If buying RAM used to feel like picking up a basic PC part, those days are gone. Memory prices have become so unstable that some U.S. retailers have stopped listing numbers altogether. Walk into certain shops now, and you’ll find signs telling you to ask at the counter, not because they want to upsell you, but because tomorrow’s price might be completely different from today’s.
This volatility isn’t minor. Kits that were comfortably affordable at the end of summer have exploded in cost. A mid-range 32GB DDR5 package that once sold for little more than a night out now carries a price tag three or four times higher. Larger 64GB sets have drifted into territory usually reserved for high-end graphics cards.
And the problem isn’t limited to DIY PC builders. Everything modern relies on memory, including gaming consoles, phones, laptops, and even GPUs, so the shock is spreading across the industry. Some companies are already signaling delays or uncertainty around upcoming hardware because they simply don’t know what their memory bill will look like next quarter.
Behind the chaos is a familiar villain: massive AI data centers snapping up cutting-edge DRAM. These buyers are willing to outbid everyone else, soaking up manufacturing capacity and leaving consumer tech makers to fight over whatever remains. Industry voices are warning that the imbalance could last far longer than anyone hopes.
For now, the advice is simple: if you see a fair price on memory, grab it. It might not survive the week.