- 64GB DDR5 RAM kits that cost $200 not so long ago are now more than $1000
- RAM pricing surge has turned routine PC upgrades into luxury purchases
- AI demand is partly to blame for the ongoing RAM crisis but it’s not the only reason
It’s not a good time to be a PC builder right now. Buying RAM used to be something you did without much consideration, now you have to think not only about how much memory you need, but how much you can actually afford.
If you’re in the market for some DDR5 RAM you’ll need deep pockets as PCPartPicker shows 64GB DDR5 kits breaking the $1000 mark.
Not too long ago, that same capacity would have been treated as a sensible upgrade rather than a luxury purchase. For context, if you’d gone shopping in August 2025, you’d be expected to pay under $250 for 64GB of DDR5.
Still on the up
Even a month ago, averages were closer to the $600 to $700 range, already uncomfortable but nowhere near four figures.
In a matter of weeks, prices cleared $800, kept climbing, and pushed past $1000, turning what used to be incremental increases into a near vertical rise.
That pace is warping how the data itself looks. On some PCPartPicker price tracking graphs, long stretches of flat, stable RAM pricing are being visually squeezed together to make room for the sharp rise at the right edge.
Years of calm RAM history are compressed into a thin band so the latest spike can even fit on screen.
While it’s easy to point the finger at AI’s unquenchable memory thirst for the current crisis, it’s not the only reason.
DRAM production hasn’t kept up with demand. Older memory types are being phased out, newer ones are steered toward higher margin customers, and consumer RAM is left exposed whenever supply tightens.
RAM is now so pricey that memory sticks are being stolen from display PCs, warehouses, returned systems, and even offices – something that would have sounded absurd when 64GB cost a fraction of today’s prices.
For builders and buyers, the message is hard to ignore. Although some forms of memory are rising slower than others, it’s going to be a while before things stabilize and even longer before prices get close to feeling “normal” again.
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waynewilliams@onmail.com (Wayne Williams)
