RAM, which isn't needed for handheld gaming (and certainly not 128GB), but consumers will have to pay $2,699 to get their hands on it.

If RAM prices continue to skyrocket, there's a high chance Ayaneo's listed retail prices won't stick once it officially launches too.

Analysis: 128GB of RAM isn't necessary for handhelds

The RAM crisis isn't going anywhere any time soon, and Ayaneo hasn't made it any easier by using high RAM configurations. Most mainstream handhelds run perfectly fine with 32GB of RAM (some even with 16GB), which is why the push for 64GB and 128GB seems like complete overkill.

The AI Max+ 395 APU, 9-inch OLED display, and 116WH battery are already enough to make the Next 2 a niche device, with a high price, but the addition of 128GB of RAM makes it unattainable, even for consumers willing to spend big bucks for portable gaming.

Nvidia's RTX 5090 is hardly available at any retailer store, and the third-party options are all far above the $1,999 / £1,799 / AU$4,039 MSRP, with some almost costing $5,000 on Best Buy. That same amount can net a consumer a brand-new desktop gaming PC, which is a better option over both the Next 2 handheld and RTX 5090 GPU.

It wouldn't surprise me if new handhelds in 2026 end up creating 8GB RAM configurations, because the PC hardware market looks like it's only going to get worse at this rate.

• Counterpoint Research has published a new report on RAM pricing
• It predicts that PC RAM will nearly double in price this quarter
• On top of that, a PC maker has sounded alarm bells about rising component prices – and it's one of many

If you were keeping your fingers crossed for some more optimistic news about the RAM crisis – because we've had glimmers of that, lately – then those hopes will be dashed, I'm afraid, by the latest developments which are distinctly negative.

The main point of interest here is that we have a new report from Counterpoint Research which observes that memory prices have nearly doubled in Q1 2026 so far, compared to the same period in the final quarter of 2025.

The firm informs us: "Memory prices have risen by 80%-90% QoQ in Q1 2026 so far, according to the February issue of Counterpoint's Memory Price Tracker, marking an unprecedented and record-breaking surge."

That's not comforting language, of course, and while we're told that the primary force behind these huge price hikes is the increase in the cost of server RAM, memory modules for PCs have experienced a very similar rise.

Counterpoint singles out DDR4 RAM for laptops (SoDIMMs), of which one 8GB stick witnessed a price rise of 35% in Q4 2025 (quarter-on-quarter), with a currently estimated leap to a 91% increase for Q1 2026 compared to the previous quarter.

Server RAM will end up at 98% more in this quarter, and even NAND modules for storage are going to see a major leap in Q1 2026 – a predicted 100% quarter-on-quarter increase in fact. Nasty.

Analysis: industry-wide memory misery

Counterpoint is essentially telling us that all kinds of memory is going to be hiked in price in a big way this quarter, from PC RAM to server RAM, to HBM (High Bandwidth Memory, top-end modules for AI use), and indeed through to NAND for SSDs. As the analyst firm puts it in a nutshell: "the market is witnessing a full-throttle upward trend across all segments."

Meanwhile, we're hearing much the same story from other analyst outfits – like TrendForce, which is predicting that DRAM pricing is going to rise by 50%, or possibly a bit more, in Q1 of 2026.

Nearer to ground level in this components crisis, PC makers are also warning of hard times ahead for RAM costs, and the latest in that respect is PowerGPU, a custom gaming PC builder in the US.

Tom's Hardware noticed that PowerGPU posted on X to say that "we just got word that SSD and other part prices have gone up again" and to "expect price increases by early next week" on the firm's PCs. Presumably those 'other parts' are RAM, of course, and possibly GPUs too which are facing their own issues due to the scarcity of video memory.

It all sounds rather ominous, and PowerGPU's statement adds to the heap of such warnings from various PC makers we've received late last year and during these early stages of 2026.

While there have been some more positive glimmers around the RAM crisis recently, as noted at the outset – like a snapshot of DDR5 pricing levelling off – the overall sentiment is very much negative, with forecasts of not just more price increases, but huge ones. Whether that's 50% or 100% spikes during this current quarter – take your pick from the pessimistic predictions – it seems like we're in for a lot more pain, whether buying standalone RAM or PCs (or indeed graphics cards).

It's likely that PC makers are going to try to find ways to at least partially mitigate this RAM price misery, which could mean relying on lesser memory configurations with laptops – turning the clock back to use more 8GB loadouts – or indeed creative fudges such as Maingear's BYOR or 'Bring Your Own RAM' concept.

• DDR5 RAM pricing appears to have plateaued in Germany
• That's very different from the past few months of huge price leaps
• At the same time, analyst firms are forecasting major price hikes are still to come, and PCs are feeling the knock-on effects – the Raspberry Pi being the latest victim

There's a hopeful sign that the RAM crisis might be stalling, but don't put too much stock in this idea just yet – especially as we're still hearing about major price hikes for memory, and also PCs, the latest of which is a big leap in cost for the compact Raspberry Pi computer board.

I'll come back to the Raspberry Pi pricing (flagged by Tom's Hardware) later, but first off, let's focus on the better news from the memory market. VideoCardz spotted that German tech site 3D Center, which keeps tabs on the RAM prices at retail in that country, has found that price hikes on DDR5 memory have apparently stalled – at least for now.

Over the past month, based on the cost of a mix of 20 separate DDR5 RAM products at German retailers, pricing has only risen by a marginal 0.1% from mid-January to now.

That's a very different picture compared to the huge leaps seen in the previous few months.

From October to November 2025, we witnessed a 49% rise, followed by a 93% price hike across these products through December 2025, and then a chunky 27% increase in January 2026. Albeit even this latter rise showed that inflation was slowing down, and has now plateaued in February according to 3D Center's figures.

Analysis: a welcome respite, but let's not get carried away

We need to take any such theories about reaching a pricing plateau with some caution, given that this is just one report, based on a slice of the market in a single country.

Of course, you could argue that huge inflationary spikes can only persist for so long, by their very nature – consumers are going to stop buying (in the main) if they feel pricing has become too ridiculous, which will in itself have a levelling effect in terms of supply and demand.

We've seen some evidence of exactly this in the stabilization of very pricey high-capacity RAM kits in recent months, which is at least a glimmer of hope amid all the gloomy news of big price increases.

However, don't forget that, more broadly, analyst firms still believe there's plenty of price misery to come, with TrendForce predicting that DRAM pricing is likely to rise by 50% (or a little more) in the first quarter of 2026.

We've also seen the cost of RAM having a knock-on effect with various products, the latest of which is the Raspberry Pi, the compact and affordable computer board, which has become less affordable due to the cost of its system memory, with the top-tier models, anyway.

Recently announced price increases have hit models of the Raspberry Pi 4 and 5, which pack more than 2GB of RAM. The big increases are applied to the top-end boards with 16GB (as you might guess), and they've gone up in price by $60, which means the flagship Raspberry Pi 5 is now $205.

That's 70% more expensive than this model was at launch, so it's not that far off double the price now – and getting way out of cheap-and-cheerful territory, of course.

There isn't much the manufacturer can do about this, though, if they're having to pay a great deal more for the system RAM from the supplier.

• Costco has removed RAM sticks from display PCs on shelves
• This has reportedly happened after incidents of theft
• In recent times, an office was broken into just to steal the DDR5 RAM, and online buyers of memory are facing scams, too

If you needed another sign that the RAM crisis continues to get worse – yes, yet another sign – then here it is: memory sticks are starting to become a target for thieves.

VideoCardz picked up on what seems to be a growing trend, with the latest development being that Costco in the US has started removing the RAM modules from its prebuilt PCs on the shelves (and keeping the memory in the back of the store instead). In one reported case, this was after an incident where a person was apprehended after removing memory from a display PC.

Another Redditor posted photographic evidence of a PC on the shelf with empty RAM slots on the motherboard, and this follows the retailer also removing GPUs from its computers – which happened a long time back (in 2020, by all accounts).

With the high value of DDR5 RAM now, though, it seems this is becoming a target for shoplifters.

This isn't the only recent example of RAM theft, as the week before last, we reported on an incident that happened in an office in South Korea which was broken into expressly to steal the DDR5 system RAM from the PCs (nothing else was taken).

On top of this, there are (indirect) thefts taking place via online retailers, whereby scammers are buying pricey RAM and replacing those sticks with old (cheap) memory in the boxes, then returning them (and keeping the expensive DDR5 memory). If the retailer fails to check the return properly – and this does happen – another subsequent buyer ends up purchasing the ancient RAM sticks and getting stung.

Analysis: RAM-sacked

I guess this was inevitable with RAM prices absolutely soaring, and higher-end DDR5 memory sticks now being worth a small fortune. The same has been true of GPUs, of course, in the past, and as noted these high-value items have long had similar precautions taken with them at bricks-and-mortar retailers.

However, RAM is a lot easier to steal – or certainly conceal – than a graphics card, especially a beefy high-end triple-slot affair. Still, getting inside a PC in a store to steal any component seems like a very tall order, frankly – and in the case of Costco, the RAM thief was caught.

Seemingly the way some folks might get away with this is by pretending to be someone who looks official (holding a clipboard, iPad or similar) and carrying out some kind of inventory inspection, who may not be challenged to any extent if they're confident enough.

Whatever the case, the average consumer doesn't have to worry about what's going on in stores – but we do have to worry about online orders where a fake item might have been substituted for the real product by someone carrying out a returns scam, as noted.

These days, it's a good idea to record yourself unboxing any high-value tech product, just so you have evidence of the box contents on video, should you need extra proof if a purchase goes awry.