• The fact that we as a species have not already collectively decide to enforce the rule that once you get to $100M you get a “YOUR DID IT” trophy and a spot on a private tropical island where you can do hookers and blow for the rest of your life while any further increases in your wealth are nationalised is proof we are, in fact, a bunch of fools.

  • 7 days

    This is ON SALE, from MicroCenter today- they’re known for having amazing deals.

    THIS IS NOT OKAY

    • 7 days

      that’s server ram (registered ecc), which costs a lot more than ‘normal’ modules

  • 7 days

    A ‘memory crisis’ they created artificially and deliberately in order to price gouge as hard as possible.

    • 7 days

      Why do you think that? Not that they are saints, but the demand shock is a real thing, not something the DRAM manufacturers created artificially. And that prices rise with demand is not price fixing.

  • 7 days

    I never understood why my dad was always so cheap until now.

    You “used” to pay this much for something and now it skyrocketed, so you can’t live with yourself paying that higher price when it has been much cheaper for so long. Maybe he thought prices were going to come down again.

    I don’t think the prices of RAM are ever going to come down. At least as long as people keep paying, which they do.

    • Well, people aren’t really paying. Theoretically, large AI investment groups are paying. I say theoretically because as far as I understand it, they’ve mostly promised to buy the output but I don’t think have actually made good on buying it. The manufactured scarcity is being realized as increased memory costs, but the contracts are still landing even though the biggest contract may not actually be filled in the future (AI bubble). It’s why memory makers are trying to get Apple and co to commit to today’s prices for the next 3 years, because if they do and the big contract falls through, they still get their insane profit margin baked in for a bit and then can stockpile / price fix / sell through to market.

      The big wrench here will be if Chinese memory fabs come online. If that big contract (AI) defaults, existing contracts are going to be very much worthless as folks would rather cancel them and fill orders at CXMT. So you may see a lot of consumer memory start filling from those fabs as they take market share while traditional players try to price fix. So the real question is, will cxmt try to capture market or play price fixing with the current cartel? My money is on market share.

      • My guess is price fixing, maybe slightly undercutting the current giants. Entering the market is only worth it because the prices are high.

        • Eh, I think they see more power and influence in gaining market share and being the provider of that technology, and then cornering the market. Prices are currently high, but they tend to do a better job of playing the long game.

    • You mean just in time for the US to declare “Chinese ram” a national security risk and ban it’s import right?

        • Even if they do having the cartels demand in China cut is going to hurt. Demand is dropping in the datacenters market and supply is hitting, this is all fear lingering from them to get us to buy now at the peak

        • You’re being downvoted but I’m here for you. Americans deserve to be cut off from all trade at this point.

    • 7 days

      won’t they be supplying their own market first? they’re doing the data center ai bullshit too.

      • 7 days

        Probably, but China is REALLY good at scaling manufacturing, in general. Hopefully they’ll be able to quickly scale up their memory production.

  • The prices keep going up because the willingness to pay isn’t slowing down. As long as people are willing to over pay, the prices will keep going up! Of course the suppliers are predicting price increases, they know there’s a crowd that HAS to have the latest and greatest even when previous gen hardware still hangs, and they have deep pockets and no patience. Then u have people paying for cloud services and shit, increasing demand. This isn’t even getting into the AI craze or cloud computing. I have a friend that won’t build a gaming PC because “it’s cheaper to pay to stream a PC from my laptop” while complaining about ram shortages, which he is actively funding. I am perfectly happy with my ryzen 5 running ddr4 and a rx6600, it plays everything on my 1080p 75hz monitor just fine. I won’t dare think about upgrading till the madness stops, and if it doesnt then fine I’ve been priced out of gaming. My sub 800$ PC is already more expensive than half the cars and motorcycles I have owned 😭 no I’m not spending 2k to build a rig jeeezum

    • Yes, this is true that prices are continuing to rise because they’re still being bought at that high price, but most of that isn’t consumers (and/or “enthusiasts”) absolutely needing it no matter the cost.

      The price is what it is because ai and cloud compute companies are willing to pay that insanely inflated price, so if you want even the chance to get any dram, you need to be willing to pay more than OpenAI/Microsoft/Google/NVIDIA/etc are, for Samsung/SK Hynix/Micron to even consider you.

      Why would they bother selling their dram chips in consumer packages for a fraction of what enterprises are willing to pay. The price is what it is, because that’s the price that it becomes worth it for the dram manufacturers to actually care about the consumer market.

      • It’s also not consumer ram that is taking up the fab capacity either, they’ve shifted to producing more HBM because it allows huge models to be loaded fast.

        • Yeah exactly, why bother making DDR4/5 memory when HBM makes so much more money since companies are willing to pay insane amounts for it.

          So the price of DDR4/5 will rise to whatever price AI and compute companies are willing to pay for HBM as that’s the only point it becomes somewhat worth it for manufacturers to care.

  • OpenAi is set to run out of money mid next year. All the other dominos in this bubble will follow. Chip factories will be begging for consumer demand well before 3 years

  • the only memory crisis is the forgotten memory that all this is for made up volume that can’t be delivered until the datacenters are built.

  • Yeah, but guys… Be reasonable.

    At best AI will be amazing and steal our jobs, enrich the wealthy further, and destroy the environment.

    And at worst it will reach a wall it can’t overcome and continue to fuck up humanity.

    It’s a win-win!!1!