Most people until recently, had no idea what the RAM memory is or does.
Even we, not so long ago, were considering what the motherboard supports and not the cost since so far, it has been rather cheap…
But those are things of the past, in an era where AI is on fire…
Why do we need the RAM?
Every self-respecting computer needs AT LEAST 8GB of RAM.
In production and server level, with a server that has many websites and is doing a lot of “heavy lifting”, 64GB is the least you can have.
RAM helps your computer to be fast. The data needs to be stored somewhere, temporarily. Hard drives are slow, RAMs are extremely fast. So when your computer loads a program, it’s settings, temporarily, are being stored in RAMs. The same applies to your website. Otherwise everything would load with the speed of…sloths.
So what do we mean, when we say “they are expensive now”?
In an average, the cost increase at a home PC is close to 200%*.
The cost increase in severs is predicted to reach 400%* in 2026.
The memories are 20% of the overall cost in a computer . Of course all of the other computer parts have been affected… just cause!
*We are compering the prices of the beginning of 2025
Yes but I’ve never heard of it…
That makes sense! Unless you are deeply involved in the tech world, you have no idea what a RAM is or why is its cost increasing. Unfortunately, it’s happening!
Big corporations (i.e. Samsung, Apple) weren’t sure how to address this situation.
At the beginning they were going to decrease the smartphone memory to save costs, so they don’t increase the prices.
Of course something like that would have been catastrophic . Why would someone buy a new phone that’s worse than their current one?
Manufacturers (Samsung, SK Hynix, Micron) prefer high profits from HBM for AI, so the shortage will affect the average households [Global Memory Shortage Crisis]
Ram = gold?
A quick search in any marketplace (i.e. Skroutz, Ebay) will tell you that RAMs prices have gone up to 1000+€, when the exact same ones, six moths prior, would cost 200€.
G.Skill Aegis DDR4 DDR4 64GB RAM
Already in a few forums the users make jokes like “I exchange a RAM for a house in Pagrati, Athens”.
What is going to happen?
Well, no one can predict that. In 2026 there is a production availability for the average household, but the priority of the companies are the hyperscalers, which will lead not only to shortages but also double the orders.
I personally believe that it will run it’s course, but it’s going to take some time.
RAM Price Shock 2026: The Impact of AI on Data Center Memory
So what’s going to happen to hosting/servers, cloud services?
Prices will increase. Already (March 2026) all the providers have increased their prices 30-50% in server renting, and up to 200% in various services (setup etc).
Unfortunately, this is only the beginning…