- DDR5 price is already sky-high and further increases are likely this year
- A 60% increase in DRAM could push 32GB DDR5 modules over $500
- Demand for servers and artificial intelligence is reshaping consumer memory supply
You can’t have missed that the price of DRAM memory is already high, and unfortunately, new forecasts have suggested that prices are about to go much higher.
Industry analysts expect a significant increase in DDR5 costs in 2026, driven by supply shortages and shifting priorities across the memory market.
TrendForce says it expects DRAM contract prices to increase by 55-60% in the first quarter of 2026 compared to the previous quarter, reflecting tighter supply across the market.
Worrying prognosis
The research links the increase to vendors shifting advanced capacity toward HBM servers and products, reducing supply in other markets, something I wrote about recently.
It is important to note that TrendForce’s forecast refers to the contract price, not a guaranteed one-to-one jump for retail modules. Still, it gives an idea of the kind of pressure that could flow into PC parts if inventories shrink and module makers pass on costs, which they surely will.
As an example of where things could go, on Newegg, a single 32GB Patriot Viper Venom DDR5-5200 module is currently listed for $325.99.
If retail prices rose in line with the high end of TrendForce’s forecast, multiplying that $325.99 base by 1.6 would put them around $521.60, a figure that would have been unthinkable this time last year.
DDR5 is particularly exposed because it shares production processes with server-centric memory.
Even as demand has weakened, supply constraints continue to push prices up, as NAND Flash prices are also expected to rise, although the dynamics differ.
TrendForce forecasts increases across all NAND categories, with customer SSD prices expected to increase more than 40% quarter over quarter.
For PC makers, the outlook is awkward right now. Memory budgeting is becoming more difficult and components that were once considered secondary are becoming increasingly central to decision making.
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