Insane DDR5 and DDR4 RAM inflation results in 2x or more price increase from record lows and it is likely to get worse

It can be argued that PC gaming has never returned to its heyday since the COVID-era GPU shortages. After the pandemic-driven supply constraints eased up, the debut of ChatGPT in late 2022 ushered in an AI race that feels like the sole focus of both chipmakers like Nvidia/AMD/Intel, and memory producers like Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron. 

While fulfilling the demand of AI companies like OpenAI makes perfect financial sense for chipmakers and memory producers, it sadly breaks the market for PC gamers who want easy and affordable access to components. So, where we can't already buy flagship GPUs like the RTX 5090 at reasoanable prices, we can now also say goodbye to affordable desktop memory.

Due to severe capacity shortages and astronomical demand from AI datacenters, the price of DDR5 and DDR4 memory has risen sharply over the past weeks. We dug a little into the top ten best-selling memory kits on Amazon and found out that almost every kit has seen a 2x or more price hike vs their record-lows.

For instance, the best-selling memory kit on Amazon, the 32 GB DDR5-5600 kit from Crucial, is currently retailing for $161.99, a 2,75x increase vs $65.99 all-time low price from November 2023 (via camelcamelcamel).

DDR4 kits are also not immune to this insane price movement. The 32 GB (2x16) Corsair Vengeance DDR4-3200, the second-best-selling memory kit on Amazon, was retailing for only $47.99 in May 2025. Now, it is sitting at $119.99, an eye-watering 2.5x increase.

The same is the case for once super-affordable 16GB kits. For instance, the price of the 16 GB (2x8) Crucial DDR5-4800 memory kit, which was as low as $39.99 in July 2023, has now risen sharply to $77.99, an almost 2x increase.

So, where does that leave us? Sadly, nowhere, as industry reports have warned that things could get much worse by the end of 2025.

RAM prices are likely to remain inflated in 2026

Following the hike in memory prices due to AI-driven demand, companies responsible for packaging and testing memory are also reportedly raising prices by double-digits. These increases are expected to take effect by the end of 2025 or in early 2026. Unfortunately, the DDR4/5 memory isn’t expected to come down in price until 2027, according to Taiwanese memory producer Winbond Electronics.

So, it is looking quite likely that DDR5 and DDR4 memory pricing situation will get worse before it starts to get better in 2027. If you are currently building a gaming PC or are planning to build one, be on the lookout for any deals that might pop up during Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales. These offers are likely to be the only time that you might be able to snag a RAM kit without paying a huge surchage.