Memory for your PC may soon get a little cheaper according to an analyst firm, which just revised its forecasts to suggest further declines in the price of RAM.
TrendForce (opens in a new tab) tells us that the DRAM market is seeing Korean manufacturers lower prices to drive customer demand amid a supply glut, and these lower prices will lead to more memory modules significantly less expensive in the future.
While TrendForce previously estimated a drop in consumer RAM prices in the range of 8% to 13% in the third quarter, this has been revised to an expected quarterly decline of at least 13%, or possibly as much as 18%. , which is almost a fifth cheaper.
That's a pretty big drop, and it's a trend that looks set to continue into the fourth quarter, notes the analyst firm, where another drop of 3% to 8% is expected (again, more than the initial forecast which was just pricing up to a maximum of 5% and, in the best case, prices would remain the same in Q4).
Beyond that, TrendForce believes that "the possibility of a sustained decline cannot be ruled out," meaning we could see more of a move lower as 2023 approaches.
Analysis: Play a waiting game for RAM, if you can
The upshot of all this is that if you're thinking of buying new RAM, it might be worth waiting longer for more decent price cuts, especially if more expensive system memory or higher-capacity modules are what you're interested in.
The caveat here is that while this is probably the case for DDR4 memory, at least if the analyst firm is right, and all signs point to it, it's possible that the price tags for the new standard, DDR5 RAM , do not return to the same degree. .
That said, as DDR5 matures, it will get cheaper (and better performing), so it's worth waiting a while, but only on that basis. As you may recall, DDR5 has already seen steep price drops in recent months, and there's no reason to believe that won't continue.
So if you're considering a RAM upgrade, our advice is to try to stay strong and last a little longer. And even those building a new PC may want to play a waiting game, not just because of slightly cheaper RAM prices, but probably because of some good old drops with GPU prices that are probably on the cards (so to speak) at this moment. In fact, with Ryzen 7000 and Raptor Lake processors, as well as next-gen graphics cards coming soon, now is certainly a good time to be patient.
Via Tom's Hardware(Opens in a new tab)