4GB DDR3 DRAMs Fall Below $16 in Contract Market

By Wolfgang Gruener
published

The bankruptcy of Elpida has not had a stabilizing effect on the DRAM industry.

At this time, DRAM pricing is falling into territory that is unlikely to be sustainable for memory makers. According to DRAMeXchange, a 4 GB memory module can now be purchased for less than $16 on the Taiwanese spot market, which is down from $18.75 in August.

4 Gb DDR3 1600 MHz chips are selling for as low as $1.75, while 2 Gb chips can be purchased for as little as $0.80.

Also affected by the price declines were some segments of flash products, such as microSD memory cards, which hit $9 for 16 GB versions, and $3.95 for 8 GB models.

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Wolfgang Gruener
20 Comments Comment from the forums
  • They will be paying us to accept them shortly...;-) time to buy 32Gb then...
    Reply
  • noblerabbit
    Dear motherboard makers, please make dual CPU sockets for mainstream use, and start accommodating some 24 slots of ram, instead of only a measly 4 or 6 slots. Although, it's all pretty much useless to the general populace, as nothing is worthy to take advantage of more processing and more access to Ram, since Windows 8 is taking 100 steps back in the PC Productivity and need for innovation to the industry.

    R.I.P, although, I do hope more startup companies come with ideas and visions to get PC's needy of upgrading once again. Tablets are for stoneage Flintstones, why are we breeding populace with these devices today? Sad Sad state of affairs.
    Reply
  • ajcroteau
    I'm just taking a step back and remembering the day when i decided to go out and purchased a 4 MEGA-byte stick of RAM for my 486DX33 (correct me if i'm wrong but DX meant it had the built-in math co-processor versus the SX which didn't I believe) which doubled the amount of ram i had on that motherboard...

    That little sucker cost me $160.00... :pt1cable:
    Reply
  • LukeCWM
    toxtethThey will be paying us to accept them shortly...;-) time to buy 32Gb then...
    In that case, I'll pick up a TB of RAM. I don't have to use it, just accept it to get the money, right? =]
    Reply
  • iceman1992
    4 Gb DDR3 1600 MHz chips are selling for as low as $1.75, while 2 Gb chips can be purchased for as little as $0.80.
    2GB = $0.80 is much cheaper than SSDs.. typo i'm sure..
    Reply
  • blader15sk8
    Looks like it's time to bring on DDR4.
    Reply
  • luc2k
    Where's a flood when you need one. The last one did wonders for the HDD industry.
    Reply
  • didgetmaster
    2 Gb = $.80 is for 2 Giga-bit not Giga-byte. You need 8 of those chips to get 2 GB. 8 x $.80 = $6.40.
    Reply
  • InvalidError
    blader15sk8Looks like it's time to bring on DDR4.Only problem with that is there won't be mainstream DDR4 CPUs before mid-2014.

    With some luck, maybe DRAM manufacturers will manage to push DDR4 into tablets, smartphones, GPUs and other places that use chip-scale/BGA packaging rather than DIMMs first. Portable devices and low-end GPUs can use both higher performance and lower power.
    Reply
  • subasteve5800
    I remember dropping in a 128Mb stick into my family computer back in the 90's (doubling the capacity to 256MB) and thinking to myself, "Wow this is a lot of RAM, what could anyone need more than 256GB for?"

    Oh how naive I was back then (and thinner too).
    Reply