This is undoubtedly the fever pitch that will set the pace for the end of the year if you need to build a PC or upgrade your system. It’s no longer news, but the price of RAM is skyrocketing. We’ve explained this situation to you on several occasions. We’re faced with a combination of strong demand from the AI market, saturated production capacities and (admittedly) a certain amount of speculation. This situation will not improve with the holidays, and looks set to last at least through the first half of 2026. While many apocalyptic forecasts point to a tension that could last 10 years, others believe that the market will settle down when manufacturers start to reopen production lines that have been dormant for several months.
DDR5 heats up…but why?
Anyway, we’re not going to get into the crystal ball game on this one, but we will give you a summary of our conversations with the main wholesalers on the European market.
- Before the problem of price, it ‘s a problem of volume that worries the professionals. While the main European assemblers have positioned their purchases for the whole of 2026, wholesalers are suffering. One of our sources explains that no 2×8 (16GB) kit has been received for almost 15 days. As for 32GB kits, on a mainstream reference from a leading brand, while the wholesaler was expecting 400 pieces for his weekly requirement, he has only received 80 kits…
- As for prices, some brands deliver sparingly, but have the advantage of still offering consistent prices. Please note, however, that by “consistent” we mean prices above €350!
- On Friday, we spoke to a French and a German wholesaler. 32GB kits (2×16) are negotiated between €270 and €350 ex VAT. Add VAT and your reseller’s (albeit modest) margin, and we’re well over the 400€ mark.
DDR5: A real rise boosted by a speculative / opportunistic climate
While it’s indisputable that chip prices are rising significantly, we’ve recently seen a real amplification coefficient of a speculative nature. Why is this? Firstly, because this has been the law of commerce for centuries (easy, but obvious). But to be more precise, some “secondary” PC assemblers (those who don’t have annual contracts with ram manufacturers) find themselves in a race against time to get their machines out the door. Many of them have stocked up to produce their PCs and are now stuck without RAM. The challenge for them is therefore simple: find RAM as quickly as possible to clear their stocks and bring in cash. In these conditions, availability takes precedence over price… Finally, how can we not mention a certain opportunism on the part of several brands or distributors, who clearly take advantage of the situation to increase our price by a few percent when they have stock?
