DRAM Prices See Sharpest Decline Since 2011

AlphaAtlas

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If you're a regular at HardOCP, you've probably heard that memory prices are dropping like a rock. As we've reported before, a number of factors, including reduced smartphone demand, excess inventory, the Intel CPU shortage, and a stable "bit output" thanks to advancing lithography tech are quickly bringing down DDR4 prices, in spite of manufacturers' efforts to slow down production. However, DRAMeXchange reports that there was a "a most unusual, large down-correction in prices" last February. DRAM contracts are now monthly instead of quarterly deals, and DRAMeXchange revised their first quarter price drop projection to 30%. Looking farther ahead, the market research firm notes that suppliers are holding "around a whopping six weeks' worth of inventory (wafer banks included)," and that the Intel CPU shortage is expected to last until 3Q19, hence the down-corrections are expected to continue throughout the year.

Looking at the DRAM market one or two years into the future, the big trio aren't going to roll over in the competition for market shares any time soon. SK Hynix has recently announced that it will invest 120 trillion won (around US$107 billion ) to build four new wafer fabs as part of its strategy to improve its competitiveness. Micron, on the other hand, doubled down and commenced construction of an IC testing and packaging plant in Taiwan. At the same time, its subsidiary Micron Memory Taiwan ( formerly Rexchip) in Houli, Taichung, is considering building a new 12-inch DRAM wafer fab, which could finish construction as early as the end of next year, and massively contribute to production in 2021. As for the world's largest DRAM supplier Samsung, it is currently building a second fab at Pyeongtaek. "The rich stay rich" - such is the immutable trend of the DRAM market; furthermore, new competitors are aided by a wealth of resources and capital upon entering the market. Hence, if smaller DRAM suppliers don't find ways to catch up on production processes and scale, they may risk being marginalized in the near future.
 
What decline? I haven't seen but a few dollars drop and I have been watching several Sticks of ram and nvme drives for months. What a joke!
 
What decline? I haven't seen but a few dollars drop and I have been watching several Sticks of ram and nvme drives for months. What a joke!

It takes some time for the DRAM IC price drops to filter down to retailers that sell the actual DIMMs.

Also, certain sticks are always going to have a gamer/enthusiast/rgbee premium. The price changes will probably affect low-price DIMMs the most.
 
What decline? I haven't seen but a few dollars drop and I have been watching several Sticks of ram and nvme drives for months. What a joke!

It depends on the models you´re looking at. I got this RAM 6 months ago for $65, not it costs $49. That's a big change.

The price changes will probably affect low-price DIMMs the most.

Precisely what my lower-end Patriot 8GB 2400mhz memory shows.
 
I have noticed the decline in prices from the last few NewEgg emails I have been receiving. Even today's email shows 2x8gb DDR4 memory kits going for $80 with free shipping that would have costed $100 per kit a few months ago.
 
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I have noticed the decline in prices from the last few NewEgg emails I have been receiving. Even today's email shows 2x8gb DDR4 memory kits going for $80 with free shipping that would have costed $100 per kit a few months ago.
I agree. I've seen an end-user decline in price, at least with casual observation from Newegg pricing.
 
I just picked up another 16gb for my system - price dropped $30 in the last 2 months on it, so when it dropped close to $100 for 16gb of 3000mhz matching ram on Amazon I went ahead and grabbed some. I may grab another 8gb of cheap stuff for a 2200g build if it drops further...
 
What decline? I haven't seen but a few dollars drop and I have been watching several Sticks of ram and nvme drives for months. What a joke!

Just bought ram and an NVME drive for my kids laptop. I've been watching the price of both for a while. I don't know how you could miss the price drops. Either that or you are expecting miracles.

I gor 16gigs of ddr4 2400mhz for $74 and 500GB of fast nvme for $76. Even six months ago that was not happening.
 
When I can get 16GB of mid range (3200) for $60 wake me up. As we are JUST NOW getting back to the prices the exact same kits were 2 YEARS ago, at this point we should be well under those prices.
 
I patiently await this drop to hit the shelves so I can get some fast RAM for my Matisse machine.

AMD is just raping my wallet. The fuck did I even need a Threadripper for?

I think I had more self control when I was 16.
 
Good. Keep falling.

we need to get to the $3-$4 per GB range for consumer and enterprise RAM sticks.
 
I guess its nearing the time for my build. I really wanted a 2990WX but 4x16GB ram would have cost ~1k a last year. I bought my current 2x16GB set for $140 a few years back too. Now nvidia and amd needs to feel some fire and drop their prices.
 
Been tracking three sets of RAM on Amazon for the past year.

16GB DDR4 3000 is down from £200 to £160 ( I paid £80 for the same kit May 2016)
16GB DDR4 3200 is still stuck at £200 no move.
8GB DDR3 1866 is down from £62 to £49.

So wake me up when DDR4 drops to 2016 prices!

As for SSD/NVMe they have pretty much all dropped by 40-50%+ thankfully.
 
When I can get 16GB of mid range (3200) for $60 wake me up. As we are JUST NOW getting back to the prices the exact same kits were 2 YEARS ago, at this point we should be well under those prices.


It looks like we are headed in that direction, but I believe this is discussing wholesale pricing. It takes a while for that to carry down to consumer parts, because when the stores all have inventory of RAM they bought from manufacturers at higher prices, they understandably reluctant to sell it at a loss.

During price declines, distributors and retailers always get squeezed. On the flipside, they always make out like bandits during price increases, when their inventory bought at lower prices appreciates.
 
What decline? I haven't seen but a few dollars drop and I have been watching several Sticks of ram and nvme drives for months. What a joke!
I paid 75 bucks for 16 Gigs of DDR4 2400 on sale on Amazon recently. It's bullshit memory but it's all I needed for Win 10 File Server
 
The price fixing was painfully obvious. Especially with production slowdowns while prices were still rising.
 
Hopefully that means prices of videocards will drop too. Memory is a big part of their cost.
 
I'm waiting for the ability to get 256GB of Registered ECC DDR4 at an affordable price, so I can finally upgrade my aging server.

I'm thinking something with lower power use and more cores on a single socket, so I don't need a dual socket board anymore...
 
Probably go up once AMD's next cpu is out. Demand may go up, if the new chip is better than what people expect
 
I paid $90 for 16gb of ddr4 3000 over the holidays. Here's hoping we get back down to 2015-16 prices.
 
dropping like a rock is an exaggeration.
$150 for 16gb of ddr4? fuck that.

I remember when ddr3 was just $15-20 per 4gb several years ago.
 
As we are JUST NOW getting back to the prices the exact same kits were 2 YEARS ago, at this point we should be well under those prices.
So wake me up when DDR4 drops to 2016 prices!

did a zen build in march when first gen launched. corsair dominator kit was $135, now the same kit is $145 (lol). just built a zen+ rig with ballistix elite for $130, was nearly $150 in december i believe? prices are definitely dropping due to chinas price fixing investigations, but retailers prefer to pass savings on just a little tiny bit at a time ;D
 
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Unfortunately most laptops still come with 1 stick of ram (single channel).


Yeah but as 99% of laptops don't have special GPUs/i7s or suchlike in them...the 1% performance difference of single channel doesn't really make a difference.
 
Yeah but as 99% of laptops don't have special GPUs/i7s or suchlike in them...the 1% performance difference of single channel doesn't really make a difference.
But a Ryzen laptop, using its onboard Vega graphics, will benefit much with dual-channel ram
 
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