RAM
Memory news — DDR5 kits, XMP/EXPO profiles, and pricing trends.
RAM DDR5 Prices Are Up 500% in a Year, and Your NAS Build Is About to Feel It
Tom's Hardware tracked a 128GB DDR5-6400 kit going from an all-time low of $329 to $3,399 in twelve months as Samsung, SK hynix and Micron redirect wafer starts to HBM. ECC and registered DIMMs come off the same lines, so this is not just a gamer problem.
RAM CXMT Starts LPDDR6 Mass Production, Becomes a Fourth DRAM Supplier Worth Watching
ChangXin Memory Technologies has begun mass production of LPDDR6 rated at 12,800 Mbps, and its DRAM revenue share jumped from 7.6% to 9.5% quarter over quarter. A fourth real supplier is good for the shortage, but I want years of field data before it goes anywhere near my ECC builds.
RAM G.Skill's New Trident Z5 Royal NeoX Hits CL26 at DDR5-6000, and Your NAS Should Never Come Near It
G.Skill's Trident Z5 Royal NeoX drops AMD EXPO ULL timings to CL26 at DDR5-6000, shaving roughly a third off first-word latency versus mainstream EXPO kits. Great for frame times, and a good excuse to talk about why gaming RAM has no business anywhere near a storage array.
RAM Fake DDR5 With Plastic Filler Chips Is Flooding Resale Markets as Real Kits Blow Past $400
Counterfeiters are gluing dummy plastic chips onto real DDR5 PCBs and forging G.Skill and V-Color branding as genuine 32GB kits climb toward $400. For anyone running a NAS, a RAID array, or an ECC-backed server, this is a silent data corruption risk, not just a wallet problem.
RAM DRAM Prices Are Still Climbing in Q3 2026, Just Slower, and That Should Worry You More
TrendForce now projects Q3 2026 DRAM contract prices to rise 13-18% quarter over quarter and NAND 10-15%, a sharp deceleration from the roughly 60% jump in Q2. The catch: the slowdown is consumers hitting an affordability wall, not manufacturers finding spare capacity.
RAM Micron Posts Record 85% Gross Margins While DDR5 Quadruples and Crucial Quietly Dies
Micron just posted $41.46B in quarterly revenue and an all-time 84.9% gross margin, while DDR5 prices have quadrupled from 2025 lows, the Crucial brand is dead, and the CEO admitted the company can only meet half to two-thirds of demand.
RAM Samsung, SK Hynix & Micron Sued for DRAM Price Fixing: 700% Hike Over Four Years
A class-action lawsuit filed June 25 in California federal court accuses the three DRAM giants of colluding to tank mainstream memory supply and inflate prices by 700% over four years, eerily mirroring the same companies' 2005 guilty pleas. Your RAM budget is now a federal exhibit.
RAM DDR4 Production Is Restarting Because DDR5 Pricing Has Gone Ferrel
Motherboard vendors and memory module makers are restarting DDR4 platform production as DDR5 pricing and shortages keep squeezing PC builders. The ugly part: Tom's Hardware sources expect DRAM and NAND shortages to run through all of 2027.
RAM GoPro Warns Memory Costs Could Threaten Its Survival
GoPro says there is “substantial doubt” about its ability to continue as memory costs and weak sales squeeze the action camera maker. The warning shows how the AI-driven memory shortage is now spilling far beyond PCs and servers.
RAM ASUS Enters DDR5 Market With an $880 ROG 48GB Kit During Peak Memory Shortage
ASUS has launched its first ROG-branded DDR5 memory kit: a limited 48GB DDR5-6000 CL26 set that costs $880 and can hit DDR5-8000 through a ROG-only BIOS profile. It is fast, flashy, and exactly the kind of luxury RAM launch you get when the memory market is already on fire.
RAM TeamGroup Elite DDR5-8000 at 1.1V: JEDEC Speed Without the Voltage Tax
TeamGroup's new ELITE and ELITE PLUS DDR5 kits reach 8000 MT/s at just 1.1V. JEDEC-compliant without XMP or EXPO. For workstation builds where stability and longevity matter, this is a meaningful step forward.
RAM Samsung's 18-Day Strike Could Vaporize 4% of Global DRAM Supply Right When You Can't Afford It
Samsung's primary union has confirmed an 18-day general strike from May 21 to June 7, with 30,000 to 40,000 workers walking out of Pyeongtaek and Hwaseong. TrendForce projects up to 4% of global DRAM output and 3% of NAND will vanish, and recovery alone takes another two to three weeks.
RAM DDR5 Is Now a Luxury Item: AI Ate Your RAM Budget
A 32GB DDR5 kit that cost $90 in early 2025 now runs over $500, and AI datacenters are the reason. With DDR5 hitting $13–18 per GB and a potential Samsung strike looming, there's no relief in sight before 2027.
RAM ASRock and Intel Unveil HUDIMM: A Half-Channel DDR5 Standard to Slash Memory Costs
ASRock, Intel, and TeamGroup have introduced HUDIMM, a single-subchannel DDR5 module format that halves chip count and could finally make DDR5 affordable for budget builds.