When looking at historic fluctuations there are different reasons for them. For example, in 1993 it was a supply constraint due to a factory fire.

In contrast, the current price inflation is the result of a surge in demand from AI companies. Whether this eases any time soon will depend on how much an uptake there is with AI technology and whether than industry starts to become profitable (or whether funding can continue).

To me this is similar to the surge in GPU prices driven by crypto demand. And as we've seen, GPU prices haven't exactly normalized since then.

Shponglefan wrote on Yesterday, 13:58:

When looking at historic fluctuations there are different reasons for them. For example, in 1993 it was a supply constraint due to a factory fire.

I might modify that a bit. There was a fire, but there was enough product in the channel to weather the storm. The fire kicked off a wave of speculation in the market. Add in that manufacturing was transitioning from 1m to 4m chips so it was hard to bring on more capacity to handle the speculative demand and so prices doubled in short order.

Good, I bought this DDR4 2x32Gb memory modules 2.5 years ago for just $130:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09DTG3BD7

Now similar low cost memory modules 2.5 times more expensive!

douglar wrote on Yesterday, 14:30:

Shponglefan wrote on Yesterday, 13:58:

When looking at historic fluctuations there are different reasons for them. For example, in 1993 it was a supply constraint due to a factory fire.

I might modify that a bit. There was a fire, but there was enough product in the channel to weather the storm. The fire kicked off a wave of speculation in the market. Add in that manufacturing was transitioning from 1m to 4m chips so it was hard to bring on more capacity to handle the speculative demand and so prices doubled in short order.

Also during a period where everyone began to demand 4MB for "Windows" (Doom) and shortly thereafter 8MB... I know enthusiasts/prosumers had way more RAM earlier in the day, we're talking about SOHO and general computing populace. Then also PC demand curve had steepened upward.

Apparently at present point in time, PCs, Tablets, Phones, Consoles, all personal electronic digital devices are seeing a decline in sales, since before covid, so serving a shrinking market is not high on a RAM manufacturer's list of priorities.

I'm always late with RAM upgrades, at the end of last year, I ordered 2x 4 GB DDR3 sticks for my poor laptop that only has 2 GB. Reminds me of buying DDR1 for my previous desktop when DDR2 was mainstream.

I know right, outgoing RAM tech always goes to the price floor, then as everyone with old machines realise that they need a lot more RAM to keep it useable, it does a dead cat bounce and gets spendier for a bit then drops again as even with max RAM those systems can't keep up any more. I know this, but somehow it always gets me a little wrong footed, because I haven't been paying attention to the price drops in time, and then I wake up to it as they're climbing again, derp.