DDR5 RAM Prices Jump by Up to 485% in a Year

Mainstream DDR5 RAM prices have surged by several hundred per cent over the past year, with some 64GB kits rising by almost 500%, according to new price-tracking analysis published by Tom’s Hardware on Monday 17 August.

The sharpest increase in its August 2025-to-August 2026 comparison was for a 64GB DDR5-5600 kit, whose average tracked US price climbed from $191 to $1,118: a 485% rise. A 64GB DDR5-6000 kit rose from $222 to $1,272, up 473%. Even more typical 32GB DDR5 configurations were dramatically dearer, with DDR5-6000 moving from $108 to $572 on average, a 429% increase.

This is the clearest consumer-facing evidence yet that the memory crunch previously focused on AI infrastructure is reaching ordinary PC components. The figures are retail listings and price-tracking observations rather than manufacturer list-price changes, and Tom’s Hardware cautioned that its PCPartPicker comparison is “somewhat approximate”. They are US figures, not verified UK retail averages.

High-capacity kits show the biggest shock

Tom’s Hardware found that some current listings sit far above previous lows. A DDR5-6400 128GB kit was listed at $3,399, compared with a lowest-ever tracked price of $329 — more than ten times the previous low. A DDR5-6000 64GB kit was listed at $849, against a historical low of $159.

The working claim of a 500% RAM rise needs that context. It is not a uniform increase across every module, speed or capacity. Rather, it reflects increases approaching 500% for certain high-capacity DDR5 kits. The tracked 32GB DDR5 examples in the analysis rose by between 355% and 429% year on year.

That distinction matters for anyone pricing a new desktop. A 32GB kit may not have hit the most extreme increase, but it is still a substantially bigger line item than it was a year ago. Higher-capacity builds are being hit hardest, particularly where 64GB or 128GB would previously have been a relatively straightforward upgrade.

DDR4 and storage are being pulled into the squeeze

Older platforms are not insulated. Tom’s Hardware’s data showed DDR4-3200 16GB kits rising from $63 to $163 on average, up 159%, while 32GB DDR4-3200 kits climbed 168% from $105 to $281. A 64GB DDR4-3200 configuration rose 177%, from $222 to $614.

Tom’s Hardware attributed part of that DDR4 pressure to buyers remaining on older AM4 and LGA1700 systems as DDR5 became more expensive, increasing demand for the remaining DDR4 supply. In other words, switching to an older platform does not necessarily deliver the budget-friendly upgrade route it once did.

European tracking points in the same direction, though it should not be treated as a direct measure of UK shop prices. ComputerBase reported on 15 August that its tracked RAM products were 345% more expensive on average than on 15 September 2025. Its sample included a Patriot Viper Venom 32GB DDR5 module rising from €87 to €429, and a Kingston Fury Beast 64GB DDR5 module increasing from €213 to €1,036.

ComputerBase also found average price rises of 126% for SSDs and 129% for hard drives over the same period. Its methodology covered 12 popular products and excluded eBay and Amazon Marketplace listings because of concerns around reseller mark-ups and reliability.

AI demand is reshaping the memory market

As previously reported, memory manufacturers have been steering capacity towards the AI sector. TrendForce says suppliers have continued shifting production towards high-bandwidth memory, or HBM, and server DRAM, both of which are used in AI systems and data centres.

The mechanism is not simply that AI operators are buying the same desktop DIMMs used in home PCs. AI accelerators need large quantities of HBM, while AI servers require high-capacity server memory. Those products command capacity that might otherwise have gone towards conventional DRAM for PCs, laptops and phones. Data centres also need enterprise SSDs to store and process large datasets, increasing pressure on NAND Flash supply.

TrendForce said in June that supplier inventories remained extremely low and that incremental supply was being prioritised for high-capacity RDIMMs used in AI servers, limiting availability for PC makers and smartphone companies. In its third-quarter forecast, published on 30 June, the analyst said memory contract prices would continue rising, although the pace should slow as prices remain high and consumers hit affordability limits.

“Micron’s record fiscal Q3 financial results and even stronger outlook for Q4 reflect the strategic value of memory in the AI era.”

That was Micron chief executive Sanjay Mehrotra’s assessment in the company’s investor material. Micron also said it was investing at record levels in technology, products and supply to address demand, but the statement does not independently confirm any specific consumer RAM price.

What happens next

There is no confirmed timetable for mainstream DDR5 retail pricing to return to 2025 levels. TrendForce expects conventional DRAM, server DRAM and enterprise SSD prices to keep posting double-digit growth in the third quarter of 2026. Its July research suggested NAND supply constraints could gradually ease in the second half of 2027, but said capacity restrictions would persist into 2027.

For UK buyers, the immediate message is straightforward: budget carefully for memory and storage rather than treating them as low-cost finishing parts. UK-specific average prices were not confirmed in the reviewed sources, but the US and European tracking indicates that a routine upgrade can now be a major expense — whether the PC uses DDR5 or DDR4.