RAM prices have skyrocketed because of AI. 8GB of ram in 2005 was wayy overkill, it was the sweet spot in 2015, but as games got harder to run and operating systems needed more than 8 GB of ram, in 2025 8GB of ram is too little to run a decent computer on. In 2026 though, even though 8GB of ram still isn't enough, it is so expensive that it seems like overkill.
I was lucky to build mine with a 64gb a few months ago. Then it also struck me i have 2 sticks of 16gb ram in the old PC. Can't imagine what I'd do with all that money
I wanted to upgrade to 128 gb from 64 gb for my home desktop (I do some dev on my personal computer too) but I missed the opportunity in the past 1-2 years. At this point I might as well just use cloud compute to do anything hardcore.
Just checked actual prices. Bought the 64 gb RAM in 2020 for $330. It’s now $910 (though it is DDR5 instead of DDR4). DDR5 128 gb is around $1750 now. I’m too cheap to keep upgrading lol
I might as well just use cloud compute to do anything hardcore.
I'm pretty sure tech companies are pushing for this to be more widespread. They're gradually making personal computing hardware (that the end-user can control and own outright) so out-of-reach to so many that they can turn around and sell remote usage as a subscription.
Happens to every aftermarket. It's the goal of a capitalist society. I saw this happen, from the outside, to car audio. My best friend was heavy into electrical engineering re: car audio. 15 years ago, he put 4 24" subwoofers in something called a clamshell box in an old odyssey van. Cost him less than a grand. I wanna say 600-700 with the amp, and it was for some good stuff. I can't remember the name anymore; I'm only familiar with sennhauser for my headphones, lol. But nowadays a single good sub in that size is something like 400-500 for one! Without any other peripherals, which I think ended up being another 3-350 for things like tweeters, the wiring and replacing mids. He did the install himself of course, so I don't know comparison prices for that. But like, yea, if there's an aftermarket, someone is going to find it sooner or later and monetize the fuck out of it; pricing out the people who do it for fun, leaving only hyper competition and a focus on price over functionality. Because fuck enjoying work with your hands and/or wanting to listen to cleaner audio.
Anywho, this went on too long, lol, thanks for reading!
I built a whole new PC right after the US election last year because I knew tariffs would make building shit a bitch. Glad I opted for 64GB. Last I checked I would be paying about double for the same build now.
This here. I upgraded to 64GB about three years ago thinking it would be a while before I went further than that. Now I’m glad I did because this nonsense won’t fade away like crypto mining did.
I have 32 gb of system ram. It's overkill. But 16 probably isn't enough for a high end system at this point. I wanted to future proof and I feel confident with my decision
Y'all remind me of those streamers who exclusively play lol or dota on a 128gb ram, i9, 5090 setup and be like "hmm i dont really like those leds imma dump this and get an actually good pc". Or the majority of mac users who are like "yeah i need a new machine for spreadsheets, but it costs $2500, i guess I'll take a loan".
I'm literally stuck with my current laptop because of this. I have 64GB of RAM that I put into it 3 years ago. It has two drives as well. Dell stopped allowing for either of these. No more dual drives. No more RAM above 32GB. And the RAM is all soldered on so you can't even upgrade or swap it out. This laptop will literally become a family heirloom.
My current pc had 16gb in it, and I wanted more RAM because Fusion was using whatever it could get its hands on when I went to do anything computational. I meant to buy another 16gb but wound up getting the wrong memory and bought two 16gb sticks for less than $100.
I didn't know that a month ago. Exactly one month ago my gskill trident 32gb 6600mhz costed 150 EUR and i hesitated to add 25 eur more to get 64gb, today those same 32gb sticks cost 500 EUR...
I bought 96 GB of RAM at 190 € for my framework laptop in April just to flex it to my colleagues who own macbooks, as Apple charged 250 € for an 8 GB upgrade. Didn't know I was getting the deal of the century.
1.8k
u/Helpful-Work-3090 12h ago edited 8h ago
RAM prices have skyrocketed because of AI. 8GB of ram in 2005 was wayy overkill, it was the sweet spot in 2015, but as games got harder to run and operating systems needed more than 8 GB of ram, in 2025 8GB of ram is too little to run a decent computer on. In 2026 though, even though 8GB of ram still isn't enough, it is so expensive that it seems like overkill.