DRAM Prices Continue to Decline

News
By Wolfgang Gruener
published

Reports coming out of Taiwan suggest that DRAM memory will lose 8 percent of their contract price in August alone.

MarketWatch reported that DRAM prices have just hit a new five-month low. According to DRAMeXchange, a 4GB DDR3 chip module sold for $18.75 last week and may drop to $18 this week.

Typically, there is a seasonal uptick in DRAM pricing in the September time frame due to increased demand from PC makers that are preparing for the Christmas season. However, there appears to be little to no increased demand, which could be caused by high inventory levels.

While there was no information how much inventory there is, there are implications that Windows 8 has not jumpstarted PC manufacturing enough to stimulate DRAM demand. At this time, DRAM prices are still falling and customers looking to upgrade the memory in their PCs may get even better deals toward the end of the year.

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Wolfgang Gruener
13 Comments Comment from the forums
  • CaedenV
    If I had the spare change I would so jump on these prices. I doubt I would jump up to 32GB of ram right away, but right now I would love to move from a 4x4kit to a 2x8kit, and from 1333 to 1600 with a future plan of a 2nd 2x8GB kit.
    And what do you do when you have 32GB of ram? Ram Drive!
    Reply
  • CaedenV
    Anyone else getting the odd feeling that these low prices are a last ditch effort to spark interest in hardware before manufacturers just give up and say "screw it... the demand is for only x# of computers, and so we will raise our prices to survive on x# of sales"

    Maybe it's just me :D

    Also, with ram so cheap why are we not seeing smartphones (all be it $500 smartphones) with 2-4GB of memory? Even high end phones are still at 512MB-1GB... and you cannot tell me that they could not benefit from having at least 2GB as the new standard.
    Reply
  • Just great. Queue the bankruptcies, mergers and buyouts. Like x86 makers, hard drive makers and video card makers, we're going to be left with 2 memory makers when all is said and done.
    Reply
  • sheepsnowadays
    4GB of DDR2 is still near $80
    Reply
  • zakaron
    SheepsNowADays4GB of DDR2 is still near $80You know, I was thinking the same exact thing... why can't these prices fall back to DDR2? Even on ebay, a 2x2GB of 1066 DDR2 is rediculously high compared to DDR3.
    Reply
  • spookyman
    Sweet I can get my 64gig RAM sticks.

    When are they coming out with the 16gig sticks? I am still waiting.
    Reply
  • spartanmk2
    And there was much rejoicing.
    Reply
  • teh_chem
    Awesome how over 6 months ago consumers were told by RAM manufacturers to expect moderate price increases soon, and to stock up before the bump in prices...

    caedenvAlso, with ram so cheap why are we not seeing smartphones (all be it $500 smartphones) with 2-4GB of memory? Even high end phones are still at 512MB-1GB... and you cannot tell me that they could not benefit from having at least 2GB as the new standard.Probably because the platform/OS isn't designed to even use/allocate that much RAM. What would you be doing with your phone these days that would even come close to needing 2-4GB of RAM?
    zakaronYou know, I was thinking the same exact thing... why can't these prices fall back to DDR2? Even on ebay, a 2x2GB of 1066 DDR2 is rediculously high compared to DDR3.Supply and demand--DDR2 isn't manufactured anymore, so it's a limited commodity and the price reflects that.
    Reply
  • cookoy
    With high capacity ram modules and hard drives, 1 or 2 pcs would be more than sufficient for most of us.
    Reply
  • caedenvAnyone else getting the odd feeling that these low prices are a last ditch effort to spark interest in hardware before manufacturers just give up and say "screw it... the demand is for only x# of computers, and so we will raise our prices to survive on x# of sales"Maybe it's just me Also, with ram so cheap why are we not seeing smartphones (all be it $500 smartphones) with 2-4GB of memory? Even high end phones are still at 512MB-1GB... and you cannot tell me that they could not benefit from having at least 2GB as the new standard.
    Battery life, heat, size probably.
    Reply