DDR price drop when AM2 hits?

I'm not so sure that prices will drop. DDR technology is already well-established so I don't foresee there being many future technological developments to reduce the price. Manufacturers will be spending their R&D budget on newer formats.

As far as I am aware, manufacturers are able to meet the current demand for DDR1. Therefore, the price should be roughly at equilibrium (i.e. not artificially inflated by high demand but short supply). As demand for DDR1 drops as users move onto DDR2, rather than lower prices it is more likely that manufacturers will reduce production - profit margin on memory isn't very high as it's a very competititve market.

As demand drops yet further, the prices will probably rise. This is because small production runs don't have economies of scale. Also, anyone buying old RAM is probably doing so becuase they can't upgrade their old system. This means they can be ripped off. Look at the price of SIMM RAM these days!

Thanks for the info. Your points make a lot of sense. I will probably get my system in early June so Ihope prices are still stable at that point.

Cheers!

8O

There's a first time for everything, I suppose.


I can't see there being any major changes in memory prices in the next couple of months (barring war, natural disaster, alien invasion). AMDs new socket won't even be released by then.

Have you looked at PC133 SDRAM prices lately. They are more expensive

than DDR. :?

The prices will probably drop a little bit, which would be another reason not to buy AM2.

DDR AMD will still be the mainstream for this year so it's not gonna change the price. Maybe come mid 2007 when the AM2 would be maybe as popular as the DDR AMD boards then we should see a price drop.

My point exactly. Obsolete technology is often more expensive than current because it's rare (and maybe not even in production anymore).

DDR might come down in price next year, but I wouldn't bet on it. However, you may be able to pick up cheap(er) DDR RAM if you're prepared to buy second hand. People upgrading to AM2 might sell their old RAM that they can't use...

I posted basically the same question along with a poll. I found an interesting article about it as well.

Please see "DDR Memory Prices and Upgrading"