8 GB of RAM has gone from $40 to $130 in five months. It is explained in four words: “It is what it is”

At this point in the film, it no longer escapes us that we are in the midst of a new component crisis. What started with RAM crisis ended up mutating into SSD crisis and any device that has memory or a memory controller. We are in an “unprecedented” situation, said by the companies themselves that manufacture that memory, and although it all started with SSDs and more expensive RAM ‘chips’, now things have escalated.

How much? Let’s go with some examples.

a rocket. Maybe in Europe they are not the best known, but Framework It is a company that is doing things well. It has a desktop PC, but also something much more interesting: modular laptops. It is not so common to be able to choose all the components of a laptop, and the Framework components do give us that opportunity. The fact is that they are the perfect example to see how the market is.

In September they stopped selling standalone RAM modules. They were not the only ones who began to sell computers without memory or with less physical SSD than advertised, but now the next ‘stick’ has arrived: if before 8 GB of RAM cost 40 dollars, now it is 130 dollars. And if you wanted 96 GB of RAM, before it “only” cost you $480… and now you have to shell out $1,340.

It’s the market, friend. It is estimated that prices are increasing between 6% and 16% on the company’s equipment. The Framework Desktop 32GB LPDDR5X memory is up $110 since it launched. And the 128 GB one has increased by about $600. The equipment that was already built in the warehouse has not been affected by this, but as the stock runs out, they will inevitably follow the same path.

In ArsTechnica we can read that Nirav Patel, CEO of the company, points out that they are trying to solve the problems, but in the end… he is not on his own and the best thing he can do is be transparent. In an interview with BIpoints out that they are looking under the rocks and that if an intermediary tells them “we have found 5,000 RAM modules in a warehouse”, they would buy them without thinking. The problem is accessing new RAM modules… because there aren’t any.

Increases. As we say, it is no longer just the RAM that we can see in stores like Amazon, but the components of a computer, a cell phone, a television, a cara modem or… one Raspberry Pi. Since this crisis began, we have talked a lot about how manufacturers were saying that things were tough and it was going to take a while for the market to recover. But the case of Framework helps ground things, and so does Raspberry.

Because if Framework uses DDR5 memory, which is the most advanced, Raspberry’s is not the latest generation. However, the company has also had to raise prices. Yes three months ago increased a little, now they have skyrocketed. Its memories are LPDDR4 and the company has published a table that point Because the more RAM your board has, the more the price goes up.

Out of the race. In the end, it all depends on the price of the device. In a 4,000 euro computer that you need for professional work, you have no choice but to pay about 600 more to expand the RAM. But on cheaper equipment, the feeling is that it has a much greater impact. This is the case of the Raspberry. In a 120 euro device like the Raspberry Pi 5 of 16 GB, an increase of 60 euros is stupid.

And as the situation lasts a long time, that will be the big problem for many software manufacturers. Apple just present new laptops and the iPhone 17e and, in Spain at least, the price has remained the same. This has not happened in other countries such as the United States, seeing strong increases in some models. Apple, Lenovo, Dell… are companies that have already said that things are bad and the users will have to bear the cost.

But there are also voices that point out that not all companies can allow their users to be the ones who ‘swallow’ with the situation. From SMICChina’s large foundry, has already pointed out that there will be hardware companies that will be left out of the game. We are already seeing it: the cheap mobile is suffering the consequences and the Chinese Meizu, which wanted to eagerly return to the Western market, is already backing down.

2027 2028. Valve and its Steam Machine is another example: the console should come out this spring, but not only is there no price, but it is not known when it will arrive. And when will the end of this catastrophic situation be? It’s the million dollar question. Patel comments that the relief will begin in early 2028, a date similar to what other parts of the industry are managing.

However, Jensen Huang, CEO of NVIDIA, has already warned that the AI ​​race He has seven or eight years leftand just now they have begun to commission TSMC to begin mass manufacturing of Vera Rubin, their next-generation acceleration platform. It is something that needs memory and only Samsung and SK Hynix (two of the big three RAM companies) are able to supply it right now.

In the end, it is about going day by day in this new crisis, but everything indicates that if we need something, it is better to buy it as soon as possible because ifamsung, Micron and SK Hynix they are not doing consumption memoryprices will rise more and more over the next few months.

Images | Raspberry, Framework

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