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Posted
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EditorDavid
December 28, 2025 @11:34AM
from the thanks-for-the-memory dept.
Laptop makers are facing record-setting memory prices next year. The site Notebookcheck catalogs how different companies are responding:
Sources told [Korean business newspaper] Chosun Biz that some manufacturers have signed preliminary contracts with Samsung, Micron, and SK Hynix. Even so, it won't prevent DDR5 RAM prices from soaring 45% higher by the end of 2026.... Before the memory shortage, PC sales had been on the upswing in part because of forced Windows 11 upgrades. That trend will likely reverse in 2026, as buyers avoid Lenovo laptops and alternatives from its rivals.
Realizing a slowdown in purchases is inevitable, postponed launches are one potential outcome. Other manufacturers, including Dell and Framework have already announced impending price hikes... [The article also cites reports that one laptop manufacturer "plans to raise the prices of high-end models by as much as 30%."] U.S.-based Maingear now encourages customers to mail in their own modules to complete custom builds. Yet, without recycling parts from older systems, that won't result in significant savings for consumers.
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The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
bySlashbotAgent ( 6477336 ) writes:
And consumers even more so.
Continued demand and reduced availability results in shortages and higher prices. That means laptop/computer prices go higher with reduced availability.
Duh.
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byMattatron ( 781116 ) writes:
"Do apples equal oranges?". No.
●nt threshold.
byBrendaEM ( 871664 ) writes:
No, I don't think so.
byarglebargle_xiv ( 2212710 ) writes:
If you want to wait long enough for your returns to outstrip laptop inflation the AI bubble will have popped, so definitely not.
byDrMrLordX ( 559371 ) writes:
You gotta prove that first. And it certainly appears that Altman really is buying out capacity.
byZ00L00K ( 682162 ) writes:
Microsoft: You will need new hardware for Windows 11.
Memory makers: Unfortunately AI demand requires us to raise the prices.
I see a pattern here. Anyone else feeling gaslighted?
byunixisc ( 2429386 ) writes:
Only if your existing PC/laptop doesn't have TPM 2.0. Otherwise, if you're running Windows 10, Windows 11 should run fine as well
●t threshold.
byAnonymous Coward writes:
Yes. One is positioned on the lap, the other on the desk. Next question!
bytepples ( 727027 ) writes:
The desktop PC industry has had to deal with customers bringing their own DRAM DIMMs and other components across an upgrade for decades. Enthusiasts' desktop PCs are such a ship of Theseus that Microsoft had to choose one component (the logic board) as the seat of license for OEM Windows. Laptops, by contrast, have tended to use fewer standardized, user-replaceable components to save the bulk and weight of connectors. SODIMMs have historically been one of the few components that users can take with them, bu
by0xG ( 712423 ) writes:
If you're building your own, you could opt to use DDR4 - but it's not always easy to find.
byKazymyr ( 190114 ) writes:
DDR4 is not unaffected.
I recently had to purchase some DDR4 (recently = a week ago). The price I paid, after searching for deals, was approximately 30% higher than what I had paid for equivalent memory in August.
byleonbev ( 111395 ) writes:
It's not just memory costs, either. SSD storage prices have also shot up about 40% over the past few months. We seem to back to 2021 era SSD pricing, where a TB of NVME SSD storage costs around $120. Four months ago, it would have cost around $90, or even around $80 on sale.
byambrandt12 ( 6486220 ) writes:
Nice to know my tower is safe from this increase in prices... 128gigs DDR4, 24-core Threadripper, Titan X GPU... shouldn't have to upgrade for a good while (and, Win11 can bite me!). That's what I planned when I started shopping for the parts to make the beast.
bykarmawarrior ( 311177 ) writes:
I did a search recently and found DDR4 and 5 more or less in the same ballpark. DDR3 was also surprisingly expensive but I suspect that has to do with its relative obscurity.
The other problem is ultimately the choice isn't really your's to make. You want DDR4 RAM? You'll need a DDR4 mobo. You want a DDR4 mobo? You'll need only CPUs that work with it. etc. For most people, it's going to be a case of "I'll just give up on upgrading my PC right now, as anything I build will be no better" rather than "There's t
byKazymyr ( 190114 ) writes:
DDR3 was actually extremely cheap about 2-3 years ago. I managed to get 64GB of ECC DDR3 for about $25. Server memory, yes - which is exactly what I needed. Haven't looked at prices lately.
bygreytree ( 7124971 ) writes:
... the prices of everything will come down when "Open"AI finally go bust in February ?
byFudRucker ( 866063 ) writes:
LMFTFW
when AOC is president in 2028
bymnemotronic ( 586021 ) writes:
Vance? "Presidency"??? That's not the Heritage Foundation plan. I think you mean when Eric abdicates and Barron assumes the throne?
byallo ( 1728082 ) writes:
Would you bet on February?
bygreytree ( 7124971 ) writes:
Play it safe: March
https://youtu.be/oUDs7Oe8jyI?t=16
byallo ( 1728082 ) writes:
I'd think you can bet on a lot of companies both of us never heard of going bust in 2026 because they sell things with the only selling point "It's AI", but OpenAI will survive any crash. They are not just ChatGPT, but one of the largest infrastructure providers for LLM-APIs. GPT-5.2 Pro API price is Input $21/MToken and Output $168/MToken, that's surely making them more money than the consumer subscriptions.
bygreytree ( 7124971 ) writes:
"that's surely making them more money than the consumer subscriptions"
But it is not making more money than the ever-increasing amount they HAVE TO spend on building infrastructure, just to stay in the game.
Like waves that draw in water to grow, eventually there is no more water and the waves CRASH.
byallo ( 1728082 ) writes:
Some other letters in GAFAM weren't profitable in the first ten years either. The question is, if they make it until then.
The cost (model size, with that electricity and so in the end money) of LLM was going down drastically this year and this may continue for a while. The cost of model training of the large American companies is not known, but of course needs to be amortized. While the compute ratio is dominated by inference since some time this may change again if inference cost keeps going down and train
●threshold.
byrsilvergun ( 571051 ) writes:
And they'll be more market consolidation so prices will go up and stay up. And we will do absolutely nothing about it because we are a bunch of little bitches that just do what we are told and think what we are told to think. The idea of actually protecting our own long-term interests never actually crosses our minds...
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bymnemotronic ( 586021 ) writes:
Boy. Someone really has a trump living in his head, rent-free.
Notice I didn't say anything about burrs and butts.
byDrMrLordX ( 559371 ) writes:
Which small manufacturers?
●threshold.
byquonset ( 4839537 ) writes:
We have contracted prices from our PC supplier. We buy thousands of machines each year. I raised the question in our weekly meeting with the contractor if these increase in memory prices would affect our contracted prices. I was told no.
However, after thinking about this for a bit, I realized the supplier could always claim force majeur and raise prices. Granted, it would have to go back through the contracting process and get approval for the new prices, but they could do this.
Nothing yet, but I keep waiting for something like this to come down the pipe.
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byblue trane ( 110704 ) writes:
If you're wrong will your post have nevertheless contributed to inflation expectations which is a much stronger and noisier factor in prices than actual supply and demand conditions?
byquonset ( 4839537 ) writes:
We already know RAM prices are going up. My comment will have no effect one way or the other.
bytlhIngan ( 30335 ) writes:
We have contracted prices from our PC supplier. We buy thousands of machines each year. I raised the question in our weekly meeting with the contractor if these increase in memory prices would affect our contracted prices. I was told no.
However, after thinking about this for a bit, I realized the supplier could always claim force majeur and raise prices. Granted, it would have to go back through the contracting process and get approval for the new prices, but they could do this.
Nothing yet, but I keep waiti
byswillden ( 191260 ) writes:
Phone and tablet RAM capacities have been going up steadily for years. Most flagships today have between 8 and 16 GB of RAM, and there are models with 24 GB. RAM cost will drive higher phone prices, and motivate consumers to stick with the lower-RAM models.
bywilliamyf ( 227051 ) writes:
Plenty of option beyond JDEC SO-DIMMs. There is also JDEC CAMM2, and JEDEC SO-CAMM2.
SO-CAMM and CAMM2 based solutions are ideal for laptops, as they can do LPDDR5 (which SO-DIMMs can not do). And take up less space in the Z dimension for thinner LAptops. SO-CAMM even takes less space in the X and y directions too!
Just provide 2 connectors, and populate just one. If/when the user wants more RAM, they can buy a second stick and doule the memory.
JM2C - YMMV
bykarmawarrior ( 311177 ) writes:
Are you under the impression it's the mini circuit boards the RAM Is mounted upon that are the problem, rather than the RAM chips themselves?
Because a shortage of RAM chips is going to impact everything. Circuit boards are cheap and can be made by virtually anyone. Only some companies have the facilities to make high performance, high capacity, RAM chips.
bydgatwood ( 11270 ) writes:
Are you under the impression it's the mini circuit boards the RAM Is mounted upon that are the problem, rather than the RAM chips themselves?
Because a shortage of RAM chips is going to impact everything.
No, not everything. Companies that use ARM silicon with on-die RAM — Mac computers plus most tablets and cell phones — likely won't be affected at all (unless indirectly by increased demand or by some shared root cause like fab availability or raw silicon supply shortages). This shortage is likely to be most damaging to Intel and AMD, because it will make standalone CPUs a lot less able to compete.
byUnknowingFool ( 672806 ) writes:
Companies that use ARM silicon with on-die RAM — Mac computers plus most tablets and cell phones — likely won't be affected at all (unless indirectly by increased demand or by some shared root cause like fab availability or raw silicon supply shortages).
Not exactly. That RAM is not on-die as that generally means part of the same silicon as the CPU/GPU. Apple and others have put RAM as a chiplet in the same chip package. Generally that RAM is purchased from Micron, SK Hynix, or Samsung, and then soldered next to the CPU/GPU. So they are affected by the current RAM shortage. Everyone is affected as RAM is only made by 3 companies.
bydavidwr ( 791652 ) writes:
For apples-to-apples, e.g. DDR5-with-given-specs to same, sure.
But compare the high-water-mark of price-per-MB of the RAM of yesteryear to today, and today's is still much cheaper.
We've seen price bumps like this before and we will see them again.
The "AI price bump" is just that, a bump. Within a few years, we will be back to our typical year-over-year price drops.
The one thing that is significant about this price bump is its expected longevity - 1 to 3 years more or less, not months or weeks.
byPPH ( 736903 ) writes:
I guess we'll just have to put off the new version of Windows until this whole AI/Copilot fad blows over.
bymarkdavis ( 642305 ) writes:
>"How Will Rising RAM Prices Affect Laptop Companies?"
There is nothing special about laptops in this regard. This is affecting laptops, desktops, servers, and will affect phones and other devices as well. We are all screwed.
I was thinking about updating/replacing our hundreds of Linux desktops at work that are now approaching 10 years old (yes, we can do that with Linux) next year. Now I am thinking that isn't going to happen :(
byantdude ( 79039 ) writes:
It sucks that hardwares can break and die. And then, we have to find replacements for them. :(
byGilgaron ( 575091 ) writes:
The only thing special about it with laptops is that they are more likely to have soldered RAM so while a desktop enthusiast could reasonably slum it and add more later, with many consumer grade laptops what you buy is what you are stuck with for the life of the system.
byBrendaEM ( 871664 ) writes:
Generally, they are same as gaming machines, but use/have more RAM. My old P15 Gen 2, can use 128 RAM.
byTJHook3r ( 4699685 ) writes:
AI and crypto ruined affordable PC gaming and now they're just finishing the job!
byNarcocide ( 102829 ) writes:
Maybe this will ultimately end the trend of soldered-in RAM, at least for laptops.
byeagl ( 86459 ) writes:
Hopefully this will add incentive for laptop manufacturers to shift back away from soldered-on RAM and offer at least one memory upgrade socket. That way they can ship whatever is affordable now, and market permitting a user can upgrade later on if/when the memory prices are more reasonable.
If all they continue to offer is non-upgradable configurations, people are going to pass on buying new laptops and just keep using older upgradable hardware they already have or can buy refurbished. I already kind of do this myself, but when I do splurge on a new laptop I always get one with upgradable components like main storage and RAM. I'm already grumpy that almost nobody makes laptops with upgradable wifi adapters anymore, but there are still some that have easily upgraded SSDs and RAM. Those are the ones that get my money and I think they'll be more attractive to more people now.
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bydrinkypoo ( 153816 ) writes:
Hopefully this will add incentive for laptop manufacturers to shift back away from soldered-on RAM and offer at least one memory upgrade socket. That way they can ship whatever is affordable now, and market permitting a user can upgrade later on if/when the memory prices are more reasonable.
No, this is a best case for them, because people will buy more laptops when the ram prices fall. It's a win-win.
byUnknowingFool ( 672806 ) writes:
Hopefully this will add incentive for laptop manufacturers to shift back away from soldered-on RAM and offer at least one memory upgrade socket. That way they can ship whatever is affordable now, and market permitting a user can upgrade later on if/when the memory prices are more reasonable.
And what incentive would they that offer? Whether the RAM was soldered on or as a separate module, it only comes from 3 manufacturers who are selling as much high end, expensive RAM as they can to AI. Adding upgradeable RAM means the OEM cannot charge whatever they want for RAM. Also it means the OEM has to design laptops to have a memory socket. Those are costs that the OEMs do not want.
byRealMelancon ( 4422677 ) writes:
All prices for chips will skyrocket.
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