It’s getting worse – DDR5 memory prices continue to increase in 2026

DRAM pricing grows even more insane as we enter 2026

DDR5 prices have become insane, with a 32GB DDR5 kit (2x16GB kit) now costing more than 4x what it did in September 2025. A DDR5 memory kit that once cost £79 now costs £351. That’s more than a Ryzen 7 7800X3D CPU.

If you thought that DDR5’s price increases are over, I have bad news. Market conditions aren’t expected to improve anytime soon. In the short term, DDR5 pricing is expected to worsen as DRAM supply tightens as we move deeper into 2026.

Below is how DDR5 pricing has changed since September 2025. These prices were from Amazon UK.

DDR5 memory pricing won’t return to normal in 2026

DDR5 memory prices aren’t expected to decrease anytime soon. In fact, the DRAM shortage is expected to get worse in the short term. This will increase prices for most electronics and force device makers to produce inferior products with less DRAM to reduce costs. For DIY PC builders, RAM prices have made full PC builds and upgrades prohibitively expensive. The same will be true for pre-built systems soon.

Sadly, dropping consumer demand has done nothing lower DRAM prices. Simply put, the high demand for DRAM comes from AI superscalers, not the consumer PC market. Unless something disrupts the rapid rollout of AI datacenters, DRAM prices will not decrease anytime soon. That’s bad news for consumers, as everyone will need to contend with high DRAM prices as AI firms hoard the world’s DRAM supply.

You can join the discussion on memory prices increasing by over 300% on the OC3D Forums.