The easiest way to check this is to get some magazines from that time period and look at the ads for new computers that were sold then.

The CGW Museum is a good place to start, since it hosts all the editions of Computer Gaming World that were released throughout the years.

flightjunkie wrote on 2024-12-08, 11:21:

I got the same question with RDRAM and DDR in 2000. What would be the largest sticks and how much would they cost? Some vague info I found quite some time ago would have them at 128MB and 600$ for RDRAM, but it's been a while and I was not able to find that info again.

RDRAM/DDR would have been super-rare in 2000. PC100/133 SDRAM was plentiful and... rapidly dropping in price, especially for 256 meg modules.

97 32mb was common.
We're talking very early pentium 2 here.
I was on 32mb in my celery in 98/99.
By 2000 I was up around 192-256mb

In 1997 I was working for a BIG computer companies in Silicon Valley.
And for High end corporate business computers 16mb ot ram was enough for most computers running Win95 or NT 4.0
32mb of Memory for Servers runing WinNT 4.0 Server.
Commonly mostly Unix servers used 64mb or more of Memory.

RAM was still very expensive in 1997 and you need a Newer motherboard that supported SDRAM
I don’t remember how much it cost.
Maybe $1 per Megabyte.
In comparison in 1993 Memory costs $100 per Megabyte.
.

I certainly couldn't afford $3200 in 98/9.
My 300a was ~150
Id say you're off by a bit

Yah I think we were at $30 a megabyte by the end of 95 when it had been 100 a year or so prior. After that it seemed to cruise at $100 ish for minimum RAM current module, so then 4Mb was $100 for a while then end of 96ish saw 8MB for 100 and 97 16Mb probably got down to 100.

December 1994 2MB 72pin Simm was $80, 4MB $150, 8MB $300, 16MB $560. 32MB $1200, 64MB $2800

May 1997:
128MB = $300
Ram 16MB lowend, 32MB standard, 64MB would be only available on the absolute top end.
CPU garbage bin (whole system $499) 120MHz Cyrix. lowend ~133MHz Pentium/K5. Standard 200MHz Pentium. Top 200MHz PPro.

July 1998:
128MB = $150
Ram 32MB lowend, 64MB standard/top.
CPU lowend ~200-233MHz Pentium, 266MHz Celeron, 233MHz Cyrix, 233-300MHz AMD. Standard 300MHz P2. Top 400MHz P2.

Computers with 2.5-3x faster CPU were sold with 64MB of ram because 128MB was too expensive and nothing used that much ram.
Even year later in July 1999 128MB was the top ram option, with standard still being 64MB. In PC Mag Jul 1999 the only computers with 256MB ram are $5K workstations with silly silicon graphics cards or $5K, $8.2K and $9K servers.

64MB enough for everything in 1999 https://www.anandtech.com/show/267/6
September 1999:
128MB DIMM ~$200, 64MB ~$70-80 and price hikes announced https://www.edn.com/panic-buying-sets-dram-pr … s-on-wild-ride/ (prices in article are for memory chips, not whole modules) just before earthquake that made ram prices go wild https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1999_Jiji_earthquake https://www.eetimes.com/dram-prices-rise-shar … taiwan-quake-2/

graphic cards:
Voodoo Graphics 4MB 1996 launch price $299, down to $199 in 1997
Diamond Viper V550 16MB $200 September 1998 https://www.anandtech.com/show/195/5
Creative Labs Graphics Blaster TNT 16MB $169 September 1998, $125 November 1998 https://www.anandtech.com/show/182/5
MATROX G100 8MB $99 April 1998
optional DVD Upgrade Module (Hardware MPEG2 decoder) for G100/G200 $79 April 1998
MATROX MILLENNIUM G200 8MB $230 August 1998 https://assets.hardwarezone.com/2009/reviews/ … /g200/g200.html
STB Velocity 128 4MB $129 June 1998
Creative Labs 3D Blaster VooDoo2 8MB $229 June 1998 and dropping fast after TNT release
Diamond Monster 3D II 8MB $249 June 1998 and dropping fast after TNT release

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2024-12-08, 12:41:

The easiest way to check this is to get some magazines from that time period and look at the ads for new computers that were sold then.

The CGW Museum is a good place to start, since it hosts all the editions of Computer Gaming World that were released throughout the years.

That is a nice resource, thanks

rasz_pl wrote on 2024-12-08, 15:42:

May 1997:
128MB = $300
Ram 16MB lowend, 32MB standard, 64MB would be only available on the absolute top end.

The top end is what I am aiming at

June 1997 a recorded price of 16Mb 4Mx32-60 SIMM EDO was $59
On average at that time is was $3.96 per Mb. The year finished at $2.16, which was the last time RAM was valued at over $2 per Mb.

By November is was $104 for 32Mb, a month later it was $69.

The dramatic drop in RAM prices you guys keep talking about came in 2001 not 2000.
There was a lot of cheap used RAM hit the market in 2000 mostly from dead dot coms which helped drag the prices down, but prices of new is what the market is about so thats the base line level.

I echo Joseph_Joestar's advice to take a look at magazines of the time.

Google Books hosts back issues of PC Magazine which is another resource to check out: Google Books - PC Magazine

ElectroSoldier wrote on 2024-12-08, 21:53:

June 1997 a recorded price of 16Mb 4Mx32-60 SIMM EDO was $59 On average at that time is was $3.96 per Mb. The year finished at $ […]
Show full quote

June 1997 a recorded price of 16Mb 4Mx32-60 SIMM EDO was $59
On average at that time is was $3.96 per Mb. The year finished at $2.16, which was the last time RAM was valued at over $2 per Mb.

By November is was $104 for 32Mb, a month later it was $69.

The dramatic drop in RAM prices you guys keep talking about came in 2001 not 2000.
There was a lot of cheap used RAM hit the market in 2000 mostly from dead dot coms which helped drag the prices down, but prices of new is what the market is about so thats the base line level.

That's still a substantial drop and it aligns with my memory: $250CAD for 4 megs of 72-pin FPM in 1995, and then I remember replacing that module with a 16 meg for a much more reasonable price in, oh, I don't know, maybe 1997 or so. I think the much more reasonable price would have been high two digits so you're still looking at a very substantial drop in prices.

That being said, I agree with 2001 being the crazy point. I had a machine with 128 megs of RAM (3 slots, 2 free) that I upgraded to Win2000 at Christmas 2000, then it was... somewhat lacking in RAM... and I bought another 128 meg PC100 DIMM at a reasonable but not crazy low price. Then a few months later, maybe early summer, RAM had gotten so cheap that I replaced one of the 128 meg DIMMs with a 256 and added a second 256, for a total of 640. I am thinking it was like CAD$50 or 60 for the 256 meg PC100/133 SDRAM. Just absurdly low.

This, also, was very, very bad timing for RDRAM. This is right where Intel is trying to really nudge people towards the P4, and... well, RDRAM was certainly nowhere near those prices. I suspect if it wouldn't have been for the massive 2001 drop in SDRAM prices, RDRAM would have met a less hostile reception...

Bit early for this topic, back then was 700 cdn for 16MB EDO memory for my Pentium 100 computer that I was building. Was 8MB x 2 sticks.

Cheers,

VivienM wrote on 2024-12-08, 23:53:

That's still a substantial drop and it aligns with my memory: $250CAD for 4 megs of 72-pin FPM in 1995, and then I remember repl […]
Show full quote

ElectroSoldier wrote on 2024-12-08, 21:53:

June 1997 a recorded price of 16Mb 4Mx32-60 SIMM EDO was $59 On average at that time is was $3.96 per Mb. The year finished at $ […]
Show full quote

June 1997 a recorded price of 16Mb 4Mx32-60 SIMM EDO was $59
On average at that time is was $3.96 per Mb. The year finished at $2.16, which was the last time RAM was valued at over $2 per Mb.

By November is was $104 for 32Mb, a month later it was $69.

The dramatic drop in RAM prices you guys keep talking about came in 2001 not 2000.
There was a lot of cheap used RAM hit the market in 2000 mostly from dead dot coms which helped drag the prices down, but prices of new is what the market is about so thats the base line level.

That's still a substantial drop and it aligns with my memory: $250CAD for 4 megs of 72-pin FPM in 1995, and then I remember replacing that module with a 16 meg for a much more reasonable price in, oh, I don't know, maybe 1997 or so. I think the much more reasonable price would have been high two digits so you're still looking at a very substantial drop in prices.

That being said, I agree with 2001 being the crazy point. I had a machine with 128 megs of RAM (3 slots, 2 free) that I upgraded to Win2000 at Christmas 2000, then it was... somewhat lacking in RAM... and I bought another 128 meg PC100 DIMM at a reasonable but not crazy low price. Then a few months later, maybe early summer, RAM had gotten so cheap that I replaced one of the 128 meg DIMMs with a 256 and added a second 256, for a total of 640. I am thinking it was like CAD$50 or 60 for the 256 meg PC100/133 SDRAM. Just absurdly low.

This, also, was very, very bad timing for RDRAM. This is right where Intel is trying to really nudge people towards the P4, and... well, RDRAM was certainly nowhere near those prices. I suspect if it wouldn't have been for the massive 2001 drop in SDRAM prices, RDRAM would have met a less hostile reception...

It was a substantial drop as you say but from my records the drop in 2000 was 42.3% while in 2001 it was a 77.3% drop in prices.
The drop in prices in 1997 was 53.3%.

Given the market prices being an actual fact you can look up I dont know why so many people insist the big drop in RAM prices happened in 2000.
2001 - 77.3%
1997 - 53.3%
2000 - 42.3%
1996 - 40%
1998 - 33.3%

I dont have exact numbers so Im not confident in answering the OP.
However having said that I would say that PC66 and PC100 SDRAM would have been in the region of $150 for 64Mb back in 1997.

PC800 RDRAM would have been $700-$800 for 128Mb in y2k. (PC133 128Mb was about $150)
It was shockingly high in price, which is why the push back was so massive.
Its also why most systems ended up with the CRIMM in them

Shponglefan wrote on 2024-12-08, 21:57:

I echo Joseph_Joestar's advice to take a look at magazines of the time.

Google Books hosts back issues of PC Magazine which is another resource to check out: Google Books - PC Magazine

That's good. Initially I thought it was only 1989, but then I saw the tabs with more years.