- DDR5 RAM prices appear to be dropping in Europe
- Price tags have eased by around 10% to 15%, albeit that evidence is a limited snapshot of the market
- On the downside, Chinese RAM — which some hoped would be an affordable alternative — isn’t looking so good
There’s a hopeful sign that RAM prices might be finally dropping — although there’s also a more negative piece of news that’s crept in to balance that out somewhat.
First off, the good news, which as Tom’s Hardware reports is that the prices for DDR5 RAM appear to be easing in Europe.
The tech site noticed a claim on Reddit, showing a graph of the price of an ‘average’ 32GB kit of DDR5 memory in the EU — which all sounds very vague, but points to a drop of about 10% (roughly) in price since the start of February.
Seemingly this graph is from price-comparison data compiled by Tweakers.net, a Dutch tech site, and there are anecdotal observations in the Reddit thread that this is what’s happening in Europe.
Tom’s also did its own quick check of five popular (big brand) DDR5 memory kits at Amazon Germany (using CamelCamelCamel price tracking), finding that a couple of products had indeed dropped quite considerably — by around 12% to 15% — since early February.
So, there does appear to be an easing of prices at some major retailers over in Europe, which is good to see. Tom’s also looked at the US market, and found some evidence of much smaller price drops, but nothing that you’d read much into (yet).
While that’s something of a welcome relief, then, Wccftech also spotted a more pessimistic sign, as flagged by Chinese tech site IT Home.
As you may be aware, there’s some hope that more affordable RAM from Chinese manufacturers might step in as a relatively wallet-friendly option for western buyers if imported — but this isn’t likely to happen, we’re told.
In fact, KingBank, one of the big RAM makers that uses memory chips from CXMT — which was recently highlighted as a potential cost-friendly savior for the overinflated RAM market in the west — has jacked up its pricing to levels similar to what we’ve seen in Europe and the US.
Wccftech notes that a KingBank 32GB DDR5 kit on JD.com now runs to the equivalent of over $500, meaning it’s pretty much the same price as the big brands in the US. You may still be able to score a decent price on DDR4 memory, perhaps, in the near-term — although with all the risks that buying from the likes of AliExpress entails.
Analysis: peak pricing reached?
While the Chinese RAM news is far from great, I’ll take any positivity at all frankly, and the glimpse of memory prices in Europe now falling is very much welcome.
Okay, so this is probably more about prices reaching such a peak that buyers are increasingly holding off buying — in other words, a reflection of a wobble in demand, and a refusal to get drawn into panic buying, rather than a bolstering of available supply that’s easing RAM prices in Europe.
But the net effect is still that prices are coming down, rather than heading inexorably upwards at a ludicrous pace, and I’ll take any solace I can get here. We need to keep watching prices going into March, of course, to see whether this downward trend might continue — albeit with a gentler decline maybe, but any further drops will still be a positive sign that perhaps the market is starting to settle down (finally).
I can’t say I believe that’ll happen with any conviction, mind you – but you never know, especially if buyers are going to get more stubborn about trying to wait this out. The problem with that tactic, of course, is that the RAM crisis isn’t predicted to go away any time soon, and the likelihood is that it’ll continue into and throughout 2027, if the sentiment of various analyst firms is on the money.
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