Not only will the prices of graphics cards continue to rise, but the same is expected of DRAM as well. Trendforce predicts that DRAM prices will rise 13-18% in the second quarter of 2021 & they already rose 3-8% in the first quarter of 2021.
DRAM Prices Rose In Q1 Of 2021 And The Trend Is Expected To Continue In Q2 Of 2021
In the DigiTimes report, it states that PC DRAM buyers have been buying up the majority of the current stock, but only hold 4-5 weeks worth of inventory. The stockpiling of DRAM is happening so these buyers will not have to buy the DRAM at a higher price later this year. Hopefully, this buying of DRAM at a lower price will help mitigate price hikes and reduce the cost of DRAM for consumers. The expected rise in price for a single 8GB stick of DDR4 RAM could be more than 15%.
DRAM suppliers have maintained consistent production in the wake of the increasing demand for memory chips, but with the increasing demand and limited production, there is only one thing bound to happen. Prices will rise as they normally do with shortages as seen with most current-gen GPUs. The server market has had an increasingly higher demand for memory chips as well as the smartphone market. Although the smartphone market is large, the priority for DRAM suppliers is the server market and it is predicted that the memory chips for servers will rise 20% in price for the second quarter of 2021.
This shortage is just another drop in the bucket of hardware shortages as there are ongoing shortages involving processors, graphics cards, NAND flash, and now DRAM. This isn’t the time to build a new PC, but if you absolutely need to build one, you’ll be paying a heavy premium for most components. On the consumer side, DDR5 memory is expected to make its first debut in the second half of 2021 but we can expect initial units to feature premium price points. The next-gen memory is already being mass-produced by various Chinese manufacturers, as we reported here.
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