AI data centres are eating the world’s memory supply. The three companies that make nearly all DRAM have shifted their factories toward high-bandwidth memory for AI servers, and consumer RAM prices have doubled to tripled since mid-2025 as a result.
The panic phase is over — the expensive phase isn’t. Price rises have slowed right down through 2026, but no meaningful new factory capacity arrives before 2027. Expect a long plateau at today’s prices, not a crash back to the old ones.
What UK prices actually look like
These aren’t analyst figures — they’re the typical street prices we’ve quoted at our own bench in Harrow, a year apart. Blue is July 2025; yellow is now.
Why it’s happening
Three companies — Samsung, SK Hynix and Micron — make over 95% of the world’s DRAM. Since 2025 they’ve been reallocating factory capacity away from the ordinary memory that goes in PCs and phones and toward high-bandwidth memory (HBM), the stacked chips that AI accelerators use. HBM sells for far more and uses considerably more wafer capacity per gigabyte, so the trade hits twice: every wafer that becomes HBM for an AI server is a wafer that never becomes a DDR5 kit for your PC.
The demand side is just as lopsided. Data centres now take the large majority of all memory produced, and the big cloud companies have signed multi-year supply deals that lock capacity up in advance. Industry analysts describe this as a structural shift rather than a normal boom-and-bust cycle — the internet has taken to calling it “RAMmageddon”, and for once the nickname isn’t much of an exaggeration. DDR4 hasn’t been a safe haven either: it’s rising almost as fast because manufacturers are winding down its production lines at exactly the wrong moment.
When will it end?
Here’s the honest read of the trajectory. Contract prices for memory chips roughly doubled in the first quarter of 2026 alone, rose by more than half again in the second quarter — and are forecast to rise only around 10–15% in the third. The curve is flattening hard. There was even a brief dip in spring 2026 when new memory-compression techniques for AI raised hopes that demand might ease.
But flattening isn’t falling. New memory factories are being built — Micron broke ground on a multi-billion-dollar plant this very month — yet that plant won’t produce chips until around 2028, and the industry’s other expansions don’t add meaningful supply before 2027. Analysts broadly expect tight supply and elevated prices into 2027 and possibly 2028. Our working assumption when we quote builds: today’s prices are roughly the new normal for at least the next year.
So: buy now or wait?
Depends entirely on where you’re starting from. This is the same logic our upgrade advisor applies automatically:
8GB is below the floor for modern games and even heavy browser use. No other upgrade fixes the stutter it causes, and waiting for a price crash that isn’t forecast just costs you every day. This one is not optional.
16GB is still fine for most gaming. Going to 32GB is a nice-to-have, and today’s prices punish nice-to-haves — a 32GB DDR5 kit costs what a decent graphics card cost not long ago. Put the money toward the part that’s actually limiting you.
You can’t build a PC without memory, so the cost is unavoidable — plan around it rather than delaying the whole build. Our builder carries live pricing so the total is honest before you commit.
Moving from an old Intel or AM4 board to AM5 means buying DDR5 at shortage prices on top of the CPU and motherboard. Sometimes that’s still right — but often a drop-in CPU that keeps your existing RAM is the smarter 2026 move.
How to soften the blow
Keep your current memory alive. The cheapest RAM is the RAM you already own. On AM4, a drop-in chip like the Ryzen 7 5700X3D delivers a serious uplift with zero memory spend — run your system through our bottleneck calculator to see whether your RAM even needs touching.
Consider tested second-hand kits. Memory doesn’t wear out the way drives do, and used kits sell well below the inflated new prices. The catch is you must test them properly — we memtest every used kit we fit, and it’s saved more than one “bargain”. And if a brand-new build won’t start at all, don’t assume the RAM — work through our new PC not booting guide first.
Turn old parts into budget. If an upgrade leaves you with spare RAM, a CPU or a graphics card, we buy working parts — in this market your old DDR4 kit is genuinely worth something.
RAM shortage — common questions
Why is RAM so expensive right now?
AI data centres are consuming most of the world’s memory production, and the three companies that make nearly all DRAM have shifted factory capacity to high-bandwidth memory for AI servers. Every wafer that becomes HBM is one that never becomes a consumer kit — so PC memory prices have doubled to tripled since mid-2025.
When will RAM prices go back down?
Not soon. Rises have slowed sharply through 2026, but the first major new factory capacity doesn’t arrive until 2027–2028, and analysts expect tight supply into 2027 at least. Plan for a plateau at today’s levels, not a crash.
Should I wait or buy now?
On 8GB: buy now, it’s below the modern minimum. On 16GB and happy: wait — discretionary upgrades are what this market punishes. Building new: budget for it, the cost is unavoidable and no crash is forecast.
Is DDR4 a cheap way around the shortage?
Less than you’d hope — DDR4 has risen almost as fast because production is winding down. The real DDR4 advantage is keeping the kit you already own: drop-in CPU upgrades on AM4 avoid buying any memory at all.
Not sure what your PC needs?
Send us what you’ve got and what’s annoying you — we’ll tell you straight whether RAM is actually your problem, quote it at today’s real prices, and never sell you memory you don’t need.