Its just so wild that 32GB of ram is over $200 and laughably ~$300 “regular”. This set was like ~$60-80 last year.
Even worse is that it’s DDR4 when DDR5 has been the mainstream option for a few years now. This “AI” madness needs to end.
Best part is it says clearance on the tags. They were probably sitting in a warehouse for several years until now. They probably bulk bought them for $30.
My local Walmart has PNY 32G 3600 CL18 for $185 (with ARGB)
Man, just 2 years ago 2x16gb 3600Mhz DDR4 cost me $65
Expect prices to further double to triple this year.
I wholeheartedly expect Steve to end up with a ____ WTF? for every brand and/or component before the end of this year:
(Expect NSFW language.)
NAND might stay (a bit more) stable because AFAIK it’s not as difficult to manufacture, especially if the Chinese start flooding the market with their cheaper stuff. But in general, all of these companies had a taste, and are now preparing to position consumer hardware as extreme luxury products because they realized that most consumers are still willing to pay those prices, and the ones who aren’t will be forced into the new hardware rental industry they’re currently trying to spin up behind the scenes.
Neither CXMT (DRAM) nor YMTC (NAND) will “flood” the market. At best, expect them to be just below “market” price.
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CXMT came about through purchasing the remnants of Infineon after their bankruptcy – which was DDR3. They made that work producing DDR4 and now DDR5, but their yields are limited. Given the needs of their domestic market, I don’t expect them to make any significant inroads in the international market anytime soon.
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YMTC has much higher production costs as their 3D-NAND “X-stacking” technology is by stacking multiple wafers to achieve the layers. It works and they have the performance to back it, but it costs more than their competition to manufacture with less yield – so they have no reason to undercut the competition either. As I recall, their rise was after Intel and Micron’s partnership ended and a bunch of engineers were laid off.
I’m not diminishing either of them; CXMT started with “outdated and worthless” DDR3 technology and made it work for DDR4 and now DDR5. YMTC was held back by the legal system so they had to create a process completely unlike what other companies do. It works, but there’s a reason why the others didn’t do it – cost.
Jesus I have 2 sticks of this sitting on my shelf right now. Didn’t realize it was $200 ram now?