- Micron has pulled the plug on its Crucial consumer RAM
- It focuses on making RAM modules for data centers instead
- There are further stories of problems in the memory world on top of this, and also rumors of AMD Ryzen CPU price increases
PC component pricing predictions are getting grim by the day, and now there’s a lot of fresh gloom settling on the mountainous pile of doom—the gloomiest news being that Micron is shutting down its consumer RAM division.
This means the end of the road for Micron’s Crucial RAM sticks, which have long been popular in the PC world.
As PC Gamer pointed out, Micron issued a statement to say, “AI-driven growth in the data center has led to an increase in demand for memory and storage. Micron has made the difficult decision to exit the Crucial consumer business to improve offerings and support for our larger, strategic customers in faster-growing segments.”
In other words, the company is focusing on making far more profitable memory modules for data centers.
Micron notes that it will “continue shipments of critical consumer products through the consumer channel through the end of the fiscal 2nd quarter (February 2026).”
After February of next year, whatever is left on the shelves or in warehouses will still be left to sell through, but after that there will be no more Crucial RAM.
Want more RAM doom nuggets? I know you don’t, not really, but here goes: What about Samsung refusing to sell itself RAM? It sounds ridiculous, but it’s true, and as PC World reports, this is about Samsung Semiconductor Global (which makes Samsung’s memory chips) not selling to Samsung Electronics, which wants RAM for its Galaxy smartphones (and also tablets, laptops, and so on).
I say ‘not selling’, but the nuance here is that Samsung Electronics wanted a contract to secure delivery and pricing for a full year ahead, and the long-term deal was rejected, with Samsung Semiconductor insisting on renegotiating quarterly (possibly including some big price jumps throughout the year).
Then there’s TeamGroup, a major memory maker that offers many varieties of PC RAM sticks, which, as Tom’s Hardware highlighted, said contract prices for DRAM have nearly doubled recently — and that supply is set to worsen in 2026. According to TeamGroup, things might not return to normal for memory until 2027 or even 2028.
Switching now, there is also a rumor that CPU prices are going up, at least on the AMD side.
OC3D reports that its industry sources claim that AMD Ryzen processors have been raised in early December, and that this applies to all CPUs, from the Ryzen 9000 series on down.
Now, we haven’t seen any price increases for Ryzen processors this week – other than Black Friday sale prices disappearing, that is, complicating the issue here somewhat – but as OC3D makes clear, this is the cost down the supply chain (at distributors).
So the effect will not be immediately felt by consumers, but it is in the pipeline for products on the shelves of retailers. (Although of course we have to take this report with lots of seasoning – and all the points discussed here, which remain rumors for now).
Analysis: Crucial considerations if considering a new PC or component upgrade
If the Vine is right, once 2026 starts we could see Ryzen CPU price hikes, on top of AMD Radeon GPU price hikes, and there are also separate rumors about Nvidia graphics cards. GPUs are of course affected by the increased memory cost since they use video RAM, so that makes perfect sense.
Why CPU prices might increase is another question and one OC3D doesn’t attempt to address (which makes the report feel a bit unwieldy).
Still, while Ryzen CPUs aren’t bogged down with these rumors, GPUs and memory certainly are. Memory also means storage – SSDs – but we see the current effects of memory supply issues most clearly when it comes to RAM sticks, which have risen in price. Recently, we’ve seen a doubling or even tripling of the price of many PC RAM kits, with even Black Friday providing little or no relief.
What is my current buying advice given all this? It feels a lot like pulling the trigger on a GPU now or in a holiday sale, which may be the last chance to get a decent price (relative to MSRP). It’s a similar case for SSDs, which have already seen some significant price increases – but I have a feeling things could be significantly worse for these drives, and there will almost certainly be further meaningful price increases in 2026 for storage.
With RAM, the horse has already frolicked in relation to the huge price increases that have been the story of the past few months. Given that much of the worst fresh news is around RAM – and with the demise of the Crucial brand raising questions about how other memory makers might treat their consumer offerings – it might not be a terrible idea of buying system RAM now, at least not compared to mid-2026, for example, assuming you can still find something that doesn’t look wildly bloated (some of the prices are really ridiculous now, and of course you’ll never pay exorbitant amounts).
But what about entire systems? If you’re already fixated on the idea of building a new desktop PC, you might want to pick up the components very soon, apart from the RAM as mentioned – it might be a good idea to consider reusing the system memory in your current PC if possible, for now until prices improve. However, it may not be until 2027 or even 2028, as mentioned above.
But right now, if you want a new PC, building isn’t really the way to go – the better option is to buy a pre-built desktop. This is because there is still a supply of pre-built PCs available at relatively affordable prices – built using components bought in bulk before skyrocketing RAM prices came into effect – and this really is the best road to travel for many.
There are a lot of pluses to buying over building anyway, in terms of overall warranty coverage and customer support, as well as eliminating the risk of things going wrong (eg frying key components while the build is being assembled).
In short, if you’re in the market for a new desktop PC, get it now—and think hard about a prebuilt—or be prepared to spend next year with your existing computer and wait until 2027 for an upgrade (which is exactly what we’re hearing from the PC manufacturers themselves). And for GPU and storage upgrades, again, the best time is probably now or in the next month or so.
I have a feeling we’re going to hear more tales of woe from the PC component arena before 2025 is out. As the AI market continues to boom, consumers will continue to get a raw deal, and I see nothing but more ‘booming’ for AI in the near-to-mid future.
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