2026 Memory Shortage: Why RAM and SSD Prices Are Skyrocketing

If you have checked the price of a RAM kit or an NVMe SSD in recent months, the reality must have stung. The memory market is going through the most severe supply crisis in its recent history, and the repercussions are now affecting the entire chain, from individual components to pre-built PCs.

Unlike the sporadic shortages the sector has experienced in the past, this one is not the result of an industrial accident or a logistics breakdown. It stems from a deliberate economic pivot by manufacturers, and that is precisely what makes it long-lasting. Here is what is happening and what it means in practice.

Artificial intelligence has siphoned off production

The main cause can be summarized in three letters: HBM, for High Bandwidth Memory. This memory, stacked in layers, is an essential component for accelerators used in data centers and for training artificial intelligence models.

However, HBM is manufactured on the same production lines as standard DRAM, the kind found in your DDR4 and DDR5 sticks. It simply occupies more surface area on the silicon wafer for an equivalent volume, and most importantly, it is sold with significantly higher margins.

Faced with demand from the AI sector that absorbs everything offered, the world's three major foundries have made a rational choice from their shareholders' perspective: massively reorienting their capacity toward HBM. Micron has indicated that it has sold out its entire production for 2026. Samsung and SK Hynix have adopted a similar trajectory, including for the NAND Flash used in SSDs.

The impact on pricing

Figures provided by analyst firms illustrate the scale of the phenomenon. According to TrendForce, contract prices for consumer DRAM have risen very sharply over the last few quarters. On the storage side, NAND contract prices have followed a similar trajectory, with cumulative triple-digit increases over twelve months according to reports from several manufacturers.

Translated into practical terms for the French buyer, a 32GB DDR5 kit is currently selling for several times its early 2025 price. NVMe SSDs have also seen their average prices rise sharply, with a more pronounced gap for NVMe than for the less-in-demand SATA drives.

• Consumer DRAM: Successive contract price hikes over several consecutive quarters.
• NAND Flash: Massive increase in 2025, continuing into 2026.
• NVMe SSDs: Average growth significantly higher than that of SATA.
• Graphics cards: Indirect impact via the cost of GDDR.

A domino effect on the entire PC

The tension does not stop at RAM sticks and SSDs. Graphics cards carry GDDR6 or GDDR7, produced on the same lines. Several partner manufacturers have revised their prices upward, and the gap between the recommended launch price and the actual retail price has widened considerably for several models.

Home consoles, laptops, and smartphones are experiencing the same pressure on their bills of materials. Some manufacturers have already announced price adjustments, while others are quietly reducing the capacities offered in entry-level models, a practice harder for consumers to spot.

The used market under pressure

A logical consequence: used components have increased in value. DDR4 kits and SSDs that are several years old are sometimes trading above their original new price. This unusual situation calls for caution, as a used SSD has write wear that is difficult to assess without checking its SMART data.

How long will this last?

This is the question everyone is asking, and analysts' answers converge on a distant horizon. Gartner, Counterpoint Research, and TrendForce anticipate prolonged tension, with a return to balance not expected before 2028.

The reason is structural. Building a new semiconductor factory represents a colossal investment and takes several years from the decision to the first wafer produced. Even if foundries announce capacity expansions today, the effect on available volumes will not be felt for a long time.

One factor could nevertheless accelerate the easing: a slowdown in investment in AI infrastructure would quickly free up capacity for the general public. However, it is difficult to build a purchasing strategy on such a hypothesis.

What to do if you are building a PC

This context changes standard decision-making. Here are the approaches we believe make the most sense in the current period.

Size it right, but not short

Buying 16GB today thinking you will add more later is a losing bet if prices continue to climb. Conversely, aiming for 64GB for pure gaming is costly overkill. Identify your actual need precisely and buy it all at once, in a single kit.

DDR4 is becoming a relevant choice again

AMD's AM4 platforms and Intel's LGA1700 DDR4 versions allow you to get more memory capacity for a given budget. In 1440p, where the graphics card is the limiting factor, the performance gap in games compared to a DDR5 platform remains contained.

Manage your storage intelligently

A fast NVMe SSD for the OS and active games, supplemented by a mechanical hard drive for archiving, is becoming an economically sensible configuration again. No need to pay a premium for PCIe 5.0 if your usage does not take advantage of it: in gaming, a good PCIe 4.0 NVMe performs almost on par.

Think in terms of a complete configuration

This is arguably the most important piece of advice. With a tight budget, slightly lowering your graphics card budget to compensate for correctly sized memory and storage will produce a more pleasant machine for daily use than an overpowered GPU paired with a throttled configuration.

What this means at DSGate

We monitor this market daily to adjust our configurations. Practically, this means selecting the memory and storage references that offer the best capacity-to-price ratio at any given time, rather than clinging to a specific brand or frequency, and prioritizing platforms that allow for comfortable capacity without blowing the budget.

Our machines are assembled in France, with tested components and a properly activated memory profile before shipping. Check out our available configurations to see the trade-offs made for different budgets, or contact us if you would like advice on whether to purchase in the current context.

Key takeaways

• The shortage stems from a voluntary reorientation of production toward HBM memory for AI.
• RAM, SSDs, and graphics cards are all affected to varying degrees.
• Analysts do not anticipate a return to normal before 2028.
• DDR4 and PCIe 4.0 are becoming rational choices again.
• It is better to buy the right capacity once than to add more later.