- High-capacity DDR5 prices quadrupled within weeks during the 2025 quarter
- Both DDR5-5600 and DDR5-6000 moved in lock step despite different specifications
- Early 2026 data indicates that sharp weekly gains have largely stopped
It has become increasingly difficult to ignore the rising cost of DRAM memory in recent months, especially for higher capacity DDR5 kits.
If recent reports are anything to go by, the situation is unlikely to ease any time soon, but instead appears to be a stepping stone towards even higher costs.
Estimates for early 2026 indicate that contract prices could rise sharply compared to late 2025 levels, and TrendForce now predicts DRAM prices to increase by around 55-60% in Q1 2026.
High prices may be to blame for the stability
A recent average market price trend from PCPartPicker (PPP) reveals that the price situation may ease, especially for high-end models.
The trend shows that for much of the last 18 months, prices for high-capacity DDR5 memory kits stayed within a relatively tight range.
Models like DDR5-5600 and DDR5-6000 in 2x32GB configurations spent most of that period at just above the $200 level.
However, this extended stability ended abruptly in the last quarter of 2025 when pricing behavior changed within a short period of weeks.
Between October and December 2025, average prices for DDR5-5600 2x32GB increased from just over $200 to around $800.
During the same period, DDR5-6000 2x32GB increased further, reaching an average of around $900.
The scale of the increase makes it unlikely that routine cost adjustments or incremental improvements drove it.
Although DDR5-6000 kits typically had slightly higher prices than DDR5-5600, the difference remained inconsistent for much of the observed period.
At one point, both configurations sold at nearly identical levels, indicating that rated speed alone did not reliably affect pricing.
When prices started to rise, both models moved in the same direction and within the same time frame, which meant that the price of high-capacity memory continued to rise week after week, regardless of individual assessment.
Since early 2026, however, the pace of weekly price increases has slowed noticeably as early data shows little sign of continued strong increases for these high-end kits, suggesting that prices have leveled off for now.
However, this stabilization has occurred at levels far above those previously seen. After all, an average price near $900 for 64GB is a lot of money.
Therefore, the current price stabilization probably says less about better market conditions and more about limited willingness to buy at current prices.
After all, demand drives supply, and if there is no increase in demand, prices will remain stable or even fall – but whether this plateaued pricing will continue or whether DDR5 memory prices will fall remains to be seen.
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