2 GB DDR3 Modules Drop to $10 Contract Price
Prices for DRAMs have dropped to a new low.
According to Digitimes, contract prices for 2 GB DDR3 modules hit $10.25 in early November, while 4 GB modules went for $18.50. 2 Gb chips sold for $0.70 on the spot market, which is a decrease of about 10 percent over the past two weeks alone.
The reason for the declining prices remains an acute oversupply of memory chips in the market. There is no sign that the situation may change anytime soon as chip makers, apparently, have not reduced their production volumes yet. The floods in Thailand may have amplified the problem as production of devices that would integrate DRAM memory has declined overall.
Digitimes noted that manufacturers such as Nanya said that current DRAM prices are "too low" and that there is no more room for more drops. However, this environment may not correct itself unless inventories and production volumes are adjusted and there is a notable increase in demand for DRAM. There is a good chance that not just PC vendors will be taking advantage of this situation, but end users may also be able to get their hands on much cheaper memory over the next two quarters.
I'm pretty sure the two are related. The rise in the price of hard drives has decreased demand for PC leading to the decrease in the price for RAM.
I'm pretty sure the two are related. The rise in the price of hard drives has decreased demand for PC leading to the decrease in the price for RAM.
Realistically, the only power ram user is a llano user.
Rather than shipping (pointless) large and fast pieces, they should spend the cash on making something new
True but Sandy Bridge using DDR3 1333 has much faster memory bandwidth than Llano using DDR3 1866.
Either way Ivy Bridge will be out soon enough and supports DDR3 2133. Not even sure that speed would be needed for anything really.
Oh good then I'll brag about my next machine I'm thinking of, with 16 GB of RAM. Don't why I would need more than 1/4 of it but I don't know what I plan on doing with my computer in the future, either. The idea of installing a CaptureCard sound like a plan, though. Hopefully it won't interrupt my BF3/MW3 gaming, but then again, it's not like we live in a 64-bit world, yet either. We're just probably 1/4-1/3 of the way there. Doesn't seem like gaming has headed that direction, yet.
I wonder if gigabyte will release a new version of the iRam drive or anyone else brings to market something similar. If they did at current prices I would jump at the chance as it would be many times faster the SSD but also many times more likely that it all goes when the power goes out.
... After DDR4? lol
It's coming to market in 2014. In other words, don't hold your breath.
Then again, I already have 8GB of RAM, why do I need more?
Cool story, bro.
They are already out.
I had been thinking over the prospects there, too: that SSDs might see a boost in sales due to the spike in HDD supply. Of course, NAND flash is built using a different process than DRAM, but market prices I see would suggest that NAND prices are also pretty low too, even if not as staggeringly cheap as DRAM is.
There's uses for a PC other than web surfing and gaming. For those using production software (even something as simple as Photoshop) you can very rapidly run out of RAM when working on something really big. In fact, that's the reason why there's a point to the quad-channel memory controllers of Intel's SandyBridge-E and AMD's Interlagos: not for the doubled memory bandwidth, but because they give you 8 slots instead of 4; that way 64GB is possible, and 32GB is pretty affordable. And yes, if you're working on audio or video editing, you WILL use up that much: the editing has to be done with it uncompressed, after all.
You might be confusing GDDR with DDR; they are two separate things. Currently, no DDR beyond DDR3 exists yet. GDDR memories are actually modified versions of other DDRs; as of right now, there's been GDDR3, GDDR4, and GDDR5. The first two have been modified versions of DDR2, and the last is a modification of DDR3.