Unfortunately, all of that doomsaying last year was correct and SSD prices are surging as a result of the memory crisis

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The best time to buy an SSD? Yesterday.

Lexar NM790 SSD on a yellow background with packaging.
(Image credit: Future)

For the last year and a bit, I've sat down every Friday morning to update our guide to the best SSD deals for gaming. Today, I sat down for the first time in 2026, only to see that the memory supply crisis is well and truly having a knock-on effect on SSD pricing.

Our Jeremy has already been keeping an eye on surging PC hardware prices, but this morning presented a more recent example. I just wrote a deal post about the 1 TB version of the Lexar NM790 NVMe SSD which, today, is going for $118. Not terrible, right? Well, that's what I thought until I remembered I had in fact written about the same SSD back in October of last year—when it was only $66.

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Screenshots of Amazon price tracking website CamelCamelCamel. These screenshots show massively fluctuating SSD prices between winter 2025 and the start of 2026.
(Image credit: CamelCamelCamel)

These are just a few examples, but it's clear that the realm of SSD now finds itself thoroughly caught up in the memory apocalypse. Long story short, as the AI industry builds more and more data centres (often in ill-advised climes for the hardware inside), it's going to need more and more system memory like DRAM, as well as storage media like SSDs. Moving at a swift clip and throwing a great deal of money around, that means a memory shortage for us normal folk, due to the limitations in manufacturing facilities. Perhaps worst of all, these surging prices are far from wholly unexpected either.

In October, Adata's Chen Libai observed that most major memory and storage technologies were experiencing a shortage for the first time in about 30 years. In November, Phison's CEO Khein-Seng Pua shared in an earnings call that "every NAND manufacturer" has said they're "sold out" for 2026. Then in December, Kingston's Cameron Crandall also sounded the SSD pricing alarm, explaining that the company had very recently seen a 246% increase in NAND wafer prices.

But even in December, I was less keen on the advice Crandall gave at the time, saying if you were thinking about a hardware upgrade, you should "do it now and [don't] wait, because prices are going to continue to go up." On the one hand, yes, there's a chance prices have yet to peak. On the other, panic-buying is never the answer in the midst of a shortage. If you can, wait or simply use what you already have. If you can't, buying an entirely new rig may actually work out cheaper in some select circumstances.

Secretlab Titan Evo gaming chair in Royal colouring, on a white background
Best PC gaming kit 2026

1. Best gaming chair: Secretlab Titan Evo

2. Best gaming desk: Secretlab Magnus Pro XL

3. Best gaming headset: Razer BlackShark V3

4. Best gaming keyboard: Asus ROG Strix Scope II 96 Wireless

5. Best gaming mouse: Razer DeathAdder V4 Pro

6. Best PC controller: GameSir G7 Pro

7. Best steering wheel: Logitech G Pro Racing Wheel

8. Best microphone: Shure MV6 USB Gaming Microphone

9. Best webcam: Elgato Facecam MK.2


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Jess Kinghorn
Jess Kinghorn
Hardware Writer

Jess has been writing about games for over ten years, spending the last seven working on print publications PLAY and Official PlayStation Magazine. When she’s not writing about all things hardware here, she’s getting cosy with a horror classic, ranting about a cult hit to a captive audience, or tinkering with some tabletop nonsense.

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