The memory crisis has fundamentally changed how we approach memory and storage. It has made consumers adjust expectations about how much capacity they can get, and for what cost, and for companies like Biwin, it has meant having to purchase billions worth of NAND flash memory years in advance just to make sure it has a good supply.

Biwin is in a funny place, being a DRAM kit and SSD manufacturer. Even though the increased demand means it can almost guarantee selling all of its stock, it too will be hit by the supply crisis when it comes to securing precious memory chips. Biwin does not produce its own NAND flash memory, but it does need it for its products.

As reported by Tom's Hardware, it has signed a two-year deal to give $1.86 billion to an unnamed NAND supplier in exchange for an agreed volume of chips.

That supply will start flowing as of June 30, 2026. Both the pricing and quantity are fixed, which means if the price goes up over time, it's not paying a variable spot price. It's potentially a smart move from Biwin, but if the price happens to go down, then it would be overpaying for that stock.

As noted by Tom's Hardware, that $1.86 billion figure is more than half of Biwin's annual revenue. That is both a testament to how big its revenue now is, due to the memory crisis, and a sign of how big that commitment is.

Chances are, this long-term deal will be beneficial for Biwin as there's no sign of the memory crisis stopping soon. AMD's global vice president and general manager of the client channel business, David McAfee, recently told us that he hopes it ends in the next few years. He noted that the big three memory manufacturers— Micron, Samsung, and SK hynix—are all working on increasing production.

We were told, "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."

However, SK hynix and Samsung are both trying to minimise risk by not ramping up production too hard, just in case demand drops suddenly (*cough* AI bubble popping *cough*). Still, the commitment to at least two years of NAND at such a high figure is a sign that Biwin likely thinks the memory crisis isn't ending in at least the next two years, and that seems to be a common thought among manufacturers right now.

Any news on the current global memory crisis probably seems like a stuck record right now, but SK hynix reckons it has some good news for us: Its plans for constructing new chip factories have managed to shave ten years off the projected completion date. The only problem is that it's only brought it to 2034.

Talking to Nikkei Asia (via Computerbase), SK Group chairman Chey Tae-won explained that the construction of four new facilities had been originally expected to finish by 2045, but that it has now managed to bring that date closer to home, with the current target now being 2034.

However, Chey shot down any hopes you might have of it being done even sooner, saying, "There is currently no way to move faster than this."

But to counter that disappointment, he also claimed that with everything all up and running, production levels would be even better. "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".

There's no denying that this is good news as far as the long-term is concerned, but it means absolutely nothing for the current memory crisis, where the demand for DRAM and NAND flash outweighs supply so much that memory prices have quadrupled since this time last year.

One could also argue that the construction and output update from SK hynix could make the present situation worse, because if the world's second-largest memory chip manufacturer isn't able to ramp up its output any time soon, the demands from AI companies are likely to take up even more of its limited production capacity.

Prices for DDR4/5 kits and SSDs have been relatively stable for the past month or so, but with vendors already warning of further increases, which strongly suggests that this is indeed what's going to happen. All we can do is look after our hardware as best as possible, and hope it lasts long enough for a replacement or upgrade to become affordable again.

Either that or set up a second retirement fund, just for a 1 TB SSD.

Neighbour shot my PC through the wall from r/pcmasterrace

It's not every day you hear about a PC incidentally saving someone's life. It's even rarer that you hear about a dog shooting a gun. Somehow, this morning on the PCMR Subreddit, one user shared their own harrowing experience, which is a horrid mix of the two.

User angelbabyzz took to the Subreddit to share a picture of their PC, with a bullet hole shot clean through their motherboard (and to add even more horror, straight through their RAM too). In the middle of the night, they were woken up by a gunshot and pieces of tempered glass hitting their face. The tempered glass side panel of their PC was now scattered all over their room having been shattered by a bullet.

Their teary-eyed neighbour came to check on them, "in a complete mess sobbing and shaking and terrified that she had hurt someone" and claiming their dog had somehow accidentally discharged her gun. That shot had passed through the wall and hit the PC in the redditor's room. "The police said that the PC changed the trajectory of the bullet," writes the OP, "and it would have hit me while I was sleeping if the PC hadn’t been there."

It reportedly took three days to clean up all of the glass, and though they are both hoping the neighbour's insurance will cover the PC, the neighbour has agreed to cover the price of the rig if not.

There's naturally a lot of scepticism in the original thread about whether the dog actually caused the discharge of the gun, with the top comment claiming it's a new version of the "dog ate my homework" excuse. Logistically, the thought of a paw somehow getting into the trigger certainly gives pause (paws?) for thought, and if the firearm is faulty enough to go off without touching the trigger, that rings even louder alarm bells. It certainly suggests the gun's safety mechanism was off or not working, either way.

The redditor says, "While I’m not sure about the dog story, it’s very clear from how she responded at the time that it was an accident. She was more messed up about it than I was and could barely speak from crying so hard and her whole body was shaking, and she just kept apologising over and over."

The redditor also claims that they feel the neighbour has paid "her dues" with a criminal charge, confiscation of her gun, the cost of replacing everything, and the constant apologies.

The redditor hopes to rebuild their PC but the memory in their machine has likely risen in price over time, so here's hoping they're still able to get a similarly powerful rig that doesn't cost the earth. But, a gun going off and through a wall with no death or injury is just short of a miracle, even if the memory crisis will make replacing the PC much harder.

If you've tried to buy RAM for your PC at some point in the last year or so, there's a good chance you've noticed a monumental leap in price. Well, with the explosion of AI, it has taken much of the market's supply of memory with it. The good news is that an AMD head is hopeful we will see DDR5 supplies ramp up greatly at some point in the next two years, as long as demand doesn't ramp up at the same rate.

Recently, we had the chance to interview David McAfee, AMD's global vice president and general manager of the client channel business, who talked about the problem. Despite recently releasing an updated DDR4-supporting CPU, he notes that DDR4 production has dropped over the last few years, and manufacturers have largely moved over to producing DDR5 instead.

"I think that the thing that gives me hope is that there are a couple of things that we know. Right, one of the things that we know is 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."

"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," says McAfee. "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."

"The demand side of this cycle of memory is quite unusual, right, with server refresh[es], with the AI supercycle on top of it, it's very different, and so I think the bigger question is, even with all this capacity coming online, is it enough to satisfy what this AI supercycle demands?"

McAfee is not alone in hoping memory supplies could potentially normalise in the next few years. Kyung-Hyeon Kye, a former Samsung boss, reckons a surge in Chinese memory in the second half of 2027 will help supply return to normal.

Just a few months ago, Micron confirmed demand was "significantly in excess of our available supply for the foreseeable future" and suggested its Tongluo-based semiconductor facility wouldn't "support meaningful product shipments" until at least 2028.

But then, even attempting to meet supply carries risk for manufacturers. Samsung and SK hynix opted to "minimise the risk" of oversupply at the end of 2025, suggesting the crisis would be pushing through past 2028. Both are working on new fabs, with SK Hynix expecting its Chengju and Indiana HBM facilities to be operational by late 2028.

McAfee acknowledges this fear from Samsung and SK hynix. "You look over decades of history with memory manufacturers, and they make billions during cycles where there's more demand than supply, and they lose billions of dollars when there's more supply than demand."

And, even before it normalises, we could see prices go up more. Just a few weeks ago, Team Group's CEO warned that DRAM and SSD prices would rise going forward, whilst stating that the majority of memory produced between 2026 and 2027 already had customers.

More HBM memory does mean the need for more traditional memory from AI firms would go down, but IEEE Spectrum reports that this won't have an immediate impact on price. Even as companies catch up with demand, we can't expect prices to all go down at once. And that doesn't take into account any increases in AI development going forward. If demand continues to rise, it will be harder for supply to keep up with it.

The market is so volatile that it's literally anyone's guess, but companies appear to be trying to scale to meet the challenge of AI resource demand, without scaling so hard that they pop if the AI bubble does. Until then, we PC gamers will have to suffer the costs of all that tech growth. That and PC builders who appear to be just bracing until it all goes back to normal.

Despite a rough couple of years for the company, Intel could be set to make a turnaround with both its handheld chips performing well, and its Foundry business taking on substantial orders, at least if recent reports prove to be true. It seems like the AI boom has really squeezed semiconductor leader TSMC's supplies dry, and Intel is now being tapped to provide some chips in its place.

As reported by The Information, Google has reportedly ordered at least three million chip orders from Intel, in the form of TPUs (Tensor Processing Units), according to two people familiar with the company. This Google-designed unit is specifically created for use in neural network machines. In case that sounds like gibberish, it's basically Google, yet again, further committing to AI.

These TPUs not only go towards developing Google's own AI services but will also be sold to companies like Apple and Meta. Google is reportedly expected to make more than six million TPUs between 2027 and 2028, so it will presumably be relying on both TSMC and Intel to provide the facilities to help make these chips.

TSMC is the world's leading semiconductor manufacturer, and Intel's biggest competition. So, in a sense, the ongoing memory crisis sucking up all the resources is somewhat beneficial to Intel, which may not have been able to make such a deal if TSMC were able to meet demand. That's before mentioning that the TPU demand wouldn't be so high without the AI boom.

As well as this, Nvidia is reportedly testing Intel to see if its chips can be used in its next major project, seemingly its next GPU architecture. Currently codenamed Feynman, it supposedly combines four graphics chips into one unit, so if Intel can win the contract, that could be just one more step in establishing the Foundry's foothold in the gaming market.

Nvidia is reportedly TSMC's biggest buyer, beating out Apple, which used to be at the top of the list, with the company providing the chips in all of its phones, laptops, and tablets. However, TSMC has been struggling to meet demand for a while now. It is now reportedly sold out until at least 2028, with even its Arizona fab being fully booked before it is even built.

Just last year, TSMC announced a $100 billion investment plan into three US-based fabs, but it's not the only one with expansion plans. Just last week, Intel seemingly started targeting a $3.3 billion factory in India. It seems both companies have big plans to ride the AI wave as far as it will take them.

One can only hope that this extra investment will contribute to stabilising supply sooner, rather than later. I can't hold out on upgrading my PC forever.

Galax's Hall of Fame (HOF) range has traditionally been loud and pricey, but its prototype next-gen GPU design at this year's Computex might be over the top, even for Galax. That's because its latest design uses Swarovski crystals for a unique look (and presumably a unique look if it ever makes it to market).

As spotted by Smizu_OC on X (via VideoCardz), Galax showed off this card beside two equally eye-grabbing RTX 5080 designs. The potential RTX 6090 in question is simply called a "next generation concept design" at its Computex booth, so one could argue it's an RTX 50-series Super prototype of some kind. But Nvidia would have to actually launch that series for this to happen, which seems pretty unlikely at this point.

It's not clear yet how many Swarovski crystals are being used in the prototype, but there are crystal-like shapes in each corner of the GPU, so one can assume what those are. There are some on the back of the card, too, but without more information on the specific crystals, it's hard to say exactly how much it's worth.

I was sort of hoping it would look a little nicer, to be honest. I like the all-white look, but the crystals more or less feel slapped on. It reminds me of when I used to throw any old sticker onto my electric guitar just to cover up the horrible Fender knock-off I started with.

The concept isn't all about the looks, though. A placard to the left mentions a fully customised PCB with custom components, as well as proprietary fans, a quad fan configuration, and a large vapour chamber. It also mentions new HOF AI software for monitoring GPU temperature and RGB effects.

Speaking of AI, the sheer decadence of this card feels fitting for Computex but also a tad tone deaf, given that many cannot afford an RTX card right now. The explosion of AI into the mainstream has taken much of the memory with it and is threatening the supply of other components, too.

Still, decadence is part of the HOF series' "thing", so it's not too out of character, and Galax is likely looking for a marketing win right now, too. Just last month, it was announced that Galax would be entirely controlled by its parent company, Palit, but not before it was first suggested that the entire company would be closing (this turned out to be a miscommunication, according to Palit).

Still, a prototype is just that: something intended to show off. We have no guarantee we'll actually be able to buy what Galax has been cooking up, even if we could afford it (which, let's face it, we probably can't).

If you were hoping that memory vendors would offer some relief from the RAMpocalypse at this year's Computex, then I have some good news and bad news for you. Biwin has a new memory brand and a magnificent range of DDR5 kits heading our way, but with the biggest kit comparable to an RTX 5090 on price, few of us will get the chance to enjoy them.

Our two hardware editors, Dave and Jacob, are currently battling through the crowds at the annual tech-splurge event, and at a time when I was probably fast asleep, they were checking out Biwin's stand, replete with a host of DRAM goodies. The China-based company has been producing memory and storage solutions since 2010, so while its name might not be super familiar to PC gamers, it does make stuff for other brands, such as Acer, HP, and Lenovo.

Anyway, it turns out that not only does it have a new memory brand, Origin Code, it also has a series of DDR5 kits that are very much an anachronism in today's memory-mangled market.

At the top of the range is a 256 GB kit of dual-channel DDR5-8000 CL42 CQDIMMs, which look somewhat understated in design, but stuffed into any Arrow Lake rig, they'd banish any concerns of running out of memory. Last year, I reviewed a 128 GB Crucial CUDIMM kit, which was rated to DDR5-6400 CL52, so we're looking at a substantial improvement in transfer rate and memory timings.

For the PC gamer who simply must have a maxed-out, loaded-to-the-hilt rig, you couldn't ask for anything better. Well, maybe one thing, and that's the small matter of the price tag. Apparently, it will cost somewhere between $2,500 and $3,000.

If, for some unfathomable reason, that's just a wee bit too expensive for your tastes, then you could always pick one of Origin Code's more 'normal' DDR5 kits. For example, it has multiple sets that comply with AMD's new EXPO ULL standard. They're all sporting a CAS latency of 26 cycles and range from 32 GB DDR5-6200 (no, that's not a typo) up to 96 GB DDR5-6000.

However, there's absolutely no guarantee that your gaming PC will be happy to run with DRAM timings that tight. In fact, Biwin itself couldn't get its test platform (AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D2 Dual Edition, Asus ROG Crosshair X870E Dark Hero) to go that low, bottoming out at CL28. The same was true of the 256 GB CQDIMM setup, with the platform only managing CL64, despite the CL42 rating of each module.

So unless you have a super-stable PC, the best latencies might be out of reach, making the DRAM kit somewhat pointless. Admittedly, motherboard vendors may come to the rescue with appropriate BIOS updates, but even then, there's the small matter of having the money to purchase such a DRAM kit in the first place.

I don't know what the smaller/slowest DDR5 sets are being targeted at, price-wise, but given that the cheapest 32 GB DDR5-6000 CL30 kit I've seen of late is $380, you just know that the Origin Code stuff is going to be very pricey. But hey, at least you get a funky DRAM cooler in the box with some of the kits, so that's something, right?

Original story, 03 June 2026: There I was thinking that Computex 2026 was severely lacking in the coolness department, and then I saw Corsair show off a PC build that looks a bit like a cyberpunk samurai sword. Now, I know that may read as cringe to some, but I'd also like to remind you that cringe is dead and you are free.

Anyway, the showfloor PC build shows off Corsair's limited edition Shugo DDR5-6000 memory, with multiple lit-up sticks seated in the sword's spinning hilt. To my endless envy, Gizmodo Japan went 'hands-on' with the build, wielding the light-up blade and turning on the machine by placing the very much two-handed sword back in its PC pedestal.

Though Corsair announced a number of fresh components at this year's Computex, this particular PC build is one of a kind. Gizmodo Japan wrote on X that the heatsink lights up too, while AKIBA PC Hotline! shares that apparently Corsair Japan's initial concept for this build was originally meant to be even more ambitious.

Beyond that, I can tell you there are four sticks of Corsair's Shugo RAM seated in the sword's rotating hilt—though one 32 GB kit of this limited-edition memory will set you back about $600 (thanks, memory supply crisis). Otherwise, there's not much info available about how Corsair's katana kit works without any visible wires, or what components are inside. Here's hoping Corsair Japan offers a peek behind the curtain some time after the show.

On the subject of Corsair staying sharp, the company also announced the 'Nightsword.' However, this isn't anything like an RGB blade and is actually a gaming mouse with a dedicated Stream Deck button (Corsair has owned streaming brand Elgato since 2018). With a 33K DPI sensor and 8,000 Hz polling rate, this lightweight mouse will set you back $130.

The company also showed off a military-themed PC case with fighter jet controls, and a see-through PSU I'm still trying to get my head around. But when it comes to PC cases, I tend to go for something a little more on the cute side—a preference which darkFlash was only too happy to indulge with its co-branded Sanrio PC cases this year.

But surprisingly, rigs with actual detachable swords are nothing new at Computex; last year, I wrote about this incredible Palico PC with an RTX 5070 Ti GPU sword. Impractical? Sure, but no less impressive. As for this year's Computex, I think it's safe to say Corsair's cyberpunk samurai sword PC is my 'rule of cool' highlight of the show.

The Asus ROG Xbox Ally X is undeniably a great device, but it's an expensive one. So when I saw Asus had unveiled an upgraded anniversary edition, bundled with a pair of AR glasses, I felt a little pain for my bank account.

The Asus ROG Xbox Ally X20 bundle includes an Xbox ROG Ally X with a snazzy black and gold theming (including a 'custom gold internal structure'), TMR thumbsticks, and even the addition of a 7.4-inch OLED screen.

For context, the standard ROG Xbox Ally X comes with a 7-inch IPS LCD screen, so this is already a major upgrade. Both screens have a 120 Hz refresh rate. The TMR thumbsticks are a welcome addition, meaning you're less likely to have to take the thing apart due to stick drift. TMR sticks should also make for a slightly better battery life, too.

Finally, it comes with a new D-Pad that can be swapped between four-way and eight-way input.

In the new models, you can expect almost the same processor (the Ryzen AI Z2 Extreme in the X20 has an NPU, but other than that, it's exactly the same as the Ryzen Z2 Extreme), which means pretty much identical game performance, as well as 24 GB of LPDDR5X memory, a 1 TB SSD, and an 80 Wh battery. The X20 is around 40 g heavier, but everything else remains the same.

Unfortunately, we don't know the answer to the biggest questions here. We don't have a confirmed price point or a release date. There are some random numbers on the side of the page when you get to the 20th anniversary section, so they could correlate, or they could… not.

As for price, I'm expecting a very heavy hit here. Not only are you getting some meaningful upgrades on the original $1,000 Xbox Ally X, but you're also adding in a pair of ROG XReal R1 AR glasses, which fetch around $1,000 by themselves. This is all before mentioning that the ongoing memory crisis has been a major pain when it comes to reasonably priced hardware, and 24 GB of memory is quite a lot.

The sell for this X20 bundle is the pairing of the glasses and the handheld. You can plug the 240 Hz glasses into the top and get what appears to be a 171-inch screen right in front of you. It is tethered to the device, though, so you likely won't be whipping out that bad boy on the train. Given what I expect its cost to be, I wouldn't want to bring it out of the house anyway.

After being rumoured to do so for a few weeks now, AMD has confirmed it is indeed bringing back the Ryzen 7 5800X3D with AM4 10-year anniversary packaging, as well as a mid-range AM5 Ryzen 7 7700X3D chip.

From the top, the 5800X3D originally launched in 2022, but the updated model (celebrating 10 years of AM4) comes bundled with a Carbice ice pad and retails at $349. Offering eight cores and 96 megabytes of 3D V-Cache, it's still a decent AM4 CPU, and its compatibility with DDR4 is what may make it worth many thirsty PC Gamers' while. In AMD's press material, it announces the 5800X3D as the "return of the king".

If you're not looking to upgrade to AM5 or get DDR5 memory (thanks, memory crisis), the $349 MSRP is still a little under what you can expect to pay second-hand right now. Still, though, it feels like a lot for an older chip. It's just another sign of how bad the memory crisis has become, but it doesn't seem like a terrible buy if you simply have to build a PC right now.

The 2022 CPU 2022 got an 81% from us in our AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D review. Our Dave praised its 3D V-Cache and the chip's efficiency, but critiqued its heat and price point (which was at the time $450). The 10-year anniversary edition will be available from June 25 this year, and I'm sure that ice pad will be a welcome addition.

Alongside this, AMD has announced the Ryzen 7 7700X3D, an eight-core 120W AM5 chip coming in at $329. It will be available as soon as July 16, and comes with a boost clock of up to 4.5 GHz. With 16 threads and 104 MB of cache, it seems like a bit of a tough sell so far; it drops 500 MHz from the Ryzen 7 7800X3D, which only fetches tens of dollars more at Amazon (around $370 as of the time of writing).

And this is all assuming you will actually get your hands on the chip at MSRP. As we've seen over the last few years, MSRP is no guarantee. Still, more options on the market, and more ways of using the same hardware are usually better for the customer—If you have more options to choose from, you can actually afford to shop around.

Alongside this, AMD has announced it will continue to support AM5 through 2029, so at least if you do make that upgrade to AM5 with the 7700X3D, you know you've got a few more years with it than you may have otherwise expected.

Prise open any random gaming PC, and you'll be greeted with the common sight of a big cooler on the CPU and GPU, replete with multiple fans and maybe even a coolant loop. But when it comes to the DRAM sticks, you'll just mostly see a few pieces of metal for a heatsink. Enter stage left, Cooler Master and G.Skill, with their new actively cooled MasterDimm DDR5 kits, perfectly pitched at today's economy.

With announcements from both firms posted on X, you can see for yourself what the new memory sticks will look like. I have to say that I like the look of them, though I do wonder just how effective that fan is, given that it's small and shallow, and in a dual-channel setup, one of them is going to have far less airflow to work with than the other.

Ultra-fast DDR5 can run pretty toasty. For example, when I tested Corsair's 48 GB DDR5-8400 CUDIMM kit last year, I recorded a noticeably higher temperature in my stress test, compared to a 'standard' DDR5 set. That said, it wasn't exceptionally high and well within tolerances, so I'm not entirely convinced that we really need active cooling for memory sticks.

Of course, the collaboration could only be for really fast stuff, such as DDR5-9600, but even then, G.Skill just uses its standard heatsinks for its absolute fastest memory kit.

As you've possibly already gathered from the headline to this article, none of this is what's bothering me about this announcement. It's that the whole thing just seems like the two companies are being completely oblivious to the current state of the DRAM market. Even the most enthusiastic of PC enthusiasts is unlikely to be asking for actively cooled memory; they, and everyone else, just want DDR5 that's sensibly priced.

Over at Amazon, the cheapest 32 GB G.Skill dual-channel kit is a whopping $429, and it's even more expensive at Newegg. Go back in time by eight months or so, and you only had to pay around $90 for the same memory, roughly 79% cheaper than it is now (or, if you prefer the figures the other way around, the price has risen by 376%).

I have no doubts that some people out there will snap up a set of MasterDimms, the moment they become available, either for bragging rights or because they plan on overclocking the twangers off the kit the moment it's jammed into their PCs. But that's surely going to be a very small number of people, and certainly a demand lost in the cacophony of pleas for affordable DRAM.

I greatly fear that this is going to be a common theme at this year's Computex event, where instead of seeing all kinds of innovative ways of beating back the RAMpocalypse, we'll just get a flood of tone-deaf launches, all pretending that everything is just fine and dandy. With luck, the MasterDimm announcement will just be an isolated case, but if not…Well, let's not go there.

If you recognise the name 'Anbernic', it's likely because you've had your eyes on the company's gorgeous retro gaming handhelds. You might want to think twice before buying one, though, as some folks have accused it of quietly downgrading the DDR4 memory to DDR3 and cutting memory size in half, with Anberic reportedly only denying the latter part of that allegation.

As reported by our friends over at Tom's Hardware, a user on Reddit noted that the Anbernic RG 34XXSP they bought reportedly came with 512 MB of LPDDR3 memory, instead of the 1 GB advertised on the website.

A quick look through an archive of the Anbernic websites shows the RG 34XXSP used to advertise 2 GB of LPDDR4 memory, but now merely says 1 GB. Speaking to Tom's Hardware, Anbernic says "the current standard memory capacity is 1GB" and that the 512 MB model was "an unexpected error". It also claims it will "assist with a replacement as a priority" for anyone affected.

That means anyone who has bought an Anbernic device recently should check that it does indeed have the advertised memory. As noted on Reddit, the downgrade to 512 MB of memory is "low enough to become an actual usage problem".

Notably, Anbernic did not seem to respond to the LPDDR3 downgrade claim, and replacing 'LPDDR4' on the website specs certainly doesn't paint the best picture about what memory you can expect in your device. As has become the norm with the memory crisis, that means buying the handheld now gets you a worse one than you would have gotten just a year ago, for the same price.

512 ram RG34xxSP - Update - Samsung 740 K4E4E324EE EGCF - 512 LPDDR3 from r/ANBERNIC

The problem many have with this downgrade is that it doesn't appear to have been signposted by Anbernic itself, outside of a specs sheet most will glaze over. If it instead got a price increase, people would notice immediately, but simply changing the spec sheet won't be enough to inform many of what has actually changed.

The memory crisis has hit many gaming companies over the last year. Just a few months ago, Wallace Santos, the CEO of gaming PC builder Maingear, told me, "In the two plus decades I've been doing this, this is the first time where I'm seeing no light at the end of the tunnel, at least for the next two years. It's not a multi-week problem, it's a multi-year problem that we're facing right now."

We've seen price increases, in turn, from Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo, and Valve on their respective gaming devices. And that's before mentioning the Steam Machine, which I'm not fully convinced we'll see soon, or at a reasonable price. Still, if you've got an Anbernic device, it might be worth cracking that bad boy open to see if all is in order.

Last week, Samsung narrowly swerved a planned South Korean factory strike with a last-minute deal. The workers' union had agreed to not go ahead with the strike planned to commence on May 21 as it put a fresh proposal to an internal vote.

That vote has since taken place, with 74% of union members voting in favour of a profit sharing deal that could result in workers taking home an average of $340,000 in bonuses (via Bloomberg). It just goes to show what can be achieved through collective bargaining power, especially in an industry so central to AI as memory manufacturing has become.

The agreement will see 78,000 semiconductor workers receive 10.5 per cent of Samsung’s operating profit. According to the Financial Times, projections suggest this bonus pool will amount to a total of $22.6 billion (or 34 trillion in South Korean Won). Considering Samsung is a member of the $1 trillion market capitalisation club, profit sharing with its workers is only fair.

40% of the bonus pool will be shared out equally, while what's left is to be awarded based on departmental performance. The Financial Times estimates memory chip workers will receive a bonus roughly equivalent to $400,400.

This profit sharing deal is similar to the one SK Hynix struck with its own workers last year, promising 10 % of operating profits for the next decade. As an interesting side note, the Chosun Daily reported that SK Hynix employees were elevated "to the same 'precious' status as traditional high-status professions like doctors and lawyers in the [South Korean] marriage market" as a result of this 'bonus bonanza'.

A number of Samsung workers also left the company for greener pastures at the rival company. There's still a risk workers will continue to leave, as the final deal for Samsung's employees is ever so slightly less generous in terms of per-person compensation.

Looking at the tech and games sphere more broadly, the role of unions only feels more urgent (even if few have a shot at such a generous profit share deal as Samsung or SK Hynix's employees). For one thing, the Rockstar situation hasn't been far from my mind since last year.

For another, more recent example, three years after laying off more than 1,000 employees, Hasbro and Wizards of the Coast have begun sending daily emails and physical letters encouraging the survivors not to unionise. These examples, plus many, many more I could mention, are why game dev union members marched at this year's GDC to propose a 'Game Workers' Bill of Rights.' A better world is possible—and not just for game and tech workers.

Corsair has just announced a new DDR5 memory design that has me wishing we were still living with 2024 prices. It's called Shugo, and is unfortunately only a limited edition, created "for builders who see the machine as both a performance PC and a personal design statement."

It's also, erm, $600 (£579) for a 32 GB DDR5-6000 kit, so... yeah, there's that. Fancy limited editions are always more expensive than regular ones, and there's the memory shortage to factor in, too, but $600 is another level. For reference, a lot of similarly specced DDR5 kits right now are going for about $400, which is already a massively inflated price point.

The designs, made "in collaboration with community artists", of course look very nice, as you can see from the image above. But a big part of what makes this limited line-up interesting is its use of micro-drilling.

Shugo DDR5, Corsair says, "introduces CORSAIR patent-pending light-emitting micro-drilling technology, which allows RGB lighting to shine through the side of the module and become part of the artwork itself. Each SHUGO design incorporates its own micro-hole pattern, creating lighting effects that emerge from the art rather than sitting apart from it."

"Each module features premium aluminum heat spreaders, high-resolution UV printing, and precision pad printing to create a layered, collector-grade appearance"

"Statement" indeed, though I'd argue any gaming PC these days is somewhat of a statement, given the way prices have gone and are still going. On that front, research analysts reckon we're still in store for significant price hikes going forward, to the tune of 50% extra for DRAM customers next quarter, which will, of course, filter down into actual RAM prices for consumers before long.

Oh, what could have been if only the market had remained in 2024 mode. Perhaps then I could get more excited about new RAM aesthetics like this, as perhaps they wouldn't cost an arm and both legs. I can still appreciate the product, though, I suppose. And heck, who knows, perhaps it'll even feature in some pre-builts that get price slashed in sales events down to near-reasonable levels. A man can dream.

You don't need me to tell you that the exponential rise of AI servers has made PC enthusiasts think twice about buying a new upgrade, because one look at the current prices of graphics cards, DRAM kits, and SSDs tells you everything you need to know about the RAMpocalypse. But while things might seem to have calmed down a bit, one of the world's biggest suppliers of memory and storage has warned that certain components are still going to rise in price.

Hermitage Akihabara recently interviewed the CEO of Team Group, Gerry Chen, and opened with a simple question as to what his outlook was for the immediate future. "Currently, AI-related demand is very high in the overall memory market, accounting for 40-50% of the total supply. We expect this demand to continue to increase, and the majority of memory produced between 2026 and 2027 already has its customers," he began.

"The supply shortage is not limited to DRAM. NAND flash memory is also experiencing a similar supply shortage, resulting in a tight supply-demand situation across the entire market. Therefore, we believe that the overall memory market is likely to continue experiencing supply shortages until 2028."

It's worth noting that Team Group doesn't manufacture DRAM and NAND flash; instead, it buys modules in bulk from SK hynix, Micron, and Samsung. It then takes those chips to make its own DDR5 memory kits and SSDs.

That means the company is first in line to suffer the effects of limited supply, and since the process of turning raw modules into finished products isn't 100% perfect, Team Group's output will be even more limited.

When the interview turned to the question of prices for PCs and their components, Chen didn't have any good news. "I believe prices will rise further. While server product prices have already increased significantly, the general PC market is still relatively low at the moment.

"However, demand for AI servers and general-purpose servers is very strong, and prices are actually rising at a rate of about 30% per quarter. This trend is likely to continue for some time. The current general PC market is facing a very challenging situation in terms of pricing, but if server market prices continue to rise, we believe there is a high probability that the prices of PC products as a whole will follow suit."

Let me just paraphrase what Team Group said: The price rises we have already seen for entire PCs, as well as the parts inside them, have been much lower than those for servers. But if that sector continues to get worse, more of the raw component supply will be switched to the server market, leaving even less for the general consumer.

If that comes to pass, then the parts that are in the highest demand will see much bigger price hikes, and that unfortunately means DDR5 and SSDs. So if the thought of paying over $160 for a 1 TB NVMe drive leaves you cold, you'll be freezing to death by this time next year.

Ordinarily, I'd scoff at any company suggesting you should buy its products right now because the price will go up soon, as it's clearly a self-serving suggestion. But in this instance, I have to say that unless you're willing to wait until well into 2028 for an upgrade, you'd better bite the bullet now before things get even worse.

You might be forgiven for thinking there's something very worrisome going on in the PC hardware industry, what with memory modules staying at their skyrocketed shortage-induced prices. But don't worry folks, because memory makers are doing very well indeed, with revenue shooting up to nearly $100 billion as of the last quarter, according to Counterpoint Research.

Part of that revenue has fed into new-high market caps (company value, adding up outstanding shares) for SK hynix and Micron, both of which have just hit $1 trillion, catching up with Samsung, which achieved the same earlier in the month (via Reuters).

It's worth noting that, according to Counterpoint's charts, despite Micron and SK's new highs, it's Samsung that has been chomping through market share. In Q4 2025, Samsung held 36% of the DRAM market, SK had 32%, and Micron had 22%. Now, Samsung has 38% and SK 29%, with Micron remaining at 22%.

CXMT—ChangXin Memory Technologies, a Chinese memory maker—is also worth looking at, as its market share has climbed from 3% at the start of 2025 up to 8% now.

The company's memory has reportedly been found in Corsair DDR5 modules for the Chinese market, so it seems that its increased market share is starting to move the company into the bona fide mainstream. Which isn't to say Chinese memory will be a much cheaper alternative for Western end-users like you and I, at least not if our Nick's market research is anything to go by.

Apparently, another "blockbuster" quarter is in store for memory makers with another 50% price increase expected. Good news for Samsung, SK, and Micron, but not so good for its customers, and certainly not very good for downstream customers such as PC gamers.

This being said, there's much that can change in markets given the very real human element. Samsung has just swerved a planned factory strike, but industrial action is still a looming threat not just for Samsung but for semiconductor makers in general, including TSMC.

And then, of course, there's the fact that political action and war can have a big impact on materials and supplies, as we're seeing with the war in Iran. Oh, and of course, there's the ever-looming threat of the AI bubble bursting.

Until then, though, it seems like height after height for the DRAM bigwigs.

Hands up who among you thought Nvidia's Vera Rubin superchips would be cheap? Good, I see no digits. However, according to a Morgan Stanley research report, the bill for a single VR200 NVL72 rack is estimated to add up to a cool $7,803,148, with $2,001,600 of those costs attributed to memory. That's a 435% increase in memory cost over the GB300, if these figures are correct.

A snippet from the report looks to be making its way around various outlets, although we first spotted it via @Aaronwei3n on X. The figure is pretty eye watering, although given the vast amounts of hardware involved, it's not too surprising. And being an outside estimate from an outside research report, I'd advise a small dose of salt.

The estimated costs here are said to be representative of what cloud service providers pay, not what it costs Nvidia itself to build one, despite the bill of materials tag. So, there's likely a hefty markup on each item compared to what Nvidia has to spend to put together a rack.

Because Nvidia is in the business of making money—and it's certainly succeeding right now. The company's latest earnings call reported record revenue during the first quarter of 2026, to the tune of $81.6 billion. And yes, AI infrastructure and data center sales make up the vast majority of that moolah.

Nvidia's Grace Blackwell AI GPUs have been hugely successful, but CEO Jensen Huang predicts Vera Rubin's reign will be even better. Responding to an investor question, the leather-jacketed-one said: "Every single frontier model company will jump on Vera Rubin from the get go—and that was not true before on Blackwell.

"Vera Rubin is off to a tremendous start, and it will surely be more successful than even Grace Blackwell"

But that memory cost figure... eesh. Us PC gamers (and indeed, electronics enthusiasts everywhere) have been putting up with massive price increases for pretty much any component using a memory module, as AI servers hoover them all up and constrain consumer supply.

And if you're in the market for a data center full of Nvidia's latest AI-crunching gear, it looks like you too will be spending vast sums of money on memory chips—if these figures are even close to accurate, that is.

Suddenly, a $300+ 32 GB DDR5 kit doesn't look so ridiculous. Actually, scrap that. It absolutely is—but if Vera Rubin turns out to be the massive success that Nvidia predicts, it looks like memory manufacturers will still be focusing on the AI boom to boost their profits to ever-higher heights.

South Korean chip giant Samsung Electronics has reached an agreement with its labour union, mere hours before workers were due to begin an 18-day strike. The planned action was due to be taken today, Wednesday, May 21, but the union has agreed to suspend the strike and put a new proposal to an internal vote.

Details of the terms of the proposal are yet to be revealed, but the union previously pushed for Samsung to allocate 15% of its annual operating profits to employee bonuses (via Tom's Hardware). The union also proposed the scrapping of a 50% annual salary cap on performance pay-outs.

We previously reported on mass marches outside of Samsung's South Korean factories, as workers protested what they perceived to be a widening compensation gap.

The marches are believed to have been prompted by similar demands made by the SK hynix labour and management union, which led to wage increases and a removal of the cap on performance-based bonuses for employees earlier this year.

As such, Samsung employees were said to be leaving for SK hynix in large numbers, or taking to the streets to voice their displeasure.

Samsung had reportedly argued that previous union demands would give excessive rewards to loss-making units, due to the differences between its memory division, currently prospering during the AI boom, and its other operations. It's unclear if proposals made in the new deal would attempt to address a balance between those two factors in terms of employee remuneration, but it's encouraging news for Samsung factory workers, at the very least.

Reports indicate that Samsung had begun winding down chip production in preparation for the strike, with potential indirect losses estimated to be in the billions if the planned action went ahead.

For now, the strike is suspended—and union voting on Samsung's new proposal is expected to be carried out over the next week. Here's hoping for a satisfactory result for all parties involved.

Is this the news we've all been waiting for? An end to the memory crisis? Possibly. No lesser an authority than the former president of Samsung Electronics' semiconductor division says that memory prices could fall starting in the second half of next year thanks to a "surge" in manufacturing capacity in China.

Speaking at the National Academy of Engineering in Seoul, South Korea (via Wccftech), Kyung-Hyeon Kye said, "Chinese companies are aggressively expanding their production capacity." The result will be a "surge" in memory supply in the second half of 2027 or early 2028.

What's more, he warned that not only will memory supply increase, but demand could decline after 2028. "If the return on investment for Big Tech decreases relative to capital investment, there is a possibility of reduced investment," Kyung-Hyeon Kye said. Korea must therefore prepare for the "post-super boom."

His argument seems to be that demand for memory chips could tail off if the AI industry doesn't start making money rather than just spending it. Ironically, this raises the prospect of the memory crisis being followed by the mother of all memory gluts.

As we've reported before, the major players in memory manufacturing outside of China are in the midst of increasing manufacturing capacity. China, by this account, is set to add dramatically to that capacity.

If the AI bubble goes pop and the huge added demand for memory chips suddenly goes with it, there will be an awful lot of memory capacity looking for customers.

Perhaps the AI bubble actually bursting is too pessimistic a scenario. But a significant scaling back of current investment plans from the industry seems plausible. And even that could see the supply-and-demand ratio shift pretty dramatically.

Even if this is all accurate, we still have a year or more to sit out before memory pricing begins to return to normal. So, there's a ways to go yet. But the prospect of vaguely sensible PC build costs being a thing again is still good news. Here's hoping.

Framework, the company known for ultra-repairable laptops and desktop PCs, is launching a wireless touchpad keyboard, and it has become the company's most waitlisted item. When you consider the company is not traditionally known for accessories, it's strange to think that's the device people really want.

As announced on the company's X page today, the "Framework wireless touchpad keyboard is by far our most waitlisted product! We may need to increase our plans for production capacity." Given that Framework created this new keyboard having become frustrated with a certain Logitech option while designing and testing the Framework Desktop, you might recognise a recognisable board in the bin behind it in the picture above.

For what it's worth, the waitlist is what you get put on if you choose to fill in your email on the site for the keyboard. Framework will notify you when it is in stock, giving you the option to buy it.

In fairness, the keyboard does seem very cool. It comes with "an integrated touchpad that you don't hate", according to the company, making it supposedly ideal for sim rig and living room use. Effectively, it will allow you to easily use a computer from afar without needing a mouse or the likes of the Steam Controller.

Thanks to its open-source CAD design and ZMK-based firmware, it's designed to be very moddable—the control board can also be purchased separately, should you want to make your own keyboard. The standard built keyboard has a 68.8 x 865.6 mm touchpad with multi-touch support and 1.5 mm key travel. The keyboard can be connected with a wire, via Bluetooth, or with its USB-A dongle. No price point has been announced yet, though.

Not much more is known about the keyboard yet, but it doesn't seem to be designed for gamers. The touchpad naturally won't be great for gaming, and we don't know much about the keys themselves yet.

However, should you want to run your rig from a distance, there's a clear selling point. And it seems, based on the waitlist, I'm not the only one who thinks that.

Still, to think a PC and Laptop manufacturer doesn't have a PC or laptop as its most-waitlisted device speaks volumes about the current market, and the troubles of the memory crisis.

It's the 20th anniversary of the Republic of Gamers (ROG) and although we've already been treated to a special edition copper-themed Crosshair motherboard, it looks like Asus has something extra lined up for PC Gamers: its own line of DRAM kits.

Well, strictly speaking, it's just the one kit so far, and even then, it might just be a one-off, as part of the ROG celebration. Videocardz reports that Asus dropped the deets on the DRAM at its ROG Day 2026 event in China, but for everyone else, there's a preview look at the DDR5 set via 林大餅Bing's YouTube account.

Apparently developed via a collaboration with Biwin, the 48 GB dual-channel kit is rated to 6,000 MT/s with CL26-36-36-76 timings. That CAS latency is very tight, and I dare say that a good number of AM5 motherboards won't like it very much. Naturally, you can expect it to be fine with Asus' high-end boards, AMD and Intel flavoured, as it comes with XMP profiles for both platforms.

In terms of looks, well, it's ROG-a-go-go, as you'd expect, but I have to say that I quite like the design: angular, but not garish, with a rather classy colour scheme.

As for the price, Videocardz says that it's listed as 5999 yuan, which directly converts to a fraction over $888. How much of that is down to the RAMpocalypse is anyone's guess, but a 48 GB set of Biwin DDR5-6000 CL28 is $540 at Amazon. Specialised DRAM kits are always pricier than the regular stuff, so once you account for that (plus a bit extra for the ROG tax), I reckon we'll be looking at around $850 retail.

The interesting thing about all of this is whether or not Asus has been planning on entering the desktop memory market en masse. If this DDR5 kit is the only thing it's going to release in this sector, then the specs and pricing make sense, but if it's part of a long-term strategy to announce being a competitor to Corsair, G.Skill, and many others, it couldn't have come at a worse time.

ROG enthusiasts won't really care, though, and will probably try to snap up a set as soon as they can. After all, the only part of a complete gaming PC setup that Asus currently don't offer is a CPU and a memory kit. Oh, and internal SSDs, though you can get external units.

But if it's happy to start producing its own branded DRAM, I wouldn't be surprised if a couple of M.2 drives suddenly appeared, perhaps even followed by an Arm-powered processor by the end of the decade. Anyone fancy a 100% ROG rig?

In the midst of a memory supply crisis, I am definitely thankful for the 32 GB of DDR5 that came inside my prebuilt rig a few moons ago now. Sure, 16 GB of RAM is fine for most things I'd want to dive into, but the AI industry is playing a whole other ball game. Case in point, I am sweating just thinking about Micron's 256 GB DDR5 server module.

The Boise, Idaho-based memory manufacturer unveiled the tech on Tuesday. It's built on Micron's 1-gamma technology which, per the press release, "is capable of speeds up to 9,200 megatransfers per second (MT/s), greater than 40% faster than modules in volume production today."

Samples of the registered dual in-line memory modules (RDIMM) are being offered "to key server ecosystem enablers for platform validation" in order to ensure wide-ranging compatibility. To simplify, Micron is offering its still somewhat experimental high-bandwidth memory for those hungry enough for chips that they'd be willing to help iron out the kinks, especially if it means "accelerating the path to production deployment for data center customers building AI and HPC infrastructure at scale". It's a typical 'move fast, break things' approach.

For comparison's sake, our top pick when it comes to the best DDR5 RAM for gaming is the G.Skill Trident Z5 RGB DDR5-7200 CL34, and that has a speed of 7200 MT/s—mind you, that's only for a 2x 16 GB RAM kit. AMD CPUs, which are by far the most popular among gamers today, only really require 6000 MT/s, and in our testing, super high speeds aren't really that useful even with Intel's speedier controller.

Now, obviously Micron's 256 GB module is many orders of magnitude more powerful than a consumer RAM kit. As Micron explains, "A single 256 GB module can reduce operating power by more than 40% versus two 128 GB modules, enabling greater efficiency for modern AI data centers."

The memory module also incorporates "advanced packaging techniques, 3D stacking (3DS) multiple memory dies connected by through-silicon vias (TSVs)" for even greater efficiency gains.

If you've read my recent history lesson on Micron, you'll already know it's not unusual for the company to place itself at the cutting edge of memory. Indeed, most recently you'd be forgiven for thinking we're experiencing a storage shortage because Micron has placed it all in this massive 245 TB data centre SSD.

With AI sucking up much of the supply, memory hasn't been in the best state as of late, in regard to both price and availability. This, unfortunately, makes it fertile ground for scammers, and we're starting to see convincing DDR5 counterfeits.

As noted by @taki_pc_1115 on X, "At first glance, they look like regular memory sticks, but the chips actually installed on them are just bare circuit boards."

Taki shows off a series of images of surprisingly real-looking memory modules, and this just reinforces that you should try to test memory before you buy it second-hand. Even the likes of Corsair changed its packaging earlier this year to more easily show authenticity to buyers.

One thing to note here is that the memory Taki has sourced is for a laptop. It tends to be stripped bare more than a lot of memory, and as they note, if you were to throw a heatsink on top, it would be much harder to spot it as fake. The module here includes a counterfeit Samsung sticker, too.

Another user points out that there are fake SK hynix DDR5 modules being distributed, too, via Yahoo auctions. Here, a user sold nine fake SK hynix memory modules for just over 12,000 yen ($76). They are labelled as potentially faulty sets, like how some buyers will purchase broken consoles to fix them. This could be because knowingly selling counterfeit products, even if you declare them as counterfeit, is illegal.

Some potentially good ways to tell counterfeit memory apart are by checking that the edges are rounded, cross-referencing the PMIC (power management chip) shape, and checking the colour of the board (with counterfeits tending to be a lighter shade of green or black). However, this requires a great deal of knowledge about memory in the first place.

If you are unsure you are getting real memory, you can always pop it into a rig, access information with software like HWInfo, and cross-reference data with what you expect to see from that module. However, if you aren't that technically proficient, the best bet is to try and buy straight from the source, or from trusted sellers, and make sure its packaging is sealed.

As always, you have to be as careful as possible when buying PC hardware, and don't be afraid to test it before you buy it, if you can. And most importantly of all, if the price looks too good to be true, then leave it well alone.

Micron, which you may know as one of the biggest players in the memory market, has just released a great big whopping 245 TB SSD specifically designed for data centers. And it feels a little sickening to look at, knowing how expensive my next storage upgrade is going to be.

Entitled the Micron 6600 ION SSD, Micron says it is "the world’s highest capacity commercially available SSD", and, as you might be able to guess, it's to support "AI, cloud, enterprise and hyperscale workloads."

Micron's new data center SSD not only promises its QLC NAND technology is a generation ahead of any of the competition's QLC, but, with a 30 watts maximum power rating, it works out to use half the juice of a comparable capacious HDD. SSDs typically consume less power than HDDs anyway, so how power efficient it really is will have to be left to further testing.

What makes this SSD interesting is its humongous storage size. Also, compared to HDD deployment, Micron notes it requires 82% fewer racks. Travis Virgil, the senior vice president of ISG product management at Dell, says, "AI workloads are pushing data center capacity to the limit, and when you can fit significantly more storage into every rack, the math changes: less power, less floor space, less operational overhead."

The 245 TB model comes with a sequential read of 13,700 MB/S and a sequential write of 3,000 MB/s, but we don't know the pricing just yet. Chances are, unless you represent a major AI company, that price won't matter to you anyway.

So good news for AI then, but not necessarily anyone else. Storage is hard to come by at reasonable prices nowadays, and that's all because of AI. The memory crisis is largely caused by AI data centers sapping up all the modules to train new models, and it's not helped by the fact that there are multiple competing AI companies. They are fighting to get their digital foot in the door at the likes of SK hynix, Samsung, and Micron to secure contracts.

But manufacturers aren't looking to give contracts easily either. Just today, it was announced that SK hynix is struggling to keep up with 'unprecedented' offers, and didn't necessarily want to agree to any of them, as long-term contracts could require selling memory at a lower rate.

I, on the other hand, found out I had 300 GB in my recycling bin yesterday, so that's kinda like installing a 245 TB SDD, right?

Though the memory crisis has proven to be a thorn in the side of most major businesses, the scarcity has led to a lot of interest in manufacturer SK hynix. It seems companies are lining up at its doors in search of contracts, and the world's second-largest memory maker is unable to meet demand.

As reported by Reuters, potential proposals from other businesses include financing equipment to raise production capacity. Three people reportedly told Reuters that one firm offers ultraviolet lithography machines, which are worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

One source tells Reuters, "Regardless of the type of offer, available capacity is essentially zero right now." They continue. "There isn't even a small portion that ​can be designated for a specific customer."

Two people reportedly told Reuters that SK hynix is cautious of taking contracts for deals, as making those deals could lose the company money in the long term. It's said that longer-term deals could require selling memory at a lower price, in exchange for that security.

Samsung and Micron, the two other biggest players in the memory manufacturing industry, are reportedly both in talks with companies for multi-year contracts, but no firm details have come out from either of them.

It seems unlikely the memory crisis will end any time soon. Micron recently confirmed that demand is "significantly in excess of our available supply for the foreseeable future", and it has plans to support "meaningful product shipments" by 2028 in its semiconductor facility in Tongluo, Taiwan.

Companies are hurting now, though. Recently, I was told "this is the first time where I'm seeing no light at the end of the tunnel" by Wallace Santos, the CEO of gaming PC builder Maingear. Santos also told me, "I think there will be some companies that will dissipate into the sunset. That's the reality of it."

This same fear is shared by Phison's CEO, Pua Khein-Seng. Earlier this year, he predicted that many consumer electronics manufacturers would go bankrupt or exit product lines by the end of 2026.

Even motherboard manufacturers have seemingly been hit too, with MSI, Gigabyte, Asus, and ASRock all reportedly dropping estimated sales this year. As the memory crisis hits all manner of components, the will to upgrade goes down with it.

One can only hope that, if SK hynix takes on some of these deals, it can increase supplies to meet all that demand.

A new report suggests motherboard manufacturers are in a bad state right now, with the memory crisis and the Iran war affecting all kinds of PC hardware. As PC builders are disincentivised from, well, building PCs, the motherboards needed for them also get left behind.

The report, from Digitimes, notes a "collapse" for many motherboard manufacturers, claiming it is worse than previous financial crises and the first year of the Covid-19 pandemic. It notes that MSI, Gigabyte and ASRock are all expected to see declines in 2026, in regard to motherboard sales. As of the time of writing, motherboard sales figures for 2026 are not yet public.

The first element of this collapse is the memory crisis. As AI is intent on sucking all that memory for it to run, those looking to buy new DRAM kits are now paying a steep premium. Some simply won't and will hang on for it to go down. This memory crisis also hits other elements of a PC, like graphics cards, making them harder to buy at MSRP.

Jese Martinez from custom PC company PowerGPU recently affirmed the same to me, arguing, "it's memory, it's storage, it's multiple things that are happening. And it's not just a few 100 bucks. Stuff is going up twice the price or three times the price."

Naturally, if the price of components is stopping people from being able to upgrade, there's no point in buying a motherboard for the day it eventually goes back down. If the crisis lasts beyond 2027, one might assume they'd prefer to wait for the latest thing anyway.

However, that's not the only factor in this crisis. Digitimes notes that interest in Nvidia's RTX 50 series line of graphics cards is lower, too, due to a lack of updates and upgrades since the start of the year. We haven't seen the rumoured RTX 50 Super series yet, and it's unclear if we will, either. The report argues, "The mid-to-high-end gaming PC market lacks technical specifications that stimulate upgrades."

Digitimes claims that Asus, the industry leader in motherboards, sold 15 million units in 2025, but shipped just 5 million in the first half of 2026, indicating a steep drop for this year. It goes on to suggest that Asus is aiming for 10 million in total for 2026, which is apparently the lowest number of shipments in over a decade.

This doesn't necessarily mean the companies are in trouble, though. Asus' March earnings call argues its high-end brand value and shift to AI would help it weather the memory crisis. Gigabyte and ASRock, similarly, are looking to make money from AI. Though AI is arguably the biggest factor in the downturn of the motherboard market, it is also a money-making machine, responsible for Nvidia being worth $5 trillion. The main group that will be affected by this are the buyers, but AI doesn't seem to really care about them.

The Nintendo Switch 2 felt quite pricey at launch, what with its $450 price tag and all. However, the memory crisis has hit everyone, and the Japanese company is feeling pressure to raise its prices.

This is all according to a recent report from Bloomberg. It notes that Nintendo's stock price has been on a decline, and hardware insecurity around both the memory crisis and outbreak of war in Iran has only made that worse.

Bloomberg notes that Nintendo investors are concerned its launch price of $450 is "deeply unprofitable".

Hideki Yasuda, an analyst at Toyo Research Advice, tells Bloomberg that the stock will continue to decline unless Nintendo ups its prices. As of right now, a $50-$100 price increase seems the most likely, according to Bloomberg, but Yasuda thinks this is still not enough to make the console profitable.

However, companies don't tend to make their profits on consoles. The first Switch model did manage to break even, but it's a bit of an anomaly in that sense. The likes of Nintendo have control over its own storefront and will take a portion of sales from software. With hits like Pokémon Pokopia back in March, the Switch 2 is simply the price of entry to play the game.

Not everyone agrees that a price hike is the right call, though. As reported by Bloomberg, Michael Pachter, an analyst at Wedbush Securities, says, "I think they would be foolish to raise prices".

As we reported earlier this year, Nintendo has been "carefully considering the situation" around the memory crisis and has been thinking about a price hike for a while. With Nintendo due to announce its earnings this Friday, all eyes are on that meeting.

I personally have been using my Switch 2 for almost a year now, and I still regularly turn the device on, but even $450 felt a bit much for me at launch. Paying $500-$550 for a comparably underpowered Nintendo console without any bundled games is a tough sell, no matter how much you want the next Mario game.

AMD reports it made $10.3 billion in revenue during the first quarter of 2026. While revenue growth has been more or less flat quarter-on-quarter, this figure otherwise represents a growth of 38% compared to the same period in 2025. By all accounts, AMD is continuing to dine well on the demand for "high-performance CPUs and accelerators" from the AI industry—though even this heavy hitter won't be immune to 'headwinds' caused by the memory supply crisis.

First, let me break down that frankly eye-watering $10.3 billion figure in the press release: AMD's data centre segment represents a $5.8 billion slice of that pie—which has also grown 57% compared to Q1 2025—while gaming alone represents only about $720 million. It always feels wrong to say 'only' in relation to a monetary amount in the millions, especially as gaming grew about 11% year-on-year. However, AMD is advising investors to expect a sharp dip in this sector shortly.

During the recent earnings call, executive VP, CFO and treasurer Jean Hu advised "We expect second half demand in gaming to be impacted by higher memory and component costs. We now expect second half gaming revenue to decline more than 20% compared to the first half."

In other words, with consumer memory prices skyrocketing, and other components, such as CPUs, also experiencing knock-on shortages, PC gamers are understandably expected to spend less overall. AMD CEO Lisa Su later added during the same call, "We're making very good progress in the commercial PC arena with our AI PCs. We did see desktops a little bit softer just given desktop is a more consumer-focused market. And so in that market, it's more impacted by some of the memory pricing and the component price increases."

As AMD's hardware powers the PS5, Su also shared that "Semi-custom revenue declined year-over-year as expected at this stage of the console cycle." The PS5 released in 2020, meaning that 2026 represents the tail-end of its lifespan if prior console generations are anything to go by. While I personally may not be all that excited for the PS6, Su says that "engagements with customers on next-generation platforms remain strong."

AMD's gaming projections are not necessarily a shock; in response to an investor question, Lisa Su elaborated, "I mean, look, this is something that everyone in the industry is working with—in the time of tight supply, we are seeing some cost increases on the memory side. I think we are all working through that."

Indeed, both Nvidia and Microsoft have made similar predictions about how the memory crisis will affect their revenue.

"The way we're seeing it unfold in the market is actually on the Data Center side, because of the, let's call it, the demand for AI compute," Su continues, "People are largely focused on supply and ensuring that the supply assurance is there. The corollary of that—the larger impact that we're watching is the impact on the consumer markets. And as we said in the prepared remarks, we are expecting that there could be some demand impact as a result of the memory price increases on things like the PC business in the second half of the year as well as the Gaming business. So we're taking that into account in our overall model."

There are two very different worlds out there. One is the world that you and I live in, the world of the consumer, where we scrape together whatever scraps of expensive memory we can find after the rest has been handed off to AI datacentres. The other is the world of chipmakers and shareholders, where supply that can't keep up with demand is a good thing because, well, more profits. Case in point comes from Samsung's latest earnings call.

The world's largest memory maker is, it seems, doing very well despite what it says is "record low" demand fulfilment:

"We also have very tight inventory and available supply is far short of customer demand. In fact, our demand fulfillment rate is now at a record low. And unlike previous years, customers who are concerned about supply shortages are actually bringing forward their demand for 2027 already.

So currently, just based on prebooked demand alone, the supply-demand gap is looking to widen further in 2027 versus this year."

In other words, Samsung simply doesn't have the capacity to make enough chips for even the customers it already has prebooked through 2027. That's just how vast the AI industry's appetite is for memory, which is the primary cause of the RAMpocalypse.

When it comes to the most important thing of all, though—moolah—Samsung seems to be doing just fine. The company says, "Our blended ASP rose by low 90% range Q-on-Q for DRAM, high 80% Q-on-Q for NAND."

Parsing that into non-investor lingo, it's Samsung saying that, compared to the previous quarter, it started to sell its chips, on average, 90% higher when it comes to the memory you find in RAM and 80% higher when it comes to the memory you find in SSDs. To simplify even further: 'We're making a lot more money.'

All this being said, Samsung isn't immune to supply issues, and it's not as if having less supply itself is a good thing. As much demand for as much supply as you can muster is the goal, and on the supply front, war in the Middle East could cause a problem. Samsung says there are "no supply chain issues to date" on that front, but nothing is certain.

One reason you can never really predict how well a company or industry is going to do is that there can be so many surprise factors outside of the normal bounds of stocks and revenues. War, as it happens, is one of them. This is a fact that it seems Samsung is discovering as conflicts in the Middle East are causing issues—ones that the company says it is handling, but issues nonetheless.

Speaking in an earnings call, Samsung executive VP and CFO Soon-Cheol Park explained:

"Our semiconductor production lines are operating normally, and there have been no supply chain issues to date. While we source some process gases from Israel and the Middle East, we have secured sufficient safety stock and respond in line with local logistics conditions. Also, we have secured alternative logistic routes and diversified suppliers, including the U.S. and Japan. So the overall risk remains limited."

Although the company says it will "maintain a stable power supply system", it admits that oil prices are a problem:

"Oil price increases driven by the war are impacting global ocean and air freight costs, which is expanding the risk of higher shipping rates. In response, we are closely monitoring global inventory levels while optimising supply chain operations to minimise cost burden from international transportation."

Regarding these shipping issues, Park said the company is "engaging in negotiations and utilising alternative transportation options to mitigate the impact of high logistics costs."

However, the extent of shipping impacts is of course just as uncertain as the length of the war:

"In case the war is prolonged, we are developing diverse scenarios and through long-term contracts with logistics providers and fuel-linked freight rates, we plan to maintain cost competitiveness and supply capacity while strengthening our response capability to volatility."

So, to simplify, the war in Iran is affecting Samsung because of impacts on process gas supplies and on oil prices that, in turn, affect shipping costs. Such geopolitical events can often serve as a reminder of just how interconnected markets are, especially markets like the semiconductor one, which requires so many different materials from so many different places.

It's noteworthy, for instance, that PCB prices could be affected, too, and these are distinct from semiconductor chips.

Let's also not forget that, for semiconductor customers and other downstream customers like us humble PC gamers, there is also the compounded effect of the AI-induced global memory shortage. Demand for chips from AI companies seems insatiable, and all signs point towards memory staying in short supply for quite some time.

For how long the war in Iran will affect semiconductor material supplies and electronics prices, however, is less certain.

If you care about memory, PC gaming, or technology in general, there's a good chance you've heard of a little 'ol thing called the memory crisis. Thanks to AI gobbling up all the resources, it's the reason why RAM has quadrupled in price recently (if you're lucky). Some big companies may be able to weather that storm by steering into the skid (like Asus, which is betting somewhat on AI) or by having reserves of memory and strong contracts with suppliers. Others seem to be struggling with the day-to-day and are making compromises to navigate.

Jese Martinez, the founder of custom PC company PowerGPU, tells me this crisis is very different to the one that hit GPUs five years ago. When demand for the RTX 20/30 series was already high, cryptominers were buying batches of cards to mine for Ethereum. This led to a surge in pricing, but it was a fairly contained crisis, with it only briefly threatening storage drives and CPUs but never taking hold.

"Now it's not just GPUs," Martinez says, "it's memory, it's storage, it's multiple things that are happening. And it's not just a few 100 bucks. Stuff is going up twice the price or three times the price. I mean, we have 5090s right now selling close to $4,000 / $4,500 on eBay."

Martinez tells me that PowerGPU looked to lower its expenses in response to the crisis by moving to a smaller warehouse. PowerGPU was occupying 10,000 square feet, which Martinez claims was "overkill". The company bought a big supply of memory and storage as the memory crisis started to form, thanks to partnerships with the likes of Kingston and Lexar.

"But that could only last so long, right?"

Martinez says sales dropped in the first quarter of 2026, and though they tend to see sales go back up around the start of the tax year (in March), this year was different. I'm told customers simply "don't want to pay the price" of memory right now.

Martinez admits, "We're pretty much in survival mode."

Wallace Santos, the CEO of gaming PC builder Maingear, claims the memory crisis is very different to standard crises they've tackled before: "In the two plus decades I've been doing this, this is the first time where I'm seeing no light at the end of the tunnel, at least for the next two years. It's not a multi-week problem, it's a multi-year problem that we're facing right now."

Santos' woes are similar to Martinez's. Santos tells me, "In October, we were paying $190 for a kit of RAM. By December, that same kit was costing us $840. As of right now, I think it's 900 plus dollars."

Santos tells me, "I don't think this should be about pointing fingers", but "I don't know who else to point the finger at". In our conversation, fingers were pointed at SK Hynix, Micron, and Crucial. "I get it from a business standpoint, but it's still very painful to the whole ecosystem."

Both companies have had to pass the price increase of memory onto the customers. Maingear tells me that it messages potential buyers, telling them prices are about to go up, and Santos tells me he's worried it will take a long time to go back down.

"I think entry-level PCs, they're going to get greatly affected in the future. I think the $899/$999 price points, those price points probably will shift to $1,599, or $1,499 as an entry-level PC in the future."

Maingear has a program where you can send your own RAM to it when you buy your PC, and they will fit it and tune it for you. You can ship memory directly to it when you buy online, or send it to Maingear with an envelope paid for by the company. It will also RMA your gear if the memory is faulty. Or you can just fit it at home. Santos tells me they are hopeful that competitors will copy this plan "so we can remove some strain from the supply chain."

Michael Jin, senior product designer at tiny PC maker Minisforum, tells me, "the current memory supply situation is cyclical and temporary", and that "we expect it to stabilise as production capacity adjusts and demand normalises."

It's true that no crisis can last forever. Eventually, either manufacturers meet demand or those making demands no longer need such a large supply. That doesn't mean it will end soon, though.

Both Maingear and Minisforum argue now is the right time to upgrade. Minisforum says, "Given that memory prices may remain high for some time, we encourage users considering an upgrade to make their purchase sooner rather than later."

"If you can afford to do it. Do it," Santos says. "Don't wait till tomorrow to build a PC… There's no guarantees tomorrow."

"Prices will keep going higher. And it sounds ridiculous. Me saying that, coming from my position… people think we're being opportunistic. It's that I'm just keeping it real."

PowerGPU's perspective is different. "For $1,000, your best bet is to do some research, build it yourself. If you can't, or if you don't want to—and it depends on what you're trying to accomplish—honestly, I recommend a console at that point"

Later during the same week I spoke to Martinez, Sony raised the price of the PS5 by $100 and the PS5 Pro by $150.

But where does that leave the builders? Where Minisforum sees smaller builders leveraging their position in the market to offer different kinds of builds to the biggest companies, Maingear argues, "I think there will be some companies that will dissipate into the sunset. That's the reality of it."

But AI, the technology gobbling all that memory, is not seen unfavourably by anyone I've spoken to. Santos tells me that "we should also understand that there is a need for AI," and "I think at the end of the day, it is, it is a culture-changing, life-changing technology that's going to catapult, you know, our species, right? But it's painful."

Martinez is still hopeful about the memory crisis. He says he hopes it's over as soon as possible.

"I would hope that it's sooner rather than later, but I really hope it's over by summer… by, like, towards the end of the year. That's my assumption."

Analysts are less hopeful. Counterpoint research reckons "there is no scenario where memory prices correct in the second half" of 2027. Micron has also confirmed demand is "significantly in excess of our available supply for the foreseeable future".

And this leaves the PC market in a weird spot. Santos believes the memory crisis gives the opportunity for companies "to rent compute to people", and he argues big companies are not "incentivising people to have computers at home". NZXT and HP are both renting PCs to users, which is one way to not actually have to sell memory it owns.

"Is that the future? I don't know. I hope not. I think as a community, as an enthusiast community, we were stronger than that, and we tend to make a lot of noise," Santos says.

Whether or not that noise will make any difference in the wider gaming market is anyone's guess, but one thing is clear: While AI companies rake in up to trillions of dollars of value, everyone is paying for it.

I love a supercomputer reveal, and this one's a little different than most. China's National Supercomputing Center in Shenzhen has announced its LineShine system, a machine that aims to deliver 2 exaflops of performance once it's fully constructed.

That's an impressive figure, and would make LineShine one of the fastest exascale supercomputers in the world (via HPCWire). This one, though, is planned to be an all-CPU system—in contrast to virtually all of the others on the Top500 list, which make use of AMD or Nvidia GPUs to accelerate proceedings.

This will be a supercomputer of sheer processor-induced heft, and some of the stats are jaw-dropping. The first construction phase will link 100 Huawei Kunpeng servers together, with 12,800 cores spread between them. The second phase, according to reports, will involve the addition of an extra 47,000 individual CPUs spread across 92 compute cabinets.

A pre-print of a paper entitled "Breaking the Training Barrier of Billion-Parameter Universal Machine Learning Interatomic Potentials" gives us some more potential specs of China's new toy. The paper says that the total system will be made of 20,480 computing nodes, each equipped with two Armv9-based LX2 processors.

Each of those LX2 CPUs has two compute dies with 304 cores in total, which run alongside eight 32 GB HBM stacks. Every node is linked by a "LingQi high-speed network with dual-plane multi-rail fat-tree topology, offering 1.6 Tb/s bandwidth per node."

I know what at least some of those terms mean. Anyway, if these specs and performance figures are accurate, the LineShine would take its place as the fastest all-CPU-powered supercomputer ever built—although El Capitan currently holds the record for the fastest overall in the Top500 listings, with a 2.74+ exaflop Rpeak result.

As for its purpose? Apparently, it will deliver "internationally leading performance in large-scale applications such as molecular dynamics, fluid simulation, life sciences, and AI large-scale model training and promotion." Y'know, supercomputer stuff. A bit boring, isn't it? Imagine the Geekbench score, folks. Surely it's worth a run just for giggles?

There's a lot to like about Framework, from its modular approach to gaming laptop upgrades and hardware repairability, to the company's candour regarding the memory supply crisis.

Pre-orders for a 12 GB version of the Framework Laptop 16 graphics module recently went live. Powered by the Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070, it's fair to expect this to go for a pretty penny—but at $1,199, the 12 GB pre-orders cost twice as much as the 8 GB modules.

TechPowerUp highlighted this fact on X, to which the official Framework account responded, "Thanks @OpenAI." When another user argued that the 12 GB module should cost less, Framework replied, "Feel free to start a laptop company and see what suppliers quote you for GDDR7."

The ongoing memory shortage is at least in no small part fuelled by the AI industry's nigh insatiable appetite for SSDs and RAM. Framework itself had warned that stabilising memory prices were only a 'temporary reprieve' earlier this year. Indeed, prices are likely to look a lot worse before they get better; last month company CEO Nirav Patel even said, "If you’re looking to order a Framework Laptop or Desktop with a lot of storage, now is the time to do that."

What's fuelling the fire of the RAMpocalypse is outsized demand. As such, memory manufacturers are trying to scale up—but the new factories being constructed by major players such as SK Hynix, Micron, and Samsung won't make a meaningful impact on supply until about 2028.

With such supply challenges in mind, $1,199 for a 12 GB graphics module still warrants a sharp in-take of breath, but also seems a touch more understandable.

As for GDDR7 and Nvidia, some leaks suggest we'll see a whole 9 GB of it in a release of the RTX 5050 GPU later this year. If that turns out to be true, this card will use three sets of 3 GB chips rather than four sets of 2 GB. That could help with cost, in theory—but I dread to think just how much this entry-tier card could end up asking for in practice.

While PC gaming has never been an ultra-cheap hobby, the current AI-induced global memory supply crisis has made it painfully pricey. With DRAM kits and SSDs now three to four times more expensive than they were 12 months ago, nothing is off the table when it comes to finding ways to save some money.

All of which got me thinking: Is it worth using a single stick of memory compared to shelling out for a dual-channel kit, be it separately or as part of a prebuilt gaming PC? We're always told that this isn't a good idea, but if you bought a 32 GB kit with a friend and split the memory between the two of you, that would actually save you a bit of money over buying a full 16 GB kit.

So armed with a deerstalker hat, magnifying glass, pipe... oh, and a host of PC parts, I've delved into the whole single vs dual-channel DRAM debate. What I've discovered will help you make the right choice when it comes to choosing your next gaming PC or planning a full upgrade.

What is a DRAM channel?

For more years than I can remember, CPUs in desktop PCs and laptops have sported two independent memory controllers. Originally, they were part of the motherboard chipset (specifically the bit called the Northbridge), but they're now all buried inside the processor die.

The controllers basically handle everything to do with the computer's system memory, reading and writing data, telling the DRAM chips when to refresh, and so on. By having two independent controllers, i.e. dual channels to the memory, you can theoretically get twice the performance, though separate controllers also help to reduce latencies because you can have one reading while the other is writing, for example.

Which pretty much suggests that using a single channel is bad news, right? Well, not necessarily, because modern CPUs have a lot of cache, which goes a long way to reducing the data demands on the memory controllers. If the data required by an instruction is already stored in cache, it doesn't need to be fetched from the system memory.

So for CPUs with lots of cache, single-channel DRAM might not be as much of an issue as you think. Especially if the DRAM is fast, with lots of bandwidth, too. There's only one way to find out.

Big cache, fast DRAM

To kick things off, I'm using a Ryzen 9 9950X3D, a processor with an enormous 128 MB of Level 3 cache, split 96+32 across its two core chiplets. Even though games will pretty much only use one of those chiplets, AMD's software ensures that it will be the 96 MB chiplet.

That's been paired with a GeForce RTX 5090 and 32 GB of dual-channel DDR5-6000 CL32, and while that's not the fastest memory you can buy, it's still pretty speedy stuff. Sure, these are some of the most expensive parts you can stuff in a gaming PC, especially the graphics card, but in gaming, this particular CPU isn't a great deal faster than a Ryzen 7 9800X3D or any Zen 5-based processor with 3D V-Cache, for that matter.

The results below are for six different games, all running at 4K native resolution (no upscaling or frame generation), with every graphics option set to the maximum value. Where available, ray tracing or path tracing has been enabled, too. This is to ensure that the game is putting the biggest load it can onto the graphics card, to see what impact single-channel DRAM has in GPU-limited situations.

DRAM channel benchmarks | Max graphics

Ryzen 9 9950X3D, RTX 5090

Black Myth: Wukong (4K Cinematic/Full Path Tracing)Hogwarts Legacy (4K Ultra/Ultra RT)F1 25 (4K Ultra w/ PT)Marvel's Spider-Man Remastered (4K Very High w/ RT)Baldur's Gate 3 (4K Ultra)Counter-Strike 2 (4K Very High)

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

DDR5-6000 | 32 GB dual channel

28

21

DDR5-6000 | 16 GB single channel

28

20

DDR5-6000 | 32 GB single channel

28

20

07.51522.530

Black Myth: Wukong (4K Cinematic/Full Path Tracing) Data

Product	Value
DDR5-6000 | 32 GB dual channel	28 Avg FPS, 21 1% Low FPS
DDR5-6000 | 16 GB single channel	28 Avg FPS, 20 1% Low FPS
DDR5-6000 | 32 GB single channel	28 Avg FPS, 20 1% Low FPS

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

DDR5-6000 | 32 GB dual channel

81

35

DDR5-6000 | 16 GB single channel

76

26

DDR5-6000 | 32 GB single channel

81

33

0255075100

Hogwarts Legacy (4K Ultra/Ultra RT) Data

Product	Value
DDR5-6000 | 32 GB dual channel	81 Avg FPS, 35 1% Low FPS
DDR5-6000 | 16 GB single channel	76 Avg FPS, 26 1% Low FPS
DDR5-6000 | 32 GB single channel	81 Avg FPS, 33 1% Low FPS

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

DDR5-6000 | 32 GB dual channel

65

38

DDR5-6000 | 16 GB single channel

64

38

DDR5-6000 | 32 GB single channel

64

38

020406080

F1 25 (4K Ultra w/ PT) Data

Product	Value
DDR5-6000 | 32 GB dual channel	65 Avg FPS, 38 1% Low FPS
DDR5-6000 | 16 GB single channel	64 Avg FPS, 38 1% Low FPS
DDR5-6000 | 32 GB single channel	64 Avg FPS, 38 1% Low FPS

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

DDR5-6000 | 32 GB dual channel

142

67

DDR5-6000 | 16 GB single channel

119

54

DDR5-6000 | 32 GB single channel

136

64

037.575112.5150

Marvel's Spider-Man Remastered (4K Very High w/ RT) Data

Product	Value
DDR5-6000 | 32 GB dual channel	142 Avg FPS, 67 1% Low FPS
DDR5-6000 | 16 GB single channel	119 Avg FPS, 54 1% Low FPS
DDR5-6000 | 32 GB single channel	136 Avg FPS, 64 1% Low FPS

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

DDR5-6000 | 32 GB dual channel

156

73

DDR5-6000 | 16 GB single channel

140

66

DDR5-6000 | 32 GB single channel

143

68

050100150200

Baldur's Gate 3 (4K Ultra) Data

Product	Value
DDR5-6000 | 32 GB dual channel	156 Avg FPS, 73 1% Low FPS
DDR5-6000 | 16 GB single channel	140 Avg FPS, 66 1% Low FPS
DDR5-6000 | 32 GB single channel	143 Avg FPS, 68 1% Low FPS

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

DDR5-6000 | 32 GB dual channel

383

238

DDR5-6000 | 16 GB single channel

357

202

DDR5-6000 | 32 GB single channel

374

238

0100200300400

Counter-Strike 2 (4K Very High) Data

Product	Value
DDR5-6000 | 32 GB dual channel	383 Avg FPS, 238 1% Low FPS
DDR5-6000 | 16 GB single channel	357 Avg FPS, 202 1% Low FPS
DDR5-6000 | 32 GB single channel	374 Avg FPS, 238 1% Low FPS

Well, half of the games are GPU-limited in this instance, because the RTX 5090 has no problems churning out the frames in Spider-Man Remastered, Baldur's Gate 3, and Counter-Strike 2. On the other hand, Black Myth: Wukong, F1 25, and Hogwarts Legacy are somewhat grindy with ray tracing/path tracing active.

I tested each game with the full dual-channel 32 GB, then tested them again with one DIMM removed. Finally, I swapped that single 16 GB stick of DRAM for a 32 GB one. It does have slightly better timings (two cycles snappier across the board), but it's not enough of a difference to really stand out.

If you cycle through each game's results, using the chart's drop-down menu, you'll see that single-channel DRAM doesn't cause much of a performance drop, but only when the game isn't restricted by how much memory is present. For example, the 1% low frame rates in Hogwarts Legacy fall by 26% when using one 16 GB DIMM, but that decrease is only 6% when using a 32 GB stick.

Interestingly, Counter-Strike 2 shows practically no difference in performance, single vs dual channel DRAM, which shows that the game isn't shifting a great deal of data around during gameplay. Or rather, not enough to trouble the 9950X3D's massive L3 cache and the RTX 5090's enormous VRAM.

Now let's take a look at a polar opposite scenario. I redid every test, but this time at 1080p native resolution and with every graphics option set to the lowest value. Visual niceties, such as ray tracing, were all disabled.

DRAM channel benchmarks | Min graphics

Ryzen 9 9950X3D, RTX 5090

Black Myth: Wukong (1080p Lowest)Hogwarts Legacy (1080p Lowest)F1 25 (1080p Lowest)Marvel's Spider-Man Remastered (1080p Lowest)Baldur's Gate 3 (1080p Lowest)Counter-Strike 2 (1080p Lowest)

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

DDR5-6000 | 32 GB dual channel

269

129

DDR5-6000 | 16 GB single channel

260

120

DDR5-6000 | 32 GB single channel

267

125

075150225300

Black Myth: Wukong (1080p Lowest) Data

Product	Value
DDR5-6000 | 32 GB dual channel	269 Avg FPS, 129 1% Low FPS
DDR5-6000 | 16 GB single channel	260 Avg FPS, 120 1% Low FPS
DDR5-6000 | 32 GB single channel	267 Avg FPS, 125 1% Low FPS

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

DDR5-6000 | 32 GB dual channel

239

92

DDR5-6000 | 16 GB single channel

238

85

DDR5-6000 | 32 GB single channel

238

85

075150225300

Hogwarts Legacy (1080p Lowest) Data

Product	Value
DDR5-6000 | 32 GB dual channel	239 Avg FPS, 92 1% Low FPS
DDR5-6000 | 16 GB single channel	238 Avg FPS, 85 1% Low FPS
DDR5-6000 | 32 GB single channel	238 Avg FPS, 85 1% Low FPS

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

DDR5-6000 | 32 GB dual channel

380

258

DDR5-6000 | 16 GB single channel

353

237

DDR5-6000 | 32 GB single channel

360

237

0100200300400

F1 25 (1080p Lowest) Data

Product	Value
DDR5-6000 | 32 GB dual channel	380 Avg FPS, 258 1% Low FPS
DDR5-6000 | 16 GB single channel	353 Avg FPS, 237 1% Low FPS
DDR5-6000 | 32 GB single channel	360 Avg FPS, 237 1% Low FPS

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

DDR5-6000 | 32 GB dual channel

247

136

DDR5-6000 | 16 GB single channel

246

130

DDR5-6000 | 32 GB single channel

246

132

075150225300

Marvel's Spider-Man Remastered (1080p Lowest) Data

Product	Value
DDR5-6000 | 32 GB dual channel	247 Avg FPS, 136 1% Low FPS
DDR5-6000 | 16 GB single channel	246 Avg FPS, 130 1% Low FPS
DDR5-6000 | 32 GB single channel	246 Avg FPS, 132 1% Low FPS

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

DDR5-6000 | 32 GB dual channel

182

86

DDR5-6000 | 16 GB single channel

174

70

DDR5-6000 | 32 GB single channel

171

74

050100150200

Baldur's Gate 3 (1080p Lowest) Data

Product	Value
DDR5-6000 | 32 GB dual channel	182 Avg FPS, 86 1% Low FPS
DDR5-6000 | 16 GB single channel	174 Avg FPS, 70 1% Low FPS
DDR5-6000 | 32 GB single channel	171 Avg FPS, 74 1% Low FPS

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

DDR5-6000 | 32 GB dual channel

645

212

DDR5-6000 | 16 GB single channel

616

202

DDR5-6000 | 32 GB single channel

631

211

0200400600800

Counter-Strike 2 (1080p Lowest) Data

Product	Value
DDR5-6000 | 32 GB dual channel	645 Avg FPS, 212 1% Low FPS
DDR5-6000 | 16 GB single channel	616 Avg FPS, 202 1% Low FPS
DDR5-6000 | 32 GB single channel	631 Avg FPS, 211 1% Low FPS

The size of the frame rates clearly indicates that we're now in a more CPU-limited scenario, with the GPU barely being used at all in some cases. Naturally, you'd expect the amount of DRAM bandwidth to matter here, because if the game's frame rate is waiting almost entirely on the CPU to churn out data, anything that will slow it down will surely affect the overall performance.

Once again, the power of AMD's 3D V-Cache comes to the rescue. Everywhere except in Baldur's Gate 3, though, as the 1% low frames took a 19% tumble with a single 16 GB DIMM and a 14% hit when using a 32 GB single-channel stick.

The performance figures don't quite paint a full picture, either, because using single-channel memory caused noticeable microstutters in every game. It was never especially bad, though there were times when I missed the apex of a corner in F1 25 because of a minor stutter.

However, none of this really matters because if you can afford a prebuilt gaming PC with a Ryzen 7 9800X3D, for example, it will almost certainly come with a dual-channel memory kit. And if you're upgrading your current gaming PC to fit such a processor, you'll probably be happy to fork out for a 32 GB twin-DIMM setup.

But what if your budget is considerably lower than this? What about if you're considering getting a more affordable gaming PC that uses an older DDR4-powered Ryzen CPU? Specifically, one that has nowhere near as much cache as a 9950X3D.

Average cache, average DRAM

To answer that question, I grabbed my Ryzen 5 5600X test rig, which has 32 MB of L3 cache. For a six-core, 12-thread processor, that's actually quite a decent amount, though it's in the same ballpark as most six/eight-core CPUs. This chip also uses DDR4 memory, so together, we're down on cache and bandwidth compared to the previous setup.

I slapped 16 GB of DDR4-3200 CL16 and a GeForce RTX 4070 inside, to essentially make it an 'affordable gaming PC', and started another batch of gameplay testing. But rather than pulling one DIMM out, I just retested everything with a single 16 GB DIMM, as 8 GB of system memory would seriously affect the performance of the games.

For settings, I used a resolution of 1440p but with DLSS/FSR Quality enabled, so the actual rendering resolution is less than 1080p. This does force games to become somewhat CPU-limited, so I also set every game to use its High graphics preset. I know CS2 gamers would never do this, but we've already seen that this particular game isn't especially sensitive to memory bandwidth.

DRAM channel benchmarks

Ryzen 5 5600X, RTX 4070

Black Myth: Wukong (1440p High)Hogwarts Legacy (1440p High)F1 25 (1440p High)Marvel's Spider-Man Remastered (1440p High)Baldur's Gate 3 (1440p High)Counter-Strike 2 (1440p High)

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

DDR4-3200 | 16 GB dual channel

116

56

DDR4-3200 | 16 GB single channel

103

45

037.575112.5150

Black Myth: Wukong (1440p High) Data

Product	Value
DDR4-3200 | 16 GB dual channel	116 Avg FPS, 56 1% Low FPS
DDR4-3200 | 16 GB single channel	103 Avg FPS, 45 1% Low FPS

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

DDR4-3200 | 16 GB dual channel

92

35

DDR4-3200 | 16 GB single channel

81

29

0255075100

Hogwarts Legacy (1440p High) Data

Product	Value
DDR4-3200 | 16 GB dual channel	92 Avg FPS, 35 1% Low FPS
DDR4-3200 | 16 GB single channel	81 Avg FPS, 29 1% Low FPS

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

DDR4-3200 | 16 GB dual channel

188

125

DDR4-3200 | 16 GB single channel

171

98

050100150200

F1 25 (1440p High) Data

Product	Value
DDR4-3200 | 16 GB dual channel	188 Avg FPS, 125 1% Low FPS
DDR4-3200 | 16 GB single channel	171 Avg FPS, 98 1% Low FPS

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

DDR4-3200 | 16 GB dual channel

107

64

DDR4-3200 | 16 GB single channel

104

57

037.575112.5150

Marvel's Spider-Man Remastered (1440p High) Data

Product	Value
DDR4-3200 | 16 GB dual channel	107 Avg FPS, 64 1% Low FPS
DDR4-3200 | 16 GB single channel	104 Avg FPS, 57 1% Low FPS

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

DDR4-3200 | 16 GB dual channel

69

41

DDR4-3200 | 16 GB single channel

58

32

020406080

Baldur's Gate 3 (1440p High) Data

Product	Value
DDR4-3200 | 16 GB dual channel	69 Avg FPS, 41 1% Low FPS
DDR4-3200 | 16 GB single channel	58 Avg FPS, 32 1% Low FPS

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

DDR4-3200 | 16 GB dual channel

281

100

DDR4-3200 | 16 GB single channel

267

94

075150225300

Counter-Strike 2 (1440p High) Data

Product	Value
DDR4-3200 | 16 GB dual channel	281 Avg FPS, 100 1% Low FPS
DDR4-3200 | 16 GB single channel	267 Avg FPS, 94 1% Low FPS

And now we can see what happens when we don't have lots of nice cache to lean on, nor the large amount of memory bandwidth afforded by DDR5. With this setup, single-channel DRAM takes a fair slice off the overall performance, and a pretty big chunk off the 1% lows.

The exception to this is Counter-Strike 2, as expected, and the above results really do show that the game just wants a fast GPU to fling out the frames, and a handful of fast CPU cores to feed the graphics chip with instructions. The amount of data passing between the CPU and system memory just isn't enough to trouble single-channel DRAM.

Every other game clearly didn't like it, and my results show that you're going to be leaving a lot of potential performance on the table if you try to save money by using one stick of memory in your upgrade. It also means that you need to look very carefully at any prebuilt gaming PC to see if it's being sold with dual-channel DRAM or not.

This is especially true if the rig uses something like a Ryzen 7 8700F. That uses DDR5, but the chip only has 16 MB of L3 cache, so just as with the 5600X, it would be heavily affected by using single-channel memory.

Coping with single-channel DRAM

If you've already bought a prebuilt gaming PC and it has just one stick of memory installed in its motherboard, then don't panic. Yes, we've seen that if the CPU doesn't have lots of cache and access to plenty of DRAM bandwidth, games will run slower, but there is one thing you can do to help offset it. Or rather, hide it.

It's worth noting that the performance results for the Ryzen 5 5600X setup were mostly limited by the CPU, due to the use of upscaling dropping the rendering resolution right down.

However, if you disable that entirely or increase the graphics settings, you can shift the performance barrier more towards the graphics card. The overall frame rates will be lower, but four of my six tested games had plenty of capacity to drop some frames per second, and still run at a comfortable 60 fps.

In other words, the more you can make the GPU the limiting factor in a game's performance, the lower the impact from using single-channel memory will be. It's a sign of the times that I'm having to write all of this, especially when affordable 32 GB DDR4 and DDR5 kits existed less than a year ago, but until those days return once more, PC gamers will just have to use every trick in the book to get by.

Samsung is never far from the headlines these days, as it's the biggest manufacturer of DRAM chips, a crucial electronics component that's difficult to procure in the face of massive AI server demands. This has led to record financial figures, with the company estimating an eight times profit increase in its most recent earnings guidance documents.

But while those glowing figures certainly put the company in an enviable financial position, tens of thousands of Samsung workers are now protesting outside of a South Korean factory complex, demanding fairer pay (via Reuters).

The second-biggest South Korean memory manufacturer, SK hynix, is said by the Samsung Electronics Labor Union (SELU) to now pay its employees over two-thirds more in bonuses, and as a result, an estimated 40,000 Samsung workers have taken to the streets.

The union is demanding a 7% increase in base salaries, and that 15% of annual operating profit be allocated as bonus pay—alongside more transparency around salary calculations, and the removal of the current 50% base salary bonus cap.

The SK hynix bonus increases are a direct result of previous union demands for fairer pay in September of last year, which appears to have influenced the Samsung protests. SELU members are now estimated to number around 90,000, which would represent over 70% of Samsung's South Korean workforce.

Speaking to Reuters, Samsung logistics employee and now-protestor Song Yong-gi said: "In reality, many employees are leaving for SK hynix. At the end of the day, more than 90% of employees work for pay, and the compensation gap has become so wide that it's driving these moves."

Reuters also reports that the black vest-clad protestors have been observed walking over a large banner depicting the faces of the company's co-CEO, Chairman Jay Y. Lee, and other Samsung executives.

Samsung has reportedly said that it would make efforts to reach a swift agreement with the protestors. An unnamed company official has also been quoted as saying that production halts as a result of "even a single strike" could take years to recover from.

And a full strike appears to be the protestor's next move. A planned 18-day strike is said to be due to begin on May 21, unless demands are met. Here's hoping that a reasonable solution can be found before then.

We've previously reported on the adventures of Dr. Semiconductor, a YouTuber who managed to build a working cleanroom in their backyard shed. As if that achievement wasn't impressive enough, the good doctor is now using said cleanroom to make their own DRAM cells.

Yes, the RAMpocalypse has come for us all, but Dr. Semiconductor appears to be leading the way in terms of DIY solutions.

As you would imagine, making your own DRAM is far from easy. Starting off with pre-made silicon wafers, Dr. Semiconductor cut them down into workable sizes with the help of a diamond scribe (via Hackaday). The individual pieces were then cleaned in an acetone and isopropyl alcohol solution to remove most of the unwanted particles on the surface.

The silicon chips were then heated to 1,100 °C in a furnace, which is about the same temperature as volcanic lava. This 'rusts' the chips, essentially growing 3,300 angstroms of glass on the surface as a mask. It also turns them green. The more you know!

The chips were then coated with an adhesion layer, then baked, before a photosensitive film was coated onto the top surface. Once baked again, the chips were left with a photosensitive surface around 1 micron in thickness, ready for UV etching.

A UV mask pattern was then shrunk down with microscope magnification stages to an appropriate size, and with the help of some software, the transistor patterns were dry-etched onto the chips. The photoresist mask was then stripped with dimethyl sulfoxide, leaving an etched oxide pattern behind.

The source and drain for the transistors (essentially the input and output for electrons) were created by adding phosphorus into the silicon with a homemade method. I'll be honest, I lost track of the process here as it involved a custom solution created by another YouTuber. It's freaking cool, though. That I can say with confidence.

The gates were then created with yet more layers, more cleaning, and more removal of material. It's genuinely astonishing that all of this can be accomplished in a garden shed, albeit with some esoteric machinery and a hell of a lot of back knowledge of the chip production process.

It's essentially a how-to of chip manufacturing techniques—and the end result, after many, many more processes I don't have space to go into here, is a complete 5x4 array of cells, with all the transistors, capacitors, and connections needed to make them function. Technically. The big question, though, is do the homebrewed DRAM cells actually work?

Well, Dr. Semiconductor has a whole bunch of testing equipment in their living room that can find out. We've left the safety of the shed, and we're now in a dog-friendly environment. And yes, the cells are functional, although the capacitors bleed off charge over time at a faster rate than expected.

This would mean the caps would need to be recharged at a higher frequency than conventional DRAM, but this is still quite possibly the first working example of DRAM cells built at home.

So, what's next? Well, Dr. Semiconductor plans to stitch a bunch of these cells together to make a much larger array. And then, of course, to hook it up to a PC. There are hints that Doom might be a test platform for the homemade DRAM chips, which would add the good doctor's work to the great pantheon of unlikely electronics that id Software's classic can be forced to run upon.

Godspeed, and good luck. I wonder what else can be cooked up in the garden shed cleanroom? Mine's simply full of spiders, and that's much less fun.

A former researcher for Samsung Electronics has been sentenced to seven years in prison by a South Korean court, for leaking core DRAM semiconductor tech to a Chinese competitor, CXMT.

The Korea Economic Daily reports reports that the 56-year-old defendant, identified only as Mr. Jeon, was arrested and indicted last May. According to "legal circles", Jeon was sentenced by the 28th Criminal Division of the Seoul Central District Court on 22 April.

Those same legal circles report that the leaked tech was classified as "a core national technology", and that the court, under presiding judge Han Dae-gyun, stated that "Since damage was inflicted not only on the company but also on the Republic of Korea, we have no choice but to impose a severe punishment."

CXMT is China's most advanced DRAM manufacturer, and has received some publicity recently as a potential alternative solution to the ongoing memory supply crisis. Its DRAM modules occasionally crop up in system RAM kits that can be bought from Chinese online marketplaces like Temu, sometimes for slightly lower prices.

Jeun was indicted alongside 10 others last year on suspicion of similar charges, although he appears to be the first to receive a sentence. The court is reported to have found the defendant to have received 2.9 billion won (just under $2 million) from CXMT over a six year period, with 300 million of that figure said to be received in stock options.

According to The Chosun Daily, the leaked Samsung 18 nm process technology was developed at a cost of 1.6 trillion won (over $1 billion), and the court noted (via machine translation): "It is questionable whether the company provided sufficient compensation for maintaining trade secrets at the time of the crime"

As two of the big three DRAM module manufacturers (Samsung and SK Hynix) are South Korean companies, it's perhaps no surprise that its judicial system considers their technology of national importance. IP is key to maintaining a lead in these competitive times, and with memory demand remaining sky high thanks to AI server needs, it appears that protecting its technology is definitely a high priority for South Korea.

Due to the AI industry's seemingly bottomless appetite for all things memory, SSD prices have soared. You would be forgiven for thinking that relying on Hard Disk Drives instead would be more cost-effective while we all wait for SSD prices to become slightly more sensible again. However, as one Redditor found out, the grass is not always greener.

The Redditor explained their company had bought a number of high-capacity HDDs from Toshiba mere months ago for its storage array. However, when one of the 20+ TB drives died, Toshiba would only offer "a refund of the original purchase price [and] not a refund of the current (significantly higher) replacement price," nor a replacement drive either.

Tom's Hardware says the documents it examined reveal that part of this refusal was on the grounds that Toshiba did not have the stock to replace the enterprise HDD in question. Apparently, if Toshiba had committed to replacing the enterprise drive, the customer would have had at least a year-long wait for a 24 TB HDD.

Some may consider HDDs outmoded, but if you don't need the data in a hurry, HDDs make sense for many corporate archive efforts. WD also just announced new HDD tech that promises 'flash-like' performance—though, even with improvements to the tech, none of that means HDDs are the forgotten hero we need right now.

The memory supply crisis hasn't just had the knock-on effect of raising SSD prices, but HDD costs as well, so a failure after only a few months is especially disappointing. As you may already be aware, HDDs do generally have more potential points of failure than SSDs due to the former's moving internal parts.

Still, a lifespan of a few months is far from the norm, with many modern HDDs lasting upwards of five years depending on use (comparatively, SSDs can last anywhere between five to 10 years or more, according to SanDisk). Microsoft's Project Silica proffers laser-etched glass that can store data for a purported 10,000 years, though that's not exactly a consumer-ready technology just yet.

Even though this particular situation involves hardware intended for a business, I am definitely now worrying about what would happen if either my own internal SSD or my two backup HDDs were to pick this moment in time to fail. On the one hand, this is exactly why I bought multiple drives back in the day. On the other, 'back in the day' is a few years ago now—easily more than five.

Unlike the aforementioned Redditor's enterprise HDDs, none of my kit would likely even be covered by a warranty anymore, ruling out any hopes of a refund for me personally. As I update our best SSD deals guide every Friday, I know exactly how rough it is out there right now—here's hoping hardware failure isn't in my immediate future.

The memory supply crisis—spurred at least in part by the AI industry's endless appetite for DRAM and SSDs—has made consumer prices look extremely gloomy. Still, fabless semiconductor company MediaTek is "cautiously optimistic" that things might start to look a little more optimistic for discrete memory pricing come the second half of 2026.

To be clear, MediaTek as a company isn't exactly hurting in this landscape. According to Counterpoint Research, the company saw a 15% year on year growth in 2025 alone. Strong performance from the company's mobile flagship products (such as its 5G SoC) resulted in record revenue of $19.1 billion by the end of the year. Still, there are challenges, as corporate SVP and Head of Global Sales Eric Fischer recently told Counterpoint Research.

"From a capacity perspective, we're getting everything we need," Fischer says, "From the pricing perspective, [that's] a little bit more challenging—that tends to, most of the time, change on a quarterly basis. But I think our partners are trying to be as fair as they can. But most importantly is capacity—if you don't have capacity, you can't ship, and if our customers can't get product, they can't ship."

Fischer admits that on the discrete memory side (i.e, chips that only handle memory/storage, and not Mediatek's aforementioned 'system on a chip' products for smartphones), that's even more tricky. "We're seeing a lot of companies, a lot of our OEM partners that are raising their prices of their products, whether it's in mobile or consumer goods or client PCs," he reflects, "We do expect a slowdown in that, you know, probably in the second half."

MediaTek's SVP argues that, while prices for consumer memory will continue to rise throughout the first half of 2026 due to strong demand (PC shipments have actually gone up outside of the Americas, despite the RAMpocalypse), there will come a point where something has to give. He says, "We're super cautious, maybe cautiously optimistic about the second half, 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."

In other words, memory may become too expensive even for folks with especially deep pockets, hurting businesses' bottom line and incentivising a drop in prices. 'It's gonna get worse before it gets better,' isn't necessarily what anyone wants to hear, but still, it's what I've long suspected, given the outsized demand.

Wisely, as a fabless company, MediaTek "locked up capacity agreements" with key partners such as TSMC well in advance of the current supply crisis. However, even Fischer admits that capacity will be a challenge the company will have to reckon with in 2027.

Just for a start, TSMC is sold out until 2028, with even its next-gen Arizona fab fully booked before it has even been built. Memory manufacturer Micron has plenty of fresh fabs in the works, though many of these projects won't "support meaningful product shipments" until the back-end of 2027 at the earliest. Similarly, SK Hynix and Samsung are also tooling up but it probably won't help DRAM prices until 2028, if then.

Heat is no friend of any kind of memory chip. That will be no surprise for PC gamers with our wealth of cooling systems and heat sink options—unfortunately, those solutions aren't suitable for every data retention situation. As such, a research team has developed a chip that will keep working throughout extreme temperature conditions.

A US team based at USC Viterbi School of Engineering in Southern California has created a graphene tungsten memristor that can reliably operate at outlandishly high temperatures. Per the team's paper in the journal Science, 'interfacial engineering' allowed for this memristor to operate "reliably up to 700 °C with an ON/OFF current ratio >103, data retention >50 hours and endurance >109 switching cycles" (via The Brighter Side).

As even the most hard-wearing silicon-based SSDs tend to fail at 200 °C, and the surface of Venus easily breaches 400 °C, you can understand the scientific demand for memory that can deal with the heat. The kicker is that the team set out to make something completely different with graphene.

“To be honest, [the discovery was made] by accident, as most discoveries are," One of the paper's authors, Joshua Yang, explained, “If you can predict it, it’s usually not surprising, and probably not significant enough.”

The USC team has built a memristor out of a tungsten-hafnium oxide-graphene stack. Both tungsten and graphene can withstand extreme heat as it is, and the hafnium oxide completes the sandwich as a switching layer between the two electrode slices.

You may remember that in 2024, researchers at the University of Pennsylvania had previously created flash memory based on an aluminium scandium nitride ferroelectric diode that can withstand up to 600 °C.

Similar devices that feature platinum instead of graphene in their 'bottom layer' degrade quickly in similar tests, as tungsten atoms make a break for it at high temperatures. As tungsten atoms pool in the platinum layer, the device becomes no longer able to 'switch' between resistive states, and essentially stops functioning as viable memory.

Swap out the platinum electrode for graphene, though, and those tungsten atoms don't get anywhere near as clingy at high temperatures.

The graphene-based memristor proved exceptionally hardy over time, holding on to both ON/OFF memory states for 145 hours on average across 30 different devices at high heat. During the 700 °C tests specifically, these memristors underwent 1 billion switching cycles, pulsing around 1.5 volts every 30 nanoseconds.

With how expensive it is to get anything into space, hardy memory that can switch quickly at relatively low voltages is definitely good news.

But it's not just space missions that could benefit, with memristors especially appealing to AI workloads as they can perform matrix multiplication directly through the flow of current. “Over 92 percent of the computing in AI systems like ChatGPT is nothing but matrix multiplication,” Yang explains, “This type of device can perform that in the most efficient way, orders of magnitude faster and at lower energy.”

It's rough out there for RAM prices. It'll be a long time before memory prices become properly sensible again, but apparently spot prices have recently dropped. I'd like to take the wins where I can, but I'm not sure the time for celebration is anywhere near.

To briefly recap, the AI industry's bottomless appetite for both system storage and memory has created a supply crisis, which in turn has led to some truly ridiculous RAM prices. DigiTimes says that spot prices for 16 Gb DDR4 modules soared by 2,200% over the last year, but now they're finally starting to drop, though only by about 5%.

It feels like especially small potatoes when, in March 2025, DDR4 16Gb was priced around $3.20, but it's now trading at about $74.10 today, even with the recent dip in price. It's not the best news, but it does break the spot market's unbroken, months-long trend of growth.

DDR5 16Gb has also seen its price come down by a similar percentage, though it too saw enormous price rises, going from $5.30 last year to $37.20 last month—that's still a 600% increase overall. That said, it's important to note the limits of discussing spot pricing when many of us have consumer pricing in mind.

To be clear, this price fluctuation is yet to reach the markets that PC manufacturers actually source components from. So, even with the return of some much-missed discounts, those thinking about upgrading this year may want to think again as prices are unlikely to come tumbling down imminently.

Indeed, market research from last month suggests we won't see affordable RAM until 2028 at the earliest. Micron recently said it's "seeing NAND demand significantly in excess of our available supply for the foreseeable future," and its fresh fabs won't be able to "support meaningful product shipments" until 2028. That feels like a long time away—especially as manufacturers like Samsung estimates its profits will be over 8 times what it was during this same period last year.

But while some are raking it in, others are going full doomer. For instance, Phison CEO Pua Khein-Seng reportedly predicts that many consumer electronics manufacturers "will go bankrupt or exit product lines" by the end of 2026 due to the AI memory crisis.

Framework isn't exactly full of hope either, with company founder Nirav Patel recently saying, "There is a very real scenario in which personal computing as we know it is dead". Here's hoping that at least this grim vision of the future doesn't come to pass.

PC gaming has always been an expensive hobby, even if you stick to entry-level hardware. So much so that the majority of enthusiasts only upgrade their systems piecemeal, one component every so often, or get a new rig after many long years. But if you were hoping to build a new gaming PC or update the CPU and motherboard this year, the shocking cost of DRAM kits right now is making the process considerably challenging.

Back in July 2025, you could pick up a 32 GB kit of DDR5-6000, with a CAS latency of 30 cycles, for under $90 (albeit during the sales). For AMD Ryzen processors, you honestly wouldn't need anything better, and although Intel's chips can handle faster DRAM, they'll still be just as happy with a kit like that.

Now, the same set of memory costs $480 at Amazon, and should you want RGB lighting or DRAM from Corsair or G.Skill, then you'll be handing over a lot more cash. You can pay less, of course, as this 32 GB kit from PUSkill is $370 at Amazon, for instance. No, I've never heard of that brand before, either, but one reason why it's so much cheaper is its speed and timings.

Rated to 4,800 MT/s and with a CAS latency of 38 cycles, this is a set that's only marginally faster than the first DDR5 kits that appeared around five years ago. Leaving the question about the manufacturer aside, let's consider the speed: Is DDR5-4800 too slow to use in a gaming PC? With 20% less bandwidth than DDR5-6000, and a CAS latency that's 56% higher (16.7 ns vs 10.7 ns), surely games are going to be affected? Well, let's find out.

The DRAM test setup

PC Gamer test rig: AMD Ryzen 9 9900X | Asus ROG Strix LC III 360 AIO cooler | Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090 FE | 2 TB Samsung 990 Evo Plus SSD | Thermaltake ToughPower PF3 1050 W PSU | Thermal Grizzly Der8enchtable chassis | Acer XB280KH monitor | Windows 11 25H2

To test how much of an impact DRAM speed has on today's games (and to a lesser extent, timings as well), I've used a set of Lexar Thor OC DDR5-6000 CL32. Without enabling EXPO in the motherboard BIOS, it will run at 4800 MT/s, with a CAS latency of 40 cycles. While it's not quite a worst-case vs best-case scenario, as there is even slower DDR5 RAM out there, it's still relevant because that's the kind of 'cheap' memory around at the moment.

I've picked seven games in total: three that I didn't expect to see any difference in performance, and four that I suspected would run slower with the DRAM set to 4800 MT/s. I'll explain the reasons behind my forecasts as I break down the results for each game, so without further ado, here's what I discovered.

With each game, I carried out five minutes of gameplay (no built-in benchmarks), using Nvidia's Frameview to record the average and 1% low frame rates for a run at 1080p, 1440p, and 4K. As I used a GeForce RTX 5090, the graphics quality in the games was set at the maximum value, though I didn't use path tracing if it was available. Ray tracing was used in all but one of the games that support it.

I didn't use DLSS upscaling and frame generation, either, as I wanted the hardware in the test rig to be loaded up relatively evenly. Applying DLSS Performance, for example, would just have the GPU doing very little behind the scenes and artificially pushing the frame rate constraints onto the CPU.

Games that aren't DRAM-sensitive

Previous

1 / 3

Next

Gaming performance at 1080p

AMD Ryzen 9 9900X, Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090

Cyberpunk 2077 (RT Ultra)Black Myth: Wukong (Cinematic)Stalker 2 (Epic)

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

Lexar Thor OC DDR5-6000 CL32

112

67

Lexar Thor OC DDR5-4800 CL40

114

71

037.575112.5150

Cyberpunk 2077 (RT Ultra) Data

Product	Value
Lexar Thor OC DDR5-6000 CL32	112 Avg FPS, 67 1% Low FPS
Lexar Thor OC DDR5-4800 CL40	114 Avg FPS, 71 1% Low FPS

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

Lexar Thor OC DDR5-6000 CL32

99

77

Lexar Thor OC DDR5-4800 CL40

99

79

0255075100

Black Myth: Wukong (Cinematic) Data

Product	Value
Lexar Thor OC DDR5-6000 CL32	99 Avg FPS, 77 1% Low FPS
Lexar Thor OC DDR5-4800 CL40	99 Avg FPS, 79 1% Low FPS

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

Lexar Thor OC DDR5-6000 CL32

92

53

Lexar Thor OC DDR5-4800 CL40

89

52

0255075100

Stalker 2 (Epic) Data

Product	Value
Lexar Thor OC DDR5-6000 CL32	92 Avg FPS, 53 1% Low FPS
Lexar Thor OC DDR5-4800 CL40	89 Avg FPS, 52 1% Low FPS

Gaming performance at 1440p

AMD Ryzen 9 9900X, Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090

Cyberpunk 2077 (RT Ultra)Black Myth: Wukong (Cinematic)Stalker 2 (Epic)

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

Lexar Thor OC DDR5-6000 CL32

94

66

Lexar Thor OC DDR5-4800 CL40

94

66

0255075100

Cyberpunk 2077 (RT Ultra) Data

Product	Value
Lexar Thor OC DDR5-6000 CL32	94 Avg FPS, 66 1% Low FPS
Lexar Thor OC DDR5-4800 CL40	94 Avg FPS, 66 1% Low FPS

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

Lexar Thor OC DDR5-6000 CL32

81

66

Lexar Thor OC DDR5-4800 CL40

82

67

0255075100

Black Myth: Wukong (Cinematic) Data

Product	Value
Lexar Thor OC DDR5-6000 CL32	81 Avg FPS, 66 1% Low FPS
Lexar Thor OC DDR5-4800 CL40	82 Avg FPS, 67 1% Low FPS

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

Lexar Thor OC DDR5-6000 CL32

90

52

Lexar Thor OC DDR5-4800 CL40

86

51

0255075100

Stalker 2 (Epic) Data

Product	Value
Lexar Thor OC DDR5-6000 CL32	90 Avg FPS, 52 1% Low FPS
Lexar Thor OC DDR5-4800 CL40	86 Avg FPS, 51 1% Low FPS

Gaming performance at 4K

AMD Ryzen 9 9900X, Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090

Cyberpunk 2077 (RT Ultra)Black Myth: Wukong (Cinematic)Stalker 2 (Epic)

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

Lexar Thor OC DDR5-6000 CL32

52

40

Lexar Thor OC DDR5-4800 CL40

52

41

015304560

Cyberpunk 2077 (RT Ultra) Data

Product	Value
Lexar Thor OC DDR5-6000 CL32	52 Avg FPS, 40 1% Low FPS
Lexar Thor OC DDR5-4800 CL40	52 Avg FPS, 41 1% Low FPS

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

Lexar Thor OC DDR5-6000 CL32

54

46

Lexar Thor OC DDR5-4800 CL40

54

46

015304560

Black Myth: Wukong (Cinematic) Data

Product	Value
Lexar Thor OC DDR5-6000 CL32	54 Avg FPS, 46 1% Low FPS
Lexar Thor OC DDR5-4800 CL40	54 Avg FPS, 46 1% Low FPS

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

Lexar Thor OC DDR5-6000 CL32

73

48

Lexar Thor OC DDR5-4800 CL40

73

47

020406080

Stalker 2 (Epic) Data

Product	Value
Lexar Thor OC DDR5-6000 CL32	73 Avg FPS, 48 1% Low FPS
Lexar Thor OC DDR5-4800 CL40	73 Avg FPS, 47 1% Low FPS

The games I didn't expect to see any performance difference with the two DRAM speeds are Cyberpunk 2077, Black Myth: Wukong, and Stalker 2. And that's exactly what happened, as you can see in the results. Even though Stalker 2 was marginally slower with DDR5-4800 CL40 than DDR5-6000 CL32, it's best to ignore any differences of 5% or less with the frame rates (either higher or lower).

That's because there will always be a reasonable margin of error when capturing gameplay rather than benchmark performance. A game's built-in graphics test will run the same code pretty much every time, whereas it will often alter quite a bit when playing it as intended. This is especially true for open-world games that have a 'real-time life' aspect to them, such as NPCs seemingly wandering off and doing their own thing.

As to why I didn't expect to see any performance differences, well, that's because these games are heavily dependent on the GPU for performance. As powerful as the RTX 5090 is, it's not able to handle the graphics load with the settings I used to such an extent that the CPU and/or system RAM becomes the limiting factor behind the frame rate.

To have that kind of scenario, you either need a game that has an enormous CPU workload or one that has a very light graphics load. Enter stage left, Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 (MSFS 24) for the former, and Counter-Strike 2 (CS2) for the latter.

Games that are a little bit DRAM-sensitive

Previous

1 / 3

Next

Gaming performance at 1080p

AMD Ryzen 9 9900X, Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090

Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 (Ultra)Counter-Strike 2 (Very High)

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

Lexar Thor OC DDR5-6000 CL32

50

27

Lexar Thor OC DDR5-4800 CL40

48

29

015304560

Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 (Ultra) Data

Product	Value
Lexar Thor OC DDR5-6000 CL32	50 Avg FPS, 27 1% Low FPS
Lexar Thor OC DDR5-4800 CL40	48 Avg FPS, 29 1% Low FPS

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

Lexar Thor OC DDR5-6000 CL32

392

127

Lexar Thor OC DDR5-4800 CL40

363

119

0100200300400

Counter-Strike 2 (Very High) Data

Product	Value
Lexar Thor OC DDR5-6000 CL32	392 Avg FPS, 127 1% Low FPS
Lexar Thor OC DDR5-4800 CL40	363 Avg FPS, 119 1% Low FPS

Gaming performance at 1440p

AMD Ryzen 9 9900X, Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090

Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 (Ultra)Counter-Strike 2 (Very High)

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

Lexar Thor OC DDR5-6000 CL32

49

26

Lexar Thor OC DDR5-4800 CL40

44

26

015304560

Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 (Ultra) Data

Product	Value
Lexar Thor OC DDR5-6000 CL32	49 Avg FPS, 26 1% Low FPS
Lexar Thor OC DDR5-4800 CL40	44 Avg FPS, 26 1% Low FPS

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

Lexar Thor OC DDR5-6000 CL32

376

126

Lexar Thor OC DDR5-4800 CL40

374

127

0100200300400

Counter-Strike 2 (Very High) Data

Product	Value
Lexar Thor OC DDR5-6000 CL32	376 Avg FPS, 126 1% Low FPS
Lexar Thor OC DDR5-4800 CL40	374 Avg FPS, 127 1% Low FPS

Gaming performance at 4K

AMD Ryzen 9 9900X, Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090

Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 (Ultra)Counter-Strike 2 (Very High)

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

Lexar Thor OC DDR5-6000 CL32

49

26

Lexar Thor OC DDR5-4800 CL40

44

22

015304560

Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 (Ultra) Data

Product	Value
Lexar Thor OC DDR5-6000 CL32	49 Avg FPS, 26 1% Low FPS
Lexar Thor OC DDR5-4800 CL40	44 Avg FPS, 22 1% Low FPS

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

Lexar Thor OC DDR5-6000 CL32

324

126

Lexar Thor OC DDR5-4800 CL40

320

121

0100200300400

Counter-Strike 2 (Very High) Data

Product	Value
Lexar Thor OC DDR5-6000 CL32	324 Avg FPS, 126 1% Low FPS
Lexar Thor OC DDR5-4800 CL40	320 Avg FPS, 121 1% Low FPS

If you're looking at the MSFS 24 results and thinking, "They look a bit all over the place", then you'd be thinking right. There's so much going on, even with a simple flight around Heathrow airport, that the performance is rarely consistent. That said, there is at least some evidence that DRAM speed does affect how well the game runs, even at 4K Ultra.

CS2 was just as surprising. Being a competitive, multiplayer shooter, it doesn't boast GPU-crushing graphics loads, as indicated by the high frame rates. However, once above 1080p, there's practically no difference between the two DRAM speeds. It would be different if I had used a lower quality setting and/or resolution, of course, because that's what professional gamers do, to get the best possible frame rates.

At 720p low quality, most GPUs will be doing very little, and CS2 will almost certainly be impacted by more than you can see above.

However, it's not always about the intensity of the graphics or what GPU you're using. There are some games that are always sensitive to DRAM performance, often because they're constantly streaming data from the system RAM. The two examples I've chosen to demonstrate this are Spider-Man Remastered and HogRAM Legacy. I mean Hogwarts. Sorry about that.

Games that are very DRAM-sensitive

Previous

1 / 3

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Gaming performance at 1080p

AMD Ryzen 9 9900X, Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090

Spider-Man Remastered (Very High)Hogwarts Legacy (Ultra)

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

Lexar Thor OC DDR5-6000 CL32

117

72

Lexar Thor OC DDR5-4800 CL40

106

66

037.575112.5150

Spider-Man Remastered (Very High) Data

Product	Value
Lexar Thor OC DDR5-6000 CL32	117 Avg FPS, 72 1% Low FPS
Lexar Thor OC DDR5-4800 CL40	106 Avg FPS, 66 1% Low FPS

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

Lexar Thor OC DDR5-6000 CL32

183

78

Lexar Thor OC DDR5-4800 CL40

154

65

050100150200

Hogwarts Legacy (Ultra) Data

Product	Value
Lexar Thor OC DDR5-6000 CL32	183 Avg FPS, 78 1% Low FPS
Lexar Thor OC DDR5-4800 CL40	154 Avg FPS, 65 1% Low FPS

Gaming performance at 1440p

AMD Ryzen 9 9900X, Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090

Spider-Man Remastered (Very High)Hogwarts Legacy (Ultra)

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

Lexar Thor OC DDR5-6000 CL32

112

72

Lexar Thor OC DDR5-4800 CL40

104

64

037.575112.5150

Spider-Man Remastered (Very High) Data

Product	Value
Lexar Thor OC DDR5-6000 CL32	112 Avg FPS, 72 1% Low FPS
Lexar Thor OC DDR5-4800 CL40	104 Avg FPS, 64 1% Low FPS

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

Lexar Thor OC DDR5-6000 CL32

157

72

Lexar Thor OC DDR5-4800 CL40

140

57

050100150200

Hogwarts Legacy (Ultra) Data

Product	Value
Lexar Thor OC DDR5-6000 CL32	157 Avg FPS, 72 1% Low FPS
Lexar Thor OC DDR5-4800 CL40	140 Avg FPS, 57 1% Low FPS

Gaming performance at 4K

AMD Ryzen 9 9900X, Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090

Spider-Man Remastered (Very High)Hogwarts Legacy (Ultra)

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

Lexar Thor OC DDR5-6000 CL32

112

71

Lexar Thor OC DDR5-4800 CL40

103

64

037.575112.5150

Spider-Man Remastered (Very High) Data

Product	Value
Lexar Thor OC DDR5-6000 CL32	112 Avg FPS, 71 1% Low FPS
Lexar Thor OC DDR5-4800 CL40	103 Avg FPS, 64 1% Low FPS

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

Lexar Thor OC DDR5-6000 CL32

130

69

Lexar Thor OC DDR5-4800 CL40

131

57

037.575112.5150

Hogwarts Legacy (Ultra) Data

Product	Value
Lexar Thor OC DDR5-6000 CL32	130 Avg FPS, 69 1% Low FPS
Lexar Thor OC DDR5-4800 CL40	131 Avg FPS, 57 1% Low FPS

With an RTX 5090, Spider-Man is very CPU-limited, as indicated by the fact that increasing the resolution doesn't reduce the frame rate by any appreciable amount. But unlike CS2, which isn't affected by DRAM speeds unless at 1080p, this game does run a little slower with DDR5-4800. Not by much on average, but the drops in the 1% low figures are quite marked. Spider-Man is still thoroughly playable with the slower memory, of course.

As is Hogwarts Legacy, even though the 1% lows in this game dropped considerably with DDR5-4800. However, just like with MSFS 24, it's pretty inconsistent in terms of performance when run on top-end hardware, even when you disable ray tracing, as I did for my tests. Depending on where you are in the game's world and what's going on around you, the limiting factor for the frame rate bounces between the CPU and GPU.

So I pulled the RTX 5090 out of the test rig and swapped it for an RTX 3060 Ti, and retested Hogwarts Legacy across all of its graphics presets, but just at 1080p.

Here you can clearly see what happens when the game becomes more CPU-limited than GPU-limited. With the low and medium presets, the slower DRAM causes a reduction in the minimum performance, whereas the rendering-heavy high and ultra settings push the limit entirely onto the GPU.

Not that any of this should come as a surprise. If your gaming PC's graphics card is working flat out to produce all the graphics, with not even a hint of spare capacity anywhere, then you'll still get the same performance with a slower CPU and/or DRAM kit.

On the other hand, if you only play competitive shooters at 1080p and on low settings, then you are going to see a reduction in performance with something like DDR5-4800. However, even though such DRAM has 20% less bandwidth than DDR5-6000, only one of the games tested above displayed the same level of fps reduction, and it wasn't an e-sports shooter.

So in the current RAMpocalypse, where memory kits now cost more than some mainstream graphics cards, you'll be fine with picking up a set of slow DDR5, as long as you're not interested in achieving the maximum possible frame rates for competitive gameplay.

A loss of 7% in performance in CS2 at 1080p might not seem like much, but that's with very high settings. It'll only get worse at lower resolutions and quality settings.

And then there's the likes of Spider-Man and Hogwarts Legacy, which both stream a lot of data, and are therefore affected by DRAM speeds. The latter lost up to 20% in its minimum performance using DDR5-4800, compared to DDR5-6000, but if you tweak the settings to put the frame rate limit back onto the GPU, then you can reduce the impact a fair bit.

For most other scenarios, though, especially those that will have your GPU busy as a bee, then grabbing a set of slow DDR5 to save money won't seriously ruin your gaming experience. It'll still be horrible for your bank account, but there will be no escaping that problem any time soon.

With 32 GB DDR5 memory kits now all sporting colossal price tags, it might seem that doing a full upgrade of your gaming PC's CPU, motherboard, and memory is out of the question. That's because 16 GB of DRAM isn't enough, right? Especially if you have a high-end graphics card or you play games with super-heavy graphics.

A few weeks ago, I spent some time browsing through various forums and social media posts that are dedicated to asking questions about building or upgrading a PC, and almost all of the comments were adamant that nobody should be going with anything less than 32 GB of system memory in 2026.

That kind of advice was fine six months ago, when DDR5 was genuinely very cheap, but now that a 16 GB kit of DDR5-6000 CL30 costs $230 at Newegg, compared to $370 for 32 GB of the same memory, it surely doesn't make sense to spend the extra $170, when that can be used to get a better graphics card.

Even though I regularly use a couple of test PCs with 16 GB of DRAM and have a PS5 with the same amount, I wanted to see how much of a difference 32 GB makes when you're playing some of the most memory-hungry games around.

To begin with, I checked the memory usage of 27 big games no older than four years, with the graphics settings maxed out at 4K, but with DLSS Performance enabled to avoid a frame rate slideshow, on a gaming PC with 64 GB of DRAM.

From there, I selected eight to focus on: three that were using around 16 GB of memory, four that were above 16 GB but below 32 GB, and one that used well over 32 GB. Then it was a case of measuring the frame rates over five minutes of gameplay, with the test PC's memory limited to 16 and then 32 GB, to see what would happen.

High-end GPU results

I actually did all the tests twice: first with an RTX 5090 (which has 32 GB of VRAM) and then again with an RTX 5070 (12 GB of VRAM). The reason for this was to see what impact the video memory capacity had in relation to the amount of system memory, when the game is munching through all the DRAM you can throw at it.

As well as recording the average and 1% low frame rates, I also monitored the average amount of system memory used during the five-minute runs and how much DRAM the game process itself was using. You can view the results for the latter by clicking on the 'next' arrow in the chart below.

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1 / 2

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Gaming performance

16 vs 32 GB system memory

Cyberpunk 2077 (RT Overdrive)Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 (Experimental)Black Myth: Wukong (Cinematic/Full Path Tracing)Stalker 2 (Epic)Escape from Tarkov (Ultra)Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 (Ultra)Hogwarts Legacy (Ultra/Ultra RT)Star Citizen (Very High)

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

RTX 5090 - 32 GB system RAM

84

51

RTX 5090 - 16 GB system RAM

83

52

0255075100

Cyberpunk 2077 (RT Overdrive) Data

Product	Value
RTX 5090 - 32 GB system RAM	84 Avg FPS, 51 1% Low FPS
RTX 5090 - 16 GB system RAM	83 Avg FPS, 52 1% Low FPS

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

RTX 5090 - 32 GB system RAM

112

70

RTX 5090 - 16 GB system RAM

111

68

037.575112.5150

Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 (Experimental) Data

Product	Value
RTX 5090 - 32 GB system RAM	112 Avg FPS, 70 1% Low FPS
RTX 5090 - 16 GB system RAM	111 Avg FPS, 68 1% Low FPS

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

RTX 5090 - 32 GB system RAM

76

44

RTX 5090 - 16 GB system RAM

76

45

020406080

Black Myth: Wukong (Cinematic/Full Path Tracing) Data

Product	Value
RTX 5090 - 32 GB system RAM	76 Avg FPS, 44 1% Low FPS
RTX 5090 - 16 GB system RAM	76 Avg FPS, 45 1% Low FPS

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

RTX 5090 - 32 GB system RAM

88

55

RTX 5090 - 16 GB system RAM

87

53

0255075100

Stalker 2 (Epic) Data

Product	Value
RTX 5090 - 32 GB system RAM	88 Avg FPS, 55 1% Low FPS
RTX 5090 - 16 GB system RAM	87 Avg FPS, 53 1% Low FPS

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

RTX 5090 - 32 GB system RAM

109

47

RTX 5090 - 16 GB system RAM

97

44

037.575112.5150

Escape from Tarkov (Ultra) Data

Product	Value
RTX 5090 - 32 GB system RAM	109 Avg FPS, 47 1% Low FPS
RTX 5090 - 16 GB system RAM	97 Avg FPS, 44 1% Low FPS

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

RTX 5090 - 32 GB system RAM

51

24

RTX 5090 - 16 GB system RAM

53

24

015304560

Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 (Ultra) Data

Product	Value
RTX 5090 - 32 GB system RAM	51 Avg FPS, 24 1% Low FPS
RTX 5090 - 16 GB system RAM	53 Avg FPS, 24 1% Low FPS

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

RTX 5090 - 32 GB system RAM

64

29

RTX 5090 - 16 GB system RAM

62

25

020406080

Hogwarts Legacy (Ultra/Ultra RT) Data

Product	Value
RTX 5090 - 32 GB system RAM	64 Avg FPS, 29 1% Low FPS
RTX 5090 - 16 GB system RAM	62 Avg FPS, 25 1% Low FPS

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

RTX 5090 - 32 GB system RAM

56

23

RTX 5090 - 16 GB system RAM

51

10

015304560

Star Citizen (Very High) Data

Product	Value
RTX 5090 - 32 GB system RAM	56 Avg FPS, 23 1% Low FPS
RTX 5090 - 16 GB system RAM	51 Avg FPS, 10 1% Low FPS

Memory usage (total/process)

16 vs 32 GB system memory

Cyberpunk 2077Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2Black Myth: WukongStalker 2Escape from TarkovMicrosoft Flight Simulator 2024Hogwarts LegacyStar Citizen

Avg system RAM

Avg process RAM

RTX 5090 - 32 GB system RAM

13600

6000

RTX 5090 - 16 GB system RAM

12500

6050

03,7507,50011,25015,000

Cyberpunk 2077 Data

Product	Value
RTX 5090 - 32 GB system RAM	13600 Avg system RAM, 6000 Avg process RAM
RTX 5090 - 16 GB system RAM	12500 Avg system RAM, 6050 Avg process RAM

Avg system RAM

Avg process RAM

RTX 5090 - 32 GB system RAM

15100

8500

RTX 5090 - 16 GB system RAM

13200

8200

05,00010,00015,00020,000

Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 Data

Product	Value
RTX 5090 - 32 GB system RAM	15100 Avg system RAM, 8500 Avg process RAM
RTX 5090 - 16 GB system RAM	13200 Avg system RAM, 8200 Avg process RAM

Avg system RAM

Avg process RAM

RTX 5090 - 32 GB system RAM

15200

7600

RTX 5090 - 16 GB system RAM

12500

6600

05,00010,00015,00020,000

Black Myth: Wukong Data

Product	Value
RTX 5090 - 32 GB system RAM	15200 Avg system RAM, 7600 Avg process RAM
RTX 5090 - 16 GB system RAM	12500 Avg system RAM, 6600 Avg process RAM

Avg system RAM

Avg process RAM

RTX 5090 - 32 GB system RAM

18100

6900

RTX 5090 - 16 GB system RAM

11800

3500

05,00010,00015,00020,000

Stalker 2 Data

Product	Value
RTX 5090 - 32 GB system RAM	18100 Avg system RAM, 6900 Avg process RAM
RTX 5090 - 16 GB system RAM	11800 Avg system RAM, 3500 Avg process RAM

Avg system RAM

Avg process RAM

RTX 5090 - 32 GB system RAM

16200

9700

RTX 5090 - 16 GB system RAM

13200

8000

05,00010,00015,00020,000

Escape from Tarkov Data

Product	Value
RTX 5090 - 32 GB system RAM	16200 Avg system RAM, 9700 Avg process RAM
RTX 5090 - 16 GB system RAM	13200 Avg system RAM, 8000 Avg process RAM

Avg system RAM

Avg process RAM

RTX 5090 - 32 GB system RAM

21000

13699.8

RTX 5090 - 16 GB system RAM

12600

7250

07,50015,00022,50030,000

Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 Data

Product	Value
RTX 5090 - 32 GB system RAM	21000 Avg system RAM, 13699.8 Avg process RAM
RTX 5090 - 16 GB system RAM	12600 Avg system RAM, 7250 Avg process RAM

Avg system RAM

Avg process RAM

RTX 5090 - 32 GB system RAM

22400

14300

RTX 5090 - 16 GB system RAM

13300

7800

07,50015,00022,50030,000

Hogwarts Legacy Data

Product	Value
RTX 5090 - 32 GB system RAM	22400 Avg system RAM, 14300 Avg process RAM
RTX 5090 - 16 GB system RAM	13300 Avg system RAM, 7800 Avg process RAM

Avg system RAM

Avg process RAM

RTX 5090 - 32 GB system RAM

27400

16200

RTX 5090 - 16 GB system RAM

13200

7500

07,50015,00022,50030,000

Star Citizen Data

Product	Value
RTX 5090 - 32 GB system RAM	27400 Avg system RAM, 16200 Avg process RAM
RTX 5090 - 16 GB system RAM	13200 Avg system RAM, 7500 Avg process RAM

Cyberpunk 2077, Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, Black Myth: Wukong, and Stalker 2 all run just as well with 16 GB of system memory as they do with 32 GB. The most interesting result was the process memory usage of Stalker 2: 3500 MB at 16 GB and 6900 MB at 32 GB.

That stands out because the other three games don't really change that much when running with the lower amount of system memory. Black Myth: Wukong and Stalker 2 are both Unreal Engine 5 games, but the latter is open-world and therefore has to stream data back and forth between the VRAM and system DRAM, as you move about across large distances.

However, because the RTX 5090 has so much VRAM, Stalker 2 probably doesn't have to stream all that much, hence why it can reduce how much memory the process takes up without affecting the performance at all.

Moving on to Escape from Tarkov, Flight Simulator 2024, and Hogwarts Legacy, there's again very little difference between 16 and 32 GB of DRAM. Tarkov does run a little bit better, but I need to add a big disclaimer here: The test runs were done in the Ground Zero map in a training mode with AI bots. Replace them all with live players, and the DRAM usage rapidly increases, which is why the game's developers actually recommend 64 GB of system memory.

FS 2024 and Hogwarts Legacy are notorious memory-heavy, but these results show that it's mostly about VRAM, and as long as you've got plenty of that, they'll run just fine with 16 GB of DRAM. Well, not entirely so, as Microsoft Flight Simulator does get a little stuttery with this amount of memory. Over the period of an entire flight, it's not a problem, but it is noticeable during takeoff and landing.

And finally, we come to Star Citizen. Upon firing up the game with 16 GB of system memory, I was faced with a pop-up warning saying that my PC didn't have sufficient spare DRAM, but I ignored all that and dived in. Most of the performance was captured walking from my starting room in Area 18 to a hangar with my spaceship, and as you can see from the results, the minimum performance was awful.

Not that it was very good with 32 GB of system memory, but that's Star Citizen for you. Sorry, 'Early Access Alpha' Star Citizen.

So, what can we learn from all of this? Apart from one particular game, it would seem that using 16 GB of DRAM in your gaming PC is absolutely fine. Well, as long as you have an RTX 5090 as well, which is a ridiculous thing for me to be saying, of course. So let's swap that graphics card for Nvidia's best-GPU-that-isn't-silly-expensive: the RTX 5070.

Mainstream GPU results

Previous

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Gaming performance

16 vs 32 GB system memory

Cyberpunk 2077 (RT Overdrive)Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 (Experimental)Black Myth: Wukong (Cinematic/Full Path Tracing)Stalker 2 (Epic)Escape from Tarkov (Ultra)Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 (Ultra)Hogwarts Legacy (Ultra/Ultra RT)Star Citizen (Very High)

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

RTX 5070 - 32 GB system RAM

38

27

RTX 5070 - 16 GB system RAM

36

27

010203040

Cyberpunk 2077 (RT Overdrive) Data

Product	Value
RTX 5070 - 32 GB system RAM	38 Avg FPS, 27 1% Low FPS
RTX 5070 - 16 GB system RAM	36 Avg FPS, 27 1% Low FPS

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

RTX 5070 - 32 GB system RAM

67

46

RTX 5070 - 16 GB system RAM

67

44

020406080

Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 (Experimental) Data

Product	Value
RTX 5070 - 32 GB system RAM	67 Avg FPS, 46 1% Low FPS
RTX 5070 - 16 GB system RAM	67 Avg FPS, 44 1% Low FPS

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

RTX 5070 - 32 GB system RAM

34

24

RTX 5070 - 16 GB system RAM

34

24

010203040

Black Myth: Wukong (Cinematic/Full Path Tracing) Data

Product	Value
RTX 5070 - 32 GB system RAM	34 Avg FPS, 24 1% Low FPS
RTX 5070 - 16 GB system RAM	34 Avg FPS, 24 1% Low FPS

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

RTX 5070 - 32 GB system RAM

71

51

RTX 5070 - 16 GB system RAM

70

46

020406080

Stalker 2 (Epic) Data

Product	Value
RTX 5070 - 32 GB system RAM	71 Avg FPS, 51 1% Low FPS
RTX 5070 - 16 GB system RAM	70 Avg FPS, 46 1% Low FPS

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

RTX 5070 - 32 GB system RAM

120

63

RTX 5070 - 16 GB system RAM

110

47

037.575112.5150

Escape from Tarkov (Ultra) Data

Product	Value
RTX 5070 - 32 GB system RAM	120 Avg FPS, 63 1% Low FPS
RTX 5070 - 16 GB system RAM	110 Avg FPS, 47 1% Low FPS

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

RTX 5070 - 32 GB system RAM

9

6

RTX 5070 - 16 GB system RAM

8

2

02.557.510

Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 (Ultra) Data

Product	Value
RTX 5070 - 32 GB system RAM	9 Avg FPS, 6 1% Low FPS
RTX 5070 - 16 GB system RAM	8 Avg FPS, 2 1% Low FPS

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

RTX 5070 - 32 GB system RAM

53

27

RTX 5070 - 16 GB system RAM

52

25

015304560

Hogwarts Legacy (Ultra/Ultra RT) Data

Product	Value
RTX 5070 - 32 GB system RAM	53 Avg FPS, 27 1% Low FPS
RTX 5070 - 16 GB system RAM	52 Avg FPS, 25 1% Low FPS

Avg FPS

1% Low FPS

RTX 5070 - 32 GB system RAM

56

28

RTX 5070 - 16 GB system RAM

54

15

015304560

Star Citizen (Very High) Data

Product	Value
RTX 5070 - 32 GB system RAM	56 Avg FPS, 28 1% Low FPS
RTX 5070 - 16 GB system RAM	54 Avg FPS, 15 1% Low FPS

Memory usage (total/process)

16 vs 32 GB system memory

Cyberpunk 2077Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2Black Myth: WukongStalker 2Escape from TarkovMicrosoft Flight Simulator 2024Hogwarts LegacyStar Citizen

Avg system RAM

Avg process RAM

RTX 5070 - 32 GB system RAM

13800

6200

RTX 5070 - 16 GB system RAM

12900

6000

03,7507,50011,25015,000

Cyberpunk 2077 Data

Product	Value
RTX 5070 - 32 GB system RAM	13800 Avg system RAM, 6200 Avg process RAM
RTX 5070 - 16 GB system RAM	12900 Avg system RAM, 6000 Avg process RAM

Avg system RAM

Avg process RAM

RTX 5070 - 32 GB system RAM

15300

8600

RTX 5070 - 16 GB system RAM

11800

6299.8

05,00010,00015,00020,000

Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 Data

Product	Value
RTX 5070 - 32 GB system RAM	15300 Avg system RAM, 8600 Avg process RAM
RTX 5070 - 16 GB system RAM	11800 Avg system RAM, 6299.8 Avg process RAM

Avg system RAM

Avg process RAM

RTX 5070 - 32 GB system RAM

15800

7700

RTX 5070 - 16 GB system RAM

12200

5899.9

05,00010,00015,00020,000

Black Myth: Wukong Data

Product	Value
RTX 5070 - 32 GB system RAM	15800 Avg system RAM, 7700 Avg process RAM
RTX 5070 - 16 GB system RAM	12200 Avg system RAM, 5899.9 Avg process RAM

Avg system RAM

Avg process RAM

RTX 5070 - 32 GB system RAM

18700

7000

RTX 5070 - 16 GB system RAM

12600

4300

05,00010,00015,00020,000

Stalker 2 Data

Product	Value
RTX 5070 - 32 GB system RAM	18700 Avg system RAM, 7000 Avg process RAM
RTX 5070 - 16 GB system RAM	12600 Avg system RAM, 4300 Avg process RAM

Avg system RAM

Avg process RAM

RTX 5070 - 32 GB system RAM

18000

9799.9

RTX 5070 - 16 GB system RAM

11400

6200

05,00010,00015,00020,000

Escape from Tarkov Data

Product	Value
RTX 5070 - 32 GB system RAM	18000 Avg system RAM, 9799.9 Avg process RAM
RTX 5070 - 16 GB system RAM	11400 Avg system RAM, 6200 Avg process RAM

Avg system RAM

Avg process RAM

RTX 5070 - 32 GB system RAM

27300

19500

RTX 5070 - 16 GB system RAM

14900

899.7

07,50015,00022,50030,000

Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 Data

Product	Value
RTX 5070 - 32 GB system RAM	27300 Avg system RAM, 19500 Avg process RAM
RTX 5070 - 16 GB system RAM	14900 Avg system RAM, 899.7 Avg process RAM

Avg system RAM

Avg process RAM

RTX 5070 - 32 GB system RAM

22400

13700

RTX 5070 - 16 GB system RAM

12800

7900

07,50015,00022,50030,000

Hogwarts Legacy Data

Product	Value
RTX 5070 - 32 GB system RAM	22400 Avg system RAM, 13700 Avg process RAM
RTX 5070 - 16 GB system RAM	12800 Avg system RAM, 7900 Avg process RAM

Avg system RAM

Avg process RAM

RTX 5070 - 32 GB system RAM

29300

19800

RTX 5070 - 16 GB system RAM

13700

7200

07,50015,00022,50030,000

Star Citizen Data

Product	Value
RTX 5070 - 32 GB system RAM	29300 Avg system RAM, 19800 Avg process RAM
RTX 5070 - 16 GB system RAM	13700 Avg system RAM, 7200 Avg process RAM

Ignore the fact that all the performance figures are now much lower. They should be, as the RTX 5070 is a much weaker GPU than the RTX 5090. Instead, just focus on the differences between 16 and 32 GB of system memory, especially the 1% low frame rates.

Again, we can see that Cyberpunk 2077, Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, and Black Myth: Wukong are all happy with the lower amount of DRAM. To be honest, this shouldn't come as a surprise because the recommended memory requirement for CP2077 and BM:W is 16 GB. It's 32 GB for KC:D2, but even in the game's main city, Kuttenberg, I didn't encounter any problems with using less DRAM than that.

That wasn't the case for Stalker 2, though, as the 1% low frame rates improved by 11% when using 32 GB. It's interesting to note that when the test rig was set to use 16 GB, the Stalker 2 process actually used 23% more memory than when it did with an RTX 5090 installed. That's almost certainly down to the differences in VRAM capacities, something we can also see in the Escape from Tarkov results.

The game was certainly still playable (well, 'playable' by Tarkov standards) with 16 GB of system memory, but the 34% bump in the 1% low frame rates with 32 GB makes it feel a lot smoother. For a game where you survive on a knife-edge for the entirety of every raid, smoothness is critical.

I was surprised by the Hogwarts Legacy results, though. In fact, I retested that game another three times, and in different areas, but it ran the same with 16 GB as it did with 32 GB. There was a very minor reduction in traversal stutters (hitches in the frame rate as you move across open areas), but nothing to mandate the use of 32 GB.

Flight Simulator 2024 on maximum quality settings is all about VRAM, and no amount of system memory is ever going to make up for the fact that the RTX 5070's 12 GB just isn't enough. That said, the 1% low frame rate did go from 2 fps to 6 fps (a 200% increase!) when using more system memory, and it also stopped the horrendous memory thrashing I endured with 16 GB.

When there's insufficient VRAM in that game, it constantly has to shift data back and forth between the graphics card and the PC's DRAM, all while streaming assets from servers as you fly about. This caused all kinds of problems when flying into dense city areas, with the process memory usage frequently crashing to 900 MB and freezing the game for a second or so.

Bizarrely, Star Citizen ran fractionally better with the RTX 5070 than it did with the RTX 5090, especially when forced to cope with 16 GB of system memory. As it's effectively an MMO game, I used the same server, at the same time of day, across my test runs to try and keep the workloads as similar as possible, but I can only assume that there was simply more going on during the 5090 runs. Either that or Star Citizen is still very much an 'Early Access Alpha'.

The verdict on 16 GB of system memory

From the results of all my tests, it would seem that using 16 GB of DRAM in your gaming PC is absolutely fine. Yes, I know that using an RTX 5090 is kind of cheating and a bit silly anyway, because if you can afford one of those, then spending $400 on memory isn't really a concern.

But the RTX 5070 setup was fine too. Leaving Star Citizen aside, purely because it's not a finished product, the only game that really didn't like 16 GB was Flight Simulator 2024, but it didn't like 12 GB of VRAM with 4K, max settings either. Drop the quality levels down a notch or two, and it's a much more pleasant experience. It still doesn't run super-well, but that's more to do with MSFS 24 itself than any hardware aspect.

On that point, if you reduce the graphics quality of any game, it will use less VRAM and/or system memory. All of the tested games, bar Cyberpunk 2077, list 16 GB as being the minimum amount of system memory required (CP2077 wants 12 GB), but I'd say that this is actually quite a 'soft' limit in most cases.

And don't forget that these are the most memory-heavy games I found out of the 27 that I examined. All of the others either used the same amount of DRAM or less.

However, there is one big caveat to everything here. With every game tested, the gaming PC I used was doing nothing but run the game. Those average system memory usage figures in the 16 GB test runs might seem to be perfectly fine, but they leave between 3 and 5 GB of memory available for anything else.

Some of that will be reserved, giving you just a couple of gigabytes of spare DRAM for running anything alongside the game. If you like to watch movies in a browser while you play, or have Discord open, or like to stream your gameplay, 16 GB of system memory will almost certainly be a problem if you like to use maximum quality settings in some games.

Since DDR5 speed doesn't really matter all that much in games, it really all comes down to whether or not you want to bite the $170+ bullet and buy a bigger DRAM kit, or just lower the graphics quality to free up memory. I'm not going to tell you what you should do, but I do know which option makes the most sense.

Framework is hosting a live launch event called "Next Gen" on April 21, and to pair with this announcement, it has posted a self-described manifesto on the state of the PC market. In it, Framework founder Nirav Patel says, "I built this company specifically to reset and fix a broken industry", and claims that mission has not yet been accomplished.

Patel notes the prices of memory, storage, and silicon going up to unprecedented levels in an "AI-first world in which access to compute is metered by the token". He also states, "there is a very real scenario in which personal computing as we know it is dead."

Effectively, the argument is that with so many resources being pumped into the cloud, and PC hardware becoming ever more expensive, those without massive piles of cash are disincentivised from owning the hardware they are using. "The industry is asking you to own nothing and be happy. Computers are no longer a bicycle for the mind. They are becoming the self-driving car that takes you directly to the destination."

It's not clear just yet what Framework plans on unveiling on April 21, but its blog post is all intended to build some hype for whatever it is working on, and no doubt the scary statement helps spread the message. Framework says it will unveil them on its YouTube channel and will open up invitations to the Framework community so users can get their hands on the tech.

Though the point of a blog post like this is to get eyes on its event, it doesn't just seem like lip service. Framework has been making modular laptops for years now, and even put out a desktop last year. Last year, the Framework 12 laptop got a 10/10 from iFixit regarding its repairability.

Framework says that every product it ships is in service of making computers "you can own at the deepest level and do what you want with."

Framework, like almost every company, has been hit by the memory crisis. In January this year, it reportedly "held off as long as we could" but had to jack up the prices of its desktops and mainboards. And just this week, Framework said stabilising memory prices are simply a 'temporary reprieve' and that there would be more price increases to come in 2026.

Though it seems unlikely that its new products will do anything about the memory crisis, one can hope that there's a good reason Framework is leveraging the ire pointed at the general PC market for its announcement. I suppose we'll know more in just a few weeks.

Across the globe, gaming PC and laptop prices are soaring. Price hikes are due to a number of factors, but the memory supply crisis caused by the AI industry's bottomless appetite for RAM and system storage is one major contributor. For most consumers, that means hoping the hardware you already own doesn't fail before prices come back down—but the South Korean government is taking a more proactive approach.

The government of South Korea has moved to introduce a number of measures to address the ballooning digital costs of living for its citizens. This includes market monitoring of the PC and laptop sector, plus the expansion of support for low-income students looking to pick up hardware for their studies, while also expanding efforts to recycle unused PCs (via CBS NoCutNews).

To begin with, the Ministry of Trade, Industry, and Energy, together with the Fair Trade Commission will direct greater scrutiny towards the conditions of the DRAM, PC and laptop markets within South Korea in a bid to deter unfair practices. The South Korean government is of the opinion that, given the consumer price index for computers rose from 4.3% in October 2025 to 12.4% in March 2026, climbing prices could widen the gap of tech access for vulnerable citizens.

Hence why the South Korean government is so keen to subsidise PC and laptop purchases for low-income students across the education system. Currently, the plan is for the Ministry of Education and Offices of Education to work towards distributing at least one device to every elementary/primary and high school/secondary student. At the end of 2025, the government had already distributed 4.4 million units to students.

While I very much doubt all of those devices will be 'game ready,' I appreciate the ambition. I'm based in the UK and, for comparison's sake, the government here recently celebrated getting 1 million people online as part of its 'Digital Inclusion Action Plan.' That's still a lot of people for merry old England, but pales in comparison to South Korea's target figures for students alone. The UK also used to grant devices to school kids, though withdrew that plan in 2023. In short, a little more ambition from the UK government would be most welcome from me.

But as for South Korea, the government there also plans to make it easy and free to transfer surplus PCs from state agencies to local governments. A government official explained, "It is estimated that approximately 80,000 PCs exceed their useful life annually, of which about 22,000 are discarded."

Apparently, the government estimates that about half of the PCs deemed 'end of life' in 2025 could be fixed up and used to carry out basic admin tasks rather than be scrapped entirely.

At present, about a quarter of those 80,000 old PCs are being put to use elsewhere, but the South Korean government is looking to up this figure.

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Science and ICT Bae Kyung-hoon said, "In the AI ​​and digital era, the right to access data is linked to the fundamental rights necessary for the people to lead their daily lives."

As such, the government also intends to restructure the rate plans for three of South Korea's major mobile networks. This involves guaranteeing minimum internet usage, like sending messages to other users or the use of online maps, even when someone has used up their data allowance. The speed of this 'minimum internet access' will be around only 400 Kbps, but the government is already predicting it will benefit 7.17 million people, particularly senior citizens over the age of 65.

However unlikely it may be that your gran is tearing it up across Tau Ceti IV in Marathon, better supported digital access is no bad thing. Here's hoping governments across the globe follow suit soon, and don't leave dear old gran behind.

Today is a Wednesday. I mention that because when it comes to news about the global memory market, you might just think that every day is now a Woesday instead. Enter Dell's CEO into the fray with an insight as to how things are going to fare over the next few years, and it's going to be worse: 625 times worse.

That's according to IT Home and Jukan on X, which claims that at a Bank of America event, Michael Dell said that "As memory per accelerator and system scale expand simultaneously in AI infrastructure, a structure is forming where total memory demand increases by approximately 625 times" (machine translation).

Dell arrives at this figure by noting that the most popular AI accelerator in 2022, Nvidia's H100, sported 80 GB of HBM3 (High Bandwidth Memory), but that this figure is estimated to rise to 2 TB by 2028: a fraction over 25 times more DRAM.

He then apparently said that the rate at which AI accelerators are implemented in data centers will increase by a factor of 25 over the same period. Multiply the two increases together, and you arrive at the claimed 625.

However, Dell is almost certainly using the maximum memory that Nvidia's Vera Rubin superduper chip can support, though most single racks will 'only' be rocking 576 GB of HBM4. That's 7.2 times more memory than a single H100 accelerator, and if we assume Dell is correct about the other growth rate, then the total memory demand will climb by a factor of 180.

Is that good news? Hardly. There are only three companies in the whole world that manufacture HBM4—SK hynix, Samsung, and Micron—and while other companies are trying to catch up with HBM3 offerings, none of them can keep up with current memory demands, let alone how things are going to be in a couple of years.

By 2028, the big three memory makers are expected to have more production facilities in operation, but whatever they're able to get up and running, it surely won't be enough to cope with a DRAM demand that's going to be many times larger than it already is. And it's not just HBM that's going to be in crushingly short supply; LPDDR5x (memory used in laptops and handhelds) and NAND flash storage will too.

A single rack/compute tray in an Nvidia GB200 NVL72 AI server, for example, requires 480 GB of LDDR5X, and a full rack tower has up to 144 E1.S slots (server equivalent of M.2), each home to multiple terabytes of fast SSDs.

A fully kitted-out NVL72 tower could have as much as 17 TB of DRAM and 547 TB of flash storage. That's just one tower, and big AI data centers use hundreds, if not thousands, of them.

If we're lucky, the growth in DRAM and flash manufacturing will be able to maintain the memory status quo (i.e. it's all outrageously expensive but still 'affordable' compared to how much a top-end graphics card costs), and should Dell's prediction comes to pass, we'll still be in with a chance of enjoying one of the best hobbies around.

Perhaps it's best not to consider what will happen if the demand-supply ratio for memory gets considerably worse.

As the memory crisis continues to rage on, Samsung Electronics, Samsung's manufacturing arm, seems set to make a whole bucketload of pennies in return. It just reported its earnings guidance for the first quarter of 2026, effectively an estimate, and the figures are rather monumental.

First up is consolidated sales, which Samsung suggests will sit at 133 trillion Korean won ($88.6 billion). That is just under 40 trillion above the fourth quarter of 2025, and 54 trillion above the first quarter of 2025. That is a huge increase.

Samsung Electronics is one of the biggest suppliers of memory, alongside the likes of SK Hynix and Micron. As such, it's in a bit of a privileged position of being able to sell out of pretty much whatever memory it can make. Just last month, it was rumoured that Samsung was looking at a price increase of over 100%.

Notably, operating profit estimates sit at 57.2 trillion Korean won, which is just under half of its sales. This is a strong margin, significantly better than the 21% of the last quarter and the 8% of the first quarter of 2025.

This higher operating profit doesn't mean that Samsung has given up on pumping money back into the company. Earlier this week, it was reported that Samsung ordered over 10 trillion Korean won worth of EUV machines from ASML, and as SEDaily notes, "Consequently, it is highly likely that Samsung Electronics' production capacity for 1c DRAM and HBM4 will increase significantly in the first half of next year."

For the unaware, the major cause of the memory crisis is AI, with AI firms hogging up all of that bandwidth to develop models. It seems that, unless the bubble pops earlier than expected, the memory crisis is due to rage for longer. Micron has just recently confirmed that demand is "significantly in excess of our available supply for the foreseeable future."

Still, at least you can generate yellow-tinged images of yourself in a Studio Ghibli style, or whatever.

Modular laptop specialist Framework has published its latest update on the memory crisis. Seemingly in response to the recent narrative around falling prices, Framework CEO Nirav Patel has a more sobering take. This is a temporary blip. More price rises are in the pipeline.

Specifically, Patel says, "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." Drat.

In the immediate term, it's therefore not surprising that Framework isn't immediately ramping up all its memory prices even further. "For this month, we’ve been able to keep our DDR5 prices for DIY Edition unchanged from last month," Patel says.

"On SSDs, we’re continuing to consume inventory we brought in at lower costs for most capacities," he adds. But further out, it seems like costs are only going one way. With SSDs, that's probably already baked in.

Framework is now depleting some of its cheaper SSD stock and is now "bringing in new inventory at substantially higher costs." The first casualty of that is the 4 TB WD SN850x, which Patel says will have to be repriced.

All that said, some of Framework's memory is going up this month. "Costs on the LPDDR5x we use in Framework Desktop continue to increase. We’ve again absorbed some of the cost, but needed to adjust pricing upwards on the 128GB version to cover the rest. Even with this, Framework Desktop remains one of the cheaper ways to get access to 128GB for running AI models locally," Patel says.

But there's better news for Framework laptops, where the company has apparently been able to offset memory prices thanks to cheaper CPUs. "For Framework Laptop 16, we have some rare good news. We were able to lock in lower CPU pricing and were able to bring prices back down to their original levels for some configurations. At the same time, with memory prices increasing, we’ve needed to increase the price of the prebuilt configuration that comes populated with 64GB of DDR5," Framework says.

Anywho, this all really confirms our suspicions that any perceived dip in memory prices is transitory and that all of this actually hinges on what happens with the AI industry. If that delivers on the hype, it's hard to see the memory market normalising for years to come. If it all goes pop, well, cheap DDR5 kits will likely return, but at the cost of who knows how much economic fallout.

Is the worm finally turning for the poor beleaguered PC gamer, pummelled by painful component pricing? Yesterday, we covered a report claiming that spending cuts at OpenAI had "hit" memory chip prices. Now market analyst Trendforce says that retail DDR5 kit pricing is falling "sharply" in the US, Europe and China.

"Recent sharp price corrections across U.S. and China retail memory channels have pushed DDR5 modules to the center of a broader sell-off, further fueled by market debate surrounding Google’s TurboQuant. The development has raised questions over whether this signals an inflection point for weakening demand," is the analyst outfit's opening salvo in a news post.

Somewhat surprisingly, Trendforce's main source here appears to be some informal reporting by WCCFTech covering the German and US markets, plus a further Chinese source for that market.

When I trawled the usual online retailers yesterday, I found that some DDR5 kits were indeed lower than their absolute peak during this memory crisis. However, it's hard to argue that the historical price graphs on Amazon show a downward price trend.

Instead, as I said of a particular DDR5 kit, "if you observe the price trend of the 32 GB version of that Kingston kit, you'll see that the price has been essentially oscillating between $657 and around $515 since February, with it mostly being listed at the lower price."

That's true of many memory kits. Indeed, Trendforce caveats all this with the proviso that some industry sources say "contract prices from major memory suppliers have remained completely stable."

Trendforce then 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. 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.

"For now, the industry’s long-term fundamentals appear largely unchanged — but whether the recent turbulence proves to be a healthy cooldown or an early warning sign might only become clear in the months ahead."

So, is this all a nothing burger? At the very least, it's probably premature. Right now, there are countless contributing factors to consider, from OpenAI's cutbacks and a mooted expansion of the supply crunch to include CPUs to the idea that automated cars and robots will soon be gobbling up 300 GB a pop and Google's claims that its new AI algorithm reduces memory demand by 6x.

But, ultimately, all of this surely hinges on the fate of the AI industry. If it implodes, memory prices will surely collapse. If the hype proves fully founded, on the other hand, it's hard to see memory chips returning to pre-AI prices for years. Watch this space, in other words.

As the ongoing memory crisis continues to make DRAM unaffordable for the majority of us, I'd imagine many are choosing to hold onto what they've got. But can you run a PC with no system memory at all? That's the question that YouTube channel PortalRunner has been investigating, and the answer is...

No, not really. After realising that a new editing server would require considerable amounts of both SSD storage and DDR5 RAM, PortalRunner began by attempting to lower the initial DRAM loadout of a machine to its minimum point.

The first experiment involved tweaking Linux boot parameters to limit system memory to a measly 256 MB (hey, remember when that was a good amount?), but the system failed to initialise (via Hackaday). After some tomfoolery with the boot settings, a 446 MB DRAM limit, and just 4 GB of swap space on a SATA SSD allowed for a successful startup.

Unfortunately, the system ended up being too slow to pass PortalRunner's three stress tests—a browser benchmark, a memory access test, and a Portal 2 bench to test out casual gaming.

This configuration caused the browser benchmark to crawl to a near halt, the memory access speed test to output a miserable 68 MiB/s result (compared to 11,069 MiB/s using a 4 GB RAM control system), and the Portal 2 benchmark to fail entirely, as Steam refused to load correctly. Quelle surprise.

A later experiment involved using graphics card VRAM as a system memory replacement, via a modded swapfile on a GTX 1660 Super. This caused multiple crashing issues, as Linux began killing processes to fit within its constraints, and led to two failed benchmarks and an unbelievably slow browser test.

Eventually, PortalRunner settled for modifying a BIOS chip to prevent system DRAM usage and leaning on the CPU cache of an old Intel chip as a memory substitute. This satisfied the initial goal of running a machine with technically no traditional RAM at all, but also limited the system's capabilities considerably.

How considerably? Well, it can technically output a custom-coded Snake clone over a serial port. Briefly. Until the data-providing BIOS chip is removed and the cache is left to its own devices, which causes it to freeze. That's about the bare minimum qualification of a working computer I can think of, but hey, small wins, etc., etc.

Ultimately, all of PortalRunner's efforts amount to an excellent explanation of why DRAM is so vital to a modern system, and confirm that you absolutely need some to run a functioning machine by most people's standards. So no, I'm afraid it's not the solution to the memory crisis you might have hoped for. It's good fun, though, and you may well learn something about how your PC works along the way.

And so, we all gain something. Just not, y'know, RAM. That's gold dust right now, and likely will be for some time to come.