We all know the cost of RAM is ridiculously high these days thanks to the global memory shortage. But it can be useful (and depressing) to put these prices into context historically.
To that end, scientist, developer, and software performance expert Daniel Lemire commented on X that "On a historical basis, computer memory has been falling at an exponential rate for decades. But we just undid about 20 years of progress. RAM on a per unit basis is about as expensive as it was in 2007."
They show a couple of charts that track the historical $/GB metric for RAM. However, these are a little hard to parse because of the scale and duration of the changes, so I thought I'd check with some specific prices, comparing RAM kits from 2007 to today. In other words, comparing the prices for memory that you and I, as gamers, would have actually used.
After a bit of a nostalgic scour through some of my old forum posts around that time (when I was a mere 13 years old), I discovered that in 2007 I was the proud owner of 4 GB (2x 2 GB) of DDR2-800 RAM. I'm pretty sure it was 2x 2 GB of TeamGroup Xtreem memory—and yes, that '800' means just 800 MHz.
Scouring a little more, I found that 4 GB capacity was on the upper end for 2007, and a lot of people were still using 2 GB (2x 1 GB) of DDR2, which was enough for 32-bit Windows (remember that?).
Looking at forum posts discussing deals on RAM kits, we can see that good deals on 4 GB RAM kits cost about $100 at the time. In fact, some users back then were shocked to see 4 GB of DDR2 going for so cheap. Bear in mind that these were deal prices, ie, cheaper than the norm.
Looking to 2 GB kits, there are threads highlighting deals at around $60 (or $45 after rebate).
Judging from these, for the top capacity, back then we were looking at about $25/GB, and for the more common capacity we were looking at about $30/GB.
What are we dealing with today? Well, whether we look to 32 GB or 16 GB kits, at the time of writing the price per GB for reasonably-specced DDR5 is about the same for both: $15–16 per GB. A decent 32 GB (2x 16 GB) DDR5 kit, for instance, goes for about $500 right now.
On a historical basis, computer memory has been falling at an exponential rate for decades. But we just undid about 20 years of progress. RAM on a per unit basis is about as expensive as it was in 2007.To my knowledge, it is an historical anomaly. I cannot recall a similar… pic.twitter.com/UH6LgZ1fc4August 5, 2026
So, we can see that—at least when considering some of the most popular high-end RAM kit capacities then and now—memory is still technically cheaper per GB today. But of course, that's not the full story.
It's probably more useful to instead compare simply how much it cost to get a 'good' amount of RAM for a gaming PC. Back then, that was 2 GB or 4 GB. These days, the equivalent would be 16 GB or 32 GB, with a weighting toward the latter.
Today, you have to spend $500 to get some decent RAM for a high-end gaming PC (32 GB), or about $250 for a reasonable minimum (16 GB). Back then, you had to spend only $65–100. Even factoring in inflation, that would have been about $100–$160. Even if these numbers aren't completely accurate, they're so far from today's RAM prices that the gulf between the two certainly holds.
Compare that to last year, before the memory crisis, and we see prices for 32 GB of fast RAM sat around $100–150. In other words, about what you could expect to spend for 4 GB of fast RAM in 2007. In that sense, all that progress, which permitted 32 GB to be sold for the same price as 8x less capacity cost in 2007, has been undone.
So, while it might not be straightforwardly true, at least as far as end-consumer RAM kits are concerned, that we've completely undone 20 years of progress from the simple perspective of price-per-GB, it is true that RAM now costs a heck of a lot more than back then thanks to the memory crisis.
Last year, you would spend the equivalent of what you would in 2007 to buy a decent amount of RAM for a high-end PC. Now you have to spend 4x that.
It's not been the happiest trip down memory lane, but there we go.
1. Best DDR5 overall:
G.Skill Trident Z5 RGB 32 GB DDR5-7200
2. Best budget DDR5:
Teamgroup T-Force Vulcan DDR5-5200
3. Best high-capacity DDR5:
G.Skill Trident Z5 64 GB DDR5-6400 CL32
4. Best DDR4 overall:
TEAM XTREEM 16 GB DDR4-3600
5. Best budget DDR4:
G.Skill Ripjaws V 16 GB DDR4-3600
6. Best high-capacity DDR4:
Corsair Dominator Platinum RGB 32 GB DDR4-3200
