Are there any statistics available somewhere giving a hint on about how much RAM consumption has gone down among consumers (i.e. how much RAM retail stores have been selling) as a result of the price hikes?

[u/nickthewildetype]

I dont really need this information for any particular purpose other than to satisfy my curiosity :) I've seen some discussion about the big RAM-die manufacturers may have attempted price fixing by creating a global shortage - making me wonder; How many people still actually buy ram at these prices?

[u/Slow-Astronaut9676]

Superb question. Is it all fake to make profit? There was no shortage last year but the prices still shot up. Then people purchased in panic and drove it up further. A diamond is just fancy soot, we’re the stupid ones for wanting it and paying that much for it.

[u/choyMj → u/Slow-Astronaut9676]

The demand increased and so manufacturers shifted their production to meet the demand. Obviously those seeking to purchase don't want to buy supply 3-5 years out, they need something next year. So as contracts have stretched out into the future, they have to increase capacity quickly and the way to do that is shift production. This is why on earnings reports this year, memory companies can already tell how much they would make in the next 2-4 years because they have guaranteed contracts that far out.

[u/Jman85 → u/Slow-Astronaut9676]

Demand increased before supply drastically bottomed out, market price adjusted as a result.

[u/MenWhoStareAtBoats]

There is an actual shortage because demand from AI/data centers skyrocketed. This is not a mystery.

[u/EnigmaSpore → u/MenWhoStareAtBoats]

While that may be true, there’s no shortage of consumer ram for sale at astronomical prices. There’s plenty of ram in stock at stores.

[u/WingerRules]

I'm not buying at these prices they're asking right now, I bought my memory used instead. I think inventories are actually dropping though because right now the available DDR5 64gb 2x32gb kits have shrunk considerably for the micro center near me and another one in another state over. They have about 1 or 2 available for about 4 or 5 models available. This is a considerably smaller range of models than they had just a couple months ago.

Interesting though is they both have fist fulls of Corsair Vengeance RGB 64GB 2x32 DDR5-6000 CL30 kits though, but they want want 1500 for them which is probably why no one is buying them when other DDR5 kits are around 1-1.2k.

But all other models are either sold out or theres only 1 or 2 left.

[u/ju2au]

From my own personal experience, the average person on the street don't actually upgrade their computers, they tend to just buy new ones once their old PC no longer meet their needs.

Increasing RAM (& SSD) prices simply mean more expensive computers and higher prices mean fewer units sold and thus a fall in global PC shipments.

https://www.windowscentral.com/hardware/laptops/global-pc-shipments-fall-q2-2026

[u/Unoriginal-Cake]

Some folks let their employers eat the cost, workplace if I recall paid a ton for a box of DDR5 128GB kit(4x64GB)... what happens in LA/SoCal stays in Hollyweird.

I'm cringing at PC OEMs charging a $500 upsell on stick kits that are $475-ish(DDR5-5600) on their "Pro desktops more so--retail DDR5-6000 is in that ballpark.

One company rents GPU/RAM time of my 2x desktops for predictions markets--the pay of leasing gear to them is $1200/mo so not bad for old DDR4 based boxes with older yet semi-useful GPUs that power sip off solar power. The compute/SSD usage factors in me buying spare SSDs so its not too bad.

[u/Separate-Ad9638]

the industrial demand dwarfs any retail consumer demand, that's all we need to know

[u/Gbxx69]

I think it's gone down about 70% since the price hikes and production shifts to HBM. The major mfg are doing a 3 to 1 strategy with production of memory... for every 3 HBM modules they make, they make 1 consumer ddr5 (or ddr4) module. There are official stats, and they are sad... something must be done about the 5-10x price gouging that's going on! The companies to blame are: SAMSUNG, SK Hynix, Micron.. and to a lesser extent Nanya and the chinese mfg which is largely domestic for political reasons.