- DDR5 RAM prices seem to have plateaued in Germany
- This is very different from the big price jumps of the past few months
- At the same time, analyst firms predict that big price increases are still to come, and PCs are feeling the knock-on effects – the Raspberry Pi is the latest victim
There’s a hopeful sign that the RAM crisis may be coming to a halt, but don’t put too much stock in this idea just yet – especially as we’re still hearing about big price increases in memory and also PCs, the latest of which is a big jump in the cost of the Raspberry Pi compact computer board.
I’ll return to the Raspberry Pi prices (marked by Tom’s Hardware) later, but first let’s focus on the better news from the memory market. VideoCardz discovered that German tech website 3D Center, which keeps track of retail RAM prices in that country, has found that price increases on DDR5 memory appear to have stalled – at least for now.
Over the past month, based on the price of a mix of 20 separate DDR5 RAM products at German retailers, prices have only increased by a marginal 0.1% from mid-January to now.
It is a very different picture compared to the big jumps seen in the previous few months.
From October to November 2025, we witnessed a 49% increase, followed by a 93% increase in the prices of these products through December 2025, and then a hefty 27% increase in January 2026. Although even the latter increase showed that inflation was slowing, now plateauing in February, according to 3D Center figures.
Analysis: a welcome respite, but let’s not get carried away
We have to take such theories about reaching a price high with some caution, as this is just one report, based on a portion of the market in a single country.
Of course, one could argue that huge increases in inflation can by their very nature only last so long – consumers will stop buying (in the main) if they feel prices have become too ridiculous, which in itself will have a smoothing effect on supply and demand.
We’ve seen some evidence of just this in the stabilization of very expensive high-capacity RAM kits in recent months, which is at least a glimmer of hope amid all the grim news of big price increases.
Don’t forget, though, that more broadly, analyst firms still think there’s plenty of price upside to come, and TrendForce predicts that DRAM prices are likely to rise by 50% (or slightly more) in the first quarter of 2026.
We’ve also seen the cost of RAM have a knock-on effect with various products, the latest of which is the Raspberry Pi, the compact and affordable computer board that has become less affordable anyway due to the cost of its system memory, with the top models.
Recently announced price increases have hit models of the Raspberry Pi 4 and 5 that have more than 2GB of RAM. The big increases are applied to top-end 16GB boards (as you might guess), and they’ve gone up in price by $60, meaning the flagship Raspberry Pi 5 is now $205.
That’s 70% more expensive than this model was at launch, so it’s not too far from double the price now – and of course getting out of cheap and cheerful territory.
However, there is not much the manufacturer can do about this if they have to pay a lot more for system RAM from the vendor.
The best computers for all budgets
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