What the DRAM Price Surge Means for Everyday Builders
The current DRAM price surge is a steep, shortage-driven spike in the cost of desktop and mobile memory that is forcing consumers, PC builders, and device makers to cut capacity, delay upgrades, or accept far higher total system prices in order to keep shipping products at all. Consumer-focused DRAM has been hit hard: new research from SigmaIntel shows the average price of mainstream modules jumped by up to 89% in the second quarter compared with the first. A 16 Gb (2 GB) DRAM module climbed from USD 19.2 (approx. RM90) to USD 28.5 (approx. RM134), a 49% increase in just one quarter. The shock is not limited to raw chips; it is already filtering through to retail memory kits, laptops, phones, and even handheld gaming devices, turning a manageable PC building budget into a PC building cost crisis.
DDR4, LPDDR and Legacy Memory: Shortages Across the Board
The DDR4 memory shortage is now severe enough that a typical 16 GB DDR4 stick has leapt from USD 137 (approx. RM644) in Q1 to USD 207.1 (approx. RM973) in Q2, a 51% jump on top of already elevated prices from late 2025. On the mobile side, LPDDR prices have exploded: 32 Gb (4 GB) LPDDR ICs climbed from USD 26.2 (approx. RM123) to USD 45.9 (approx. RM216), while 96 Gb (12 GB) LPDDR5X modules saw the steepest move, from USD 77.1 (approx. RM363) to USD 145.9 (approx. RM688), up 89%. As standard DDR4 and LPDDR get expensive, some manufacturers are redesigning boards to use DDR2 or DDR3, pushing up prices of legacy parts that were expected to remain cheap. The RAM price surge consumer builders face is therefore spread across new and old platforms alike.
AI Datacenters Drain Supply While Experts Warn of More Hikes
Behind the DRAM price increase 2026 is a structural shift in who memory makers prioritise. High-margin AI infrastructure now dominates the production roadmap, with major suppliers redirecting capacity toward server DRAM and high-bandwidth memory for datacenters. Consumer-grade DDR and LPDDR are left fighting for what remains, which is why PC, laptop and smartphone segments have taken the brunt of the shortages. Analysis cited by financial firm Jefferies warns that DRAM prices could rise another 40% to 50% sequentially in the third quarter and 30% to 40% in the fourth. The same expert expects average memory selling prices to increase 40% to 45% annually in 2027, with the first real easing of pricing pressure not arriving until 2028, when additional fabrication capacity and softer demand might cut prices by 15% to 20%.
How Valve’s Monthly RAM Quotes Expose a Broken Market
Valve’s experience shows how distorted the DRAM market has become. Memory suppliers no longer offer comfortable, long-term contracts even to a dominant PC gaming platform holder. Instead, Valve says DRAM vendors “give us a price every month,” coupled with a fixed allocation, and pushing back risks that “they never talk to us again.” That take-it-or-leave-it model feeds straight into the price and specification of devices such as Valve’s new Steam Machine, where some units use a single 16 GB stick and others two 8 GB sticks, because flexibility with whatever RAM is available now matters more than ideal configurations. DRAM contract prices climbed roughly 50% year-to-date in 2025 as suppliers concentrated on AI datacenters, and even large cloud customers only receive about 70% of their requested supply. Consumers ultimately pay for this power imbalance.
Storage Sticker Shock and the Hard Choices for PC Builders
The memory shortage has dragged SSD and NAND flash into the same storm, deepening the PC building cost crisis. A 512 GB NVMe Gen4 SSD that cost considerably less a quarter ago is now priced at USD 126.3 (approx. RM593), a 54% quarter-on-quarter hike. In mobile storage, 256 GB UFS 3.1 has more than doubled from USD 31 (approx. RM146) to USD 62.7 (approx. RM294), while 16 GB eMMC 5.1 flash is up 69% to USD 22.6 (approx. RM106). Multi-chip packages such as uMCP have risen 107% to USD 150.4 (approx. RM707). With 16 GB DDR4 kits that once retailed for USD 60–70 (approx. RM282–RM329) now selling at two to three times those levels, many builders are scaling back RAM capacity, delaying purchases, or reusing old drives and memory rather than moving to DDR5 or larger SSDs.
