- DDR5 RAM prices are finally starting to decline for the first time in several months.
- Google’s new compression algorithm is being hailed as the major reason behind the price drops.
- OpenAI no longer buying 40% of the world’s DRAM wafer supply is another factor in declining demand.
2025 H2 brought a rise in RAM prices and other consumer components that rely on DRAM and NAND memory. This crisis was driven by a huge increase in demand by AI tech giants who rushed to secure as much supply as possible to meet future goals.
The lack of stocks made high-end memory sticks more expensive than most current-gen consoles. However, DDR5 RAM prices are now finally declining for the first time in months, driven by several new developments in the industry.
Why it matters: While the recent DDR5 RAM price drop could be a temporary anomaly, it shows that changing market conditions will likely cause the memory prices to drop to their standard levels over time.
The Corsair Vengeance 32GB DDR5 has become slightly more affordable, falling to $379 instead of its usual $439 peak on Amazon. Similar prices are being observed on other platforms like Newegg, particularly for Corsair products at the time of writing.
The component cost tracker PCPartPicker also shows that prices of several other RAMs are beginning to flatten.
OpenAI not buying 40% of the world’s DRAM wafer supply from Samsung and SK Hynix could have also kick-started the price drop in RAM prices. These deals were only a letter of intent, but the world treating them as binding purchase orders brought the RAM apocalypse.
The decrease in costs is also largely attributed to Google’s new TurboQuant compression algorithm. The KV cache compression reduces memory requirements in AI workloads by up to 6x.
The paper also reveals that the compression layer does not produce a noticeable difference in the long-context workload.
This development indicates that these AI tech giants won’t need as much memory supply as they once thought, which could have started the price decline. However, this might not be a long-standing fall since Google’s new algorithm still supposedly has hard limitations.
Do you think DDR5 RAM prices will continue to plummet to their standard levels as the hype simmers? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below, or join the discussion on the Tech4Gamers forum.
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Shameer Sarfaraz has previously worked for eXputer as a Senior News Writer for several years. Now with Tech4Gamers, he loves to devoutly keep up with the latest gaming and entertainment industries. He has a Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science and years of experience reporting on games. Besides his passion for breaking news stories, Shahmeer loves spending his leisure time farming away in Stardew Valley. VGC, IGN, GameSpot, Game Rant, TheGamer, GamingBolt, The Verge, NME, Metro, Dot Esports, GameByte, Kotaku Australia, PC Gamer, and more have cited his articles.
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