8GB DDR5 Contract Pricing Dropped 43% Through 2022

DDR5 memory modules
(Image credit: G.Skill)

Murmurings from Taiwanese industry sources indicate that the DRAM market continues to face challenging conditions as 2022 ends. DigiTimes reports that DRAM spot prices are down 40% this year. Specifically, spot prices for all sizes of DDR4 and DDR3 memory ICs have seen significant declines during 2022. Probably of most interest to PC enthusiasts and DIYers, though, is the observation that contract prices of 8GB DDR5 RAM modules have declined by 43% between the end of February and October this year.

Ideally, the whole of the PC industry would have moved over to DDR5 system memory in 2022, with the support of the newest platforms from AMD and Intel. However, those that bought into DDR5 builds had to pay quite a premium to add memory – in addition to the new CPU, motherboard, etc – especially early this year. Some motherboard makers thus cannily offered identical motherboards for the newest-gen Intel CPUs in either DDR4 or DDR5 supporting configurations.

So, the 43% drop in contract 8GB DDR5 module prices in eight months sounds impressive, but what about pricing for consumers? Let's take a peek at Amazon DDR5 price tracking figures for some of the biggest brand 16GB (2x matched 8GB modules) kits and see what has happened since spring 2022 (approx 9 months):

Swipe to scroll horizontally

16GB DDR5 (2x 8GB) kit

Spring 2022 price

Current price

Crucial DDR6 4800MT/s CL40 desktop kit

$132

$71

Kingston Fury Beast 4800MT/s CL40 desktop kit

$167

$93

PNY Performance 4800MT/s CL40 desktop kit

$200

$130

Corsair Vengeance 4800MT/s CL40 SO-DIMM laptop kit

$140

$63

The above Amazon pricing snapshot comparisons show some worthwhile price declines, which means putting together a DDR5 system isn’t so painful to the pocket at the end of 2022. Alternative DDR4 16GB (2x 8GB) kits from the likes of Corsair and PNY cost about $50 to $60 today, so much of the DDR5 premium seems to have vanished. However, faster cutting-edge DDR5 kits released recently aren’t encapsulated by our three-quarters-of-the-year price comparisons.

DDR5 memory modules

(Image credit: Kingston)

Moving back to the topic of the DRAM market in general, the DigiTimes report says that it can’t currently see any signs of recovery for this semiconductor business segment. The biggest influences being felt right now are due to DRAM makers having excess inventory, and device makers being cautious with orders. Last month we reported on Micron attempting to cut DRAM (and NAND) output to buoy prices, but such unilateral action usually doesn’t seem to have much of an effect. In Q3, DRAM makers reported a 30% quarterly decline in revenues, but of course, it is a little too early to have/see any Q4 2022 figures.

NAND News Nugget

Before we go, the source article shared a little extra news on NAND flash pricing. It claims that TLC NAND wafer prices continue to trend downwards, by as much as 20% last quarter, and it is starting to be uneconomical to produce these chips. SLC NAND price trends have held up much better though.

The DRAM and NAND contact price action commented upon above is a double-edged sword for consumers. We would like to see cheaper RAM and flash storage in retail, but we also need companies to have a sustainable income from their production - or they could grind to a halt, worsening the cyclical extremes in pricing.

Mark Tyson
News Editor

Mark Tyson is a news editor at Tom's Hardware. He enjoys covering the full breadth of PC tech; from business and semiconductor design to products approaching the edge of reason.

  • tennis2
    Not sure if comparing 4800MT/s CL40 DDR5 kits is a good representation to conclude "much of the DDR5 premium seems to have vanished" but we have to start somewhere.
    Reply
  • Bob O' Goobo
    So DDR5 prices drop while GPU prices go ridiculously through the roof. I don't want hear about it being the silicon shortage anymore
    Reply
  • TechieTwo
    It's more difficult to price gouge during a world wide economic recession.
    Reply
  • svan71
    TechieTwo said:
    It's more difficult to price gouge during a world wide economic recession.

    Well we were warned this recession would happen back in 19. But at least no more mean tweets.
    Reply
  • TechieTwo
    svan71 said:
    Well we were warned this recession would happen back in 19. But at least no more mean tweets.

    I'll take mean tweets with $2/gal. gas, 1.7% inflation and fossils fuels over climate extremists, 40 year high inflation of 8%, $5/gal. gas and a police state - any day.
    Reply
  • bit_user
    SLC NAND price trends have held up much better though.
    Can you be more specific? I'm pretty sure the only current applications for true SLC is the nonvolatile memory in embedded devices, where data retention times on the order of 5-10 years are required. If I'm right, that should be classed as a specialty product and not compared with NAND memory pricing for consumer & cloud data storage.
    Reply
  • bit_user
    Bob O' Goobo said:
    So DDR5 prices drop while GPU prices go ridiculously through the roof. I don't want hear about it being the silicon shortage anymore
    DRAM is made in different fabs, and has a much wider variety of applications than PC GPUs.
    PC GPUs were designed to be sold at a certain price point. This factored into things like their process node and die size, which cannot be changed. Also, software costs are a significant component of their pricing. They aren't the same sort of commodity as DRAM.You might as well use the spot price of oil as a basis for complaining about GPUs costing too damned much. It's almost as relevant.

    svan71 said:
    Well we were warned this recession would happen back in 19. But at least no more mean tweets.
    Recessions are hard to predict, although it's a pretty safe bet they'll happen after a long enough period of growth. Back in 2019, the pandemic wasn't even on the radar screen, and already the Fed was was a ways into the process of ratcheting up interest rates, to try and keep inflation at bay.

    Source: https://tradingeconomics.com/united-states/interest-rate
    TechieTwo said:
    I'll take mean tweets with $2/gal. gas, 1.7% inflation and fossils fuels over climate extremists, 40 year high inflation of 8%, $5/gal. gas and a police state - any day.
    This is called a fundamental attribution error.


    BTW, PC demand slump was indeed forecast, but simply got delayed by the pandemic and crypto craze.
    Reply
  • Kridian
    I just don't feel right. We need these DRAM prices to go way up; that way every component (in a PC build) will be expensive so the universe will balance. 💩
    Reply
  • DataMeister
    I bought 16GB of RAM for $60 back in 2015. Considering the history of computers it seems like we should be seeing 32GB of RAM for that price by now.
    Reply
  • Geef
    The main data in the line
    Pricing Dropped 43%
    doesn't quite count because DDR5 started mega high cost. A decrease of 43% just means its down to normal pricing for ram.
    Reply