DDR4 now costs 8.6× more than it did 10 years ago

High-bandwidth memory (HBM), widely used in artificial intelligence accelerators, continues to consume manufacturers’ limited production capacity, pushing up prices for conventional PC memory. Even weak demand for laptops and other consumer devices has failed to ease the pressure on the market.

According to TrendForce, the average contract price for a standard 8Gb DDR4 DRAM chip rose 4.17 % in August to $25. That is a new record and about 8.6 times higher than in June 2016, when TrendForce began tracking the market.

DDR4 prices have been rising for most of the past year. They climbed for 11 consecutive months from April 2025 through February 2026, before resuming their growth in April. DDR4 has also become more expensive than newer DDR5 in some cases, creating an unusual price inversion between the two generations.

For a while, DDR4 served as a sort of lifeline for the PC market, making it possible to build relatively affordable systems. Motherboard manufacturers even continued releasing new models for Intel’s LGA 1700 and AMD’s AM4 platforms, allowing users to build systems around processors such as 14th-gen Core and Ryzen 5000 chips without switching to DDR5.

The main reason for the shortage is the rapid expansion of AI infrastructure. HBM, which is used in AI accelerators, requires significantly more wafer capacity than conventional DRAM. As memory manufacturers prioritize HBM and server DRAM to meet growing demand, less production capacity remains available for conventional DRAM, especially older memory types.

The situation is particularly notable given the weak PC market. Global laptop shipments are expected to fall 10.5% year over year in 2026, according to TrendForce. Nevertheless, the research firm has raised its forecast for PC DRAM contract prices in the third quarter to an 18–23 % increase, up from its previous estimate of 15–20 %.

Some suppliers reportedly raised prices by as much as 23–28 % in August contracts. PC manufacturers are responding by buying memory in advance and attempting to build inventories covering more than 10 weeks, fearing that supplies could become even tighter toward the end of the year and into 2027.