You can watch RAM prices going up almost in real-time on Amazon and it's only likely to get worse

(Image credit: Adata)

The latest data from Trendforce says DDR5 spot prices have gone up 30% in the last week alone and something in the region of 170%, year-on-year. Meanwhile, on the likes of Amazon, many DDR5 kit retail prices have doubled since August. The upshot of which is that while PC memory prices look unappealing right now, there's almost certainly worse to come.

In really simple terms, there's a lag between spot pricing—which is the price DDR5 memory kit makers pay for DDR5 memory chips—and what we poor PC fans have to pay for actual memory kits. In other words, if you buy a new memory kit today, the company that made it would have bought the DDR5 chips some time ago, at a much lower price than today's DDR5 spot prices.

16 GB kits generally haven't gone up quite as much, with the CORSAIR Vengeance DDR5 RAM 16 GB being fairly typical, having jumped from $65 to $100. But they're still more expensive per GB.

DDR5 prices — Very much your typical DDR5 price graph... (Image credit: Future)

Of course, there are examples of kits that haven't jumped as much. Indeed, higher performing premium kits generally haven't gone up as much in percentage terms. This CORSAIR Dominator Titanium RGB DDR5 RAM 32 GB, for instance, has gone from $180 to $256.

But then premium kits probably have more margin to enable manufactures to soak up some of the price increase. There are also examples of less expensive kits that haven't spiked as much.

But the general trend is clear enough. And that trend is increasing prices that will almost certainly get worse. Exactly where this all ends is hard to say. Some industry authorities have predicted a decade-long "pricing apocalypse" afflicting PC memory, which is pretty terrifying.

Given that this all seems to be caused by the AI boom, you could argue the only way memory prices normalise is for that particular bubble to burst. Which seems to imply your choice is between painful DDR5 kit prices and economic meltdown.

But whatever happens, DDR5 spot prices are still increasing and that will surely show up in memory kit prices over the following months. So, as bad as a kit for about $160 looks compared to $80 in the summer, the harsh conclusion is that if you're in the market for some PC memory, you'd probably better hurry up.

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Jeremy has been writing about technology and PCs since the 90nm Netburst era (Google it!) and enjoys nothing more than a serious dissertation on the finer points of monitor input lag and overshoot followed by a forensic examination of advanced lithography. Or maybe he just likes machines that go “ping!” He also has a thing for tennis and cars.

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