I don’t want to cause panic, but more and more manufacturers are feeling the memory price apocalypse. The latest cohort includes HP, Lenovo and Dell, all of which have reportedly told customers to expect price increases in the recent year.
Industry sources say that Dell may boost prices as early as mid-December, or even by 20%. On the other hand, Lenovo has apparently informed customers that all of its current offers will expire on January 1, 2026 (via TrendForce). Why? You guessed it: memory shortages and rising prices driven by AI demands from substantial tech companies.
As such, some people did not hesitate to express their dissatisfaction, and Framework for One directly criticized Dell’s price increases. The modular laptop maker has previously delisted its own standalone memory to “prevent scalpers,” and recently sent to X that “it will have to raise the prices of our memory soon, but we won’t use that as an excuse to rip off customers like Dell apparently did.”
Currently, the framework offers 16GB DDR5 RAM for just $80– although for how long remains to be seen. Furthermore, in Dell’s defense, we looked at a machine that apparently saw a disproportionate and exorbitant price boost for a RAM upgrade, when in fact the memory upgrade itself only costs $150. How the OP managed to engineer such a significant price boost is likely more due to an upgrade to another component that would come with increased memory, such as a switch to a different CPU core.
Still with Chosun Biz Report With prices for some DRAM components up as much as 170% compared to this time last year, it’s uncomplicated to see why PC makers might consider price increases a wise move. In other words, this is a completely unwise situation, and the valuation of memory could remain stupid through 2028, judging by some of the bleakest forecasts.
But it’s not just about memory and the computers in which it can be found, as this situation is already having a knock-on effect on many different aspects of PC gaming hardware. If you’re desperate to upgrade, earlier is better. On the other hand, if you’re considering postponing, say, a motherboard upgrade, you’re not the only company whose mobo sales are down as much as 50% year over year. As prices continue to rise, saving your pennies still seems like the safest bet.
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