Benevolent Facebook trader exchanges 192GB of DDR5 worth $2,200 for one RTX 5070 Ti — says selling at such a high price would have been 'unethical' despite huge loss

"With great prices comes great responsibility", or so the saying goes. The DDR5 shortage has led to near-hyperinflation on the best RAM, and stores everywhere are raising prices by the day, all while manufacturers continue to issue alerts. Some chipmakers are dropping out of the consumer market entirely. However, the ongoing crisis does make for some amusing, or should we say heart-warming anecdotes, like this Facebook PC enthusiast who traded 192GB of DDR5-5200 RAM for one RTX 5070 Ti, despite his memory being worth roughly triple what he got in return.

The trade took place in the Facebook group "Pc, Gaming, Setups, and Building Advice", where one Abdul Kareem As, who had a Corsair Vengeance DDR5-5200 C38 192GB (4x48GB), traded the RAM haul for a PNY RTX 5070 Ti graphics card. Like us, you're probably thinking that this negotiation wasn't the smartest deal in history.

Abdul was fully aware of the apparent delta in market value between the two items, though. In a comment, he says that "he's not greedy like others here" and says he reportedly bought the RAM for $375 and ultimately got an RTX 5070 Ti for that amount.

True to his word, he states that it "would have felt unethical to sell at such a high price" and that he's happy with his decision. Likewise, he didn't want to parcel out the kit for maximum profit either. It's safe to say he bows to no one, and this is probably the best Christmas story we techies will see this year.

The exchange took place on Thursday, and today's prices pin the Corsair Vengeance DDR5-5200 C38 192GB memory kit's value at around $2,201.99, which is more than 3X the $649.99 price when the memory kit hit the retail market last year. We did some digging for the cheapest no-frills memory and found a Crucial 96 GB DDR5-5600 kit for $749.99, so you could complete the set with two of those. For a 4 x 48 GB kit, you'd have to spring $1,999.99 for G.Skill's 192 GB DDR-6000 set.

As for the graphics card, it's a no-frills, solid PNY RTX 5070 Ti. Another dive into Newegg pulls out a couple of RTX 5070 Ti graphics cards from Zotac, MSI, and Gigabyte for $749.99, with the standard low-end tag hovering around $800. So all things considered, Abdul's grand generosity had a $600 to $700 value, meaning "fair" value for the trade would have been closer to two 5070 Ti cards, not one.

He also mentioned that he had a choice between getting the graphics card or an Asus 27" QD-OLED 240 Hz display. There's no telling what exact model that would be, but it's possible it's the ROG Strix XG27AQDMG, a 1440p WOLED display that goes for $699. If it's specifically a QD-OLED display, our bet is on the ROG Strix XG27UCDMG, a 4K variant that would set you back a nice $949. Abdul would perhaps have been wiser to exchange the display for both pieces of hardware, or for one of them plus some cash.

Nevertheless, while it's easy to deride Abdul's negotiation savvy, it's worth noting that the rise in DDR5 prices was so rapid and violent that anyone not following the space closely might not be aware of the price crisis. Even so, it seems Abdul was fully aware of the value of the goods he was carrying, but decided instead to make someone's day.

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