Memory prices climb 500% in 12 months, up to 10x the lowest ever tracked prices — 128GB of DDR5 now $3,399
- ID
- 14831
- Status
- summarized
- Published
- 17 Aug 2026, 9:52 PM
- Fetched
- 17 Aug 2026, 10:55 PM
- Provider
- Tom's Hardware
- Category
- technology
- Original URL
- https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/ram/memory-prices-climb-500-percent-in-12-months-up-to-10x-the-lowest-ever-tracked-prices-128gb-of-ddr5-now-usd3-399
- Source URL
- https://www.tomshardware.com/feeds/all
Summary
- Score
- 7.0
- Created
- 17 Aug 2026, 10:58 PM
- Tags
- Audience
- developersai-ml-learnerssaas-startup-founders
What happened
Memory prices have risen 500% over 12 months, reaching up to 10x the lowest ever tracked prices, with 128GB of DDR5 now costing $3,399. The article tracks this as a sustained price climb rather than a short-term spike.
Why it matters
If you are speccing or budgeting a local AI inference box, homelab server, or startup infrastructure in Malaysia, RAM is now a major cost line item — 128GB DDR5 at $3,399 means a capable local LLM rig has gotten dramatically more expensive to build. Lock in RAM purchases now if you have pending hardware orders, and reconsider whether cloud GPU instances are cheaper than self-hosting given the new RAM cost reality.
Discussion angle
Does this RAM price spike change the build-vs-buy calculus for Malaysian startups running local AI inference — or is cloud still the better play when you factor in RAM costs?