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   More RAM misery? The bad news keeps coming as analyst firm warns of an   
   'unprecedented and record-breaking surge' with price hikes   
      
   By Darren Allan published yesterday   
      
   Meanwhile, a PC maker fires off another worrying warning   
      
       Counterpoint Research has published a new report on RAM pricing   
       It predicts that PC RAM will nearly double in price this quarter   
       On top of that, a PC maker has sounded alarm bells about rising component   
   prices - and it's one of many   
      
   If you were keeping your fingers crossed for some more optimistic news about   
   the RAM crisis - because we've had glimmers of that, lately - then those   
   hopes will be dashed, I'm afraid, by the latest developments which are   
   distinctly negative.   
      
   The main point of interest here is that we have a new report from Counterpoint   
   Research which observes that memory prices have nearly doubled in Q1 2026 so   
   far, compared to the same period in the final quarter of 2025.   
      
   The firm informs us: "Memory prices have risen by 80%-90% QoQ in Q1 2026 so   
   far, according to the February issue of Counterpoint's Memory Price Tracker,   
   marking an unprecedented and record-breaking surge."   
      
   That's not comforting language, of course, and while we're told that the   
   primary force behind these huge price hikes is the increase in the cost of   
   server RAM, memory modules for PCs have experienced a very similar rise.   
      
   Counterpoint singles out DDR4 RAM for laptops (SoDIMMs), of which one 8GB stick   
   witnessed a price rise of 35% in Q4 2025 (quarter-on-quarter), with a currently   
   estimated leap to a 91% increase for Q1 2026 compared to the previous quarter.   
      
   Server RAM will end up at 98% more in this quarter, and even NAND modules for   
   storage are going to see a major leap in Q1 2026 - a predicted 100%   
   quarter-on-quarter increase in fact. Nasty.   
      
   Analysis: industry-wide memory misery   
      
   Counterpoint is essentially telling us that all kinds of memory is going to be   
   hiked in price in a big way this quarter, from PC RAM to server RAM, to HBM   
   (High Bandwidth Memory, top-end modules for AI use), and indeed through to NAND   
   for SSDs. As the analyst firm puts it in a nutshell: "the market is witnessing   
   a full-throttle upward trend across all segments."   
      
   Meanwhile, we're hearing much the same story from other analyst outfits -   
   like TrendForce, which is predicting that DRAM pricing is going to rise by 50%,   
   or possibly a bit more, in Q1 of 2026.   
      
   Nearer to ground level in this components crisis, PC makers are also warning of   
   hard times ahead for RAM costs, and the latest in that respect is PowerGPU, a   
   custom gaming PC builder in the US.   
      
   Tom's Hardware noticed that PowerGPU posted on X to say that "we just got word   
   that SSD and other part prices have gone up again" and to "expect price   
   increases by early next week" on the firm's PCs. Presumably those 'other parts'   
   are RAM, of course, and possibly GPUs too which are facing their own issues due   
   to the scarcity of video memory.   
      
   It all sounds rather ominous, and PowerGPU's statement adds to the heap of such   
   warnings from various PC makers we've received late last year and during these   
   early stages of 2026.   
      
   While there have been some more positive glimmers around the RAM crisis   
   recently, as noted at the outset - like a snapshot of DDR5 pricing levelling   
   off - the overall sentiment is very much negative, with forecasts of not just   
   more price increases, but huge ones. Whether that's 50% or 100% spikes during   
   this current quarter - take your pick from the pessimistic predictions - it   
   seems like we're in for a lot more pain, whether buying standalone RAM or PCs   
   (or indeed graphics cards).   
      
   It's likely that PC makers are going to try to find ways to at least partially   
   mitigate this RAM price misery, which could mean relying on lesser memory   
   configurations with laptops - turning the clock back to use more 8GB loadouts   
   - or indeed creative fudges such as Maingear's BYOR or 'Bring Your Own RAM'   
   concept.   
      
   https://www.techradar.com/computing/memory/more-ram-misery-the-bad-news-keeps-c   
   oming-as-analyst-firm-warns-of-an-unprecedented-and-record-breaking-surge-with-   
   price-hikes   
      
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