DRAM prices falling amid weakening PC demand

[Matthew DeCarlo]

Good news for anyone planning to purchase system memory in the near future: prices are plummeting. According to anonymous industry sources cited by DigiTimes, a weakening demand for PCs is pushing DRAM prices down, and things might stay that way for a while. It's believed that lower computer sales will lead to an oversupply of DRAM chips through early next year.

If everything plays out as expected, you shouldn't have to part with a kidney for a 4GB RAM kit in the coming months. In fact, that trend is already showing, with e-tail pricing falling a bit over the last couple weeks. Along with excess supply, DigiTimes notes that DRAM manufacturers are gradually switching to more efficient fabrication tech, which should also lower prices.

Samsung, for example, is now mass producing its 40nm products and that will lower the cost of its 2Gb chips to as low as $1.50. By comparison, recent spot prices from DRAMeXchange show 1Gb DDR2 chips just below the $2 mark, while 1Gb DDR3 parts are around $2.20 to $2.30.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/40234-dram-prices-falling-amid-weakening-pc-demand.html

 

[Guest]

Wait, if 1GB of DDR3 is expected to drop to $2.20, does that mean we can expect 4GB of DDR3 ram for under $10??? That is unbelievable if true, definitely not complaining though.

 

[Matthew DeCarlo]

Note the lower case b.

 

[seronx]

Matthew said:
Note the lower case b.

GB = gigabytes
Gb = gigabits

just helping


4Gb on each side of the ram = 8Gb = 1GB
8Gb on each side of ram = 16Gb = 2GB
so 2GB is going to become real cheap on samsung's side


An average 1GB stick has 4 1Gb modules on north side and 4 1Gb modules on the southside

$17.60 + supply and demand + licensing fee = cost

so 2GB samsung ram sticks might get to be

$12 + supply and demand + licensing fee = whatever they send out to the market(cost)

 

[Guest]

The ram market is almost 100% based on price fixing so clearly weak PC demand has nothing to do with the price point of dram.

 

[seronx]

Guest said:
The ram market is almost 100% based on price fixing so clearly weak PC demand has nothing to do with the price point of dram.

Price fixing is illegal...don't you understand anti-trust?

 

[Guest]

just because it's illegal doesn't mean it's not done, if i remember correctly there was a case not long ago involving price fixing.

 

[seronx]

Guest said:
just because it's illegal doesn't mean it's not done, if i remember correctly there was a case not long ago involving price fixing.

Not long ago?
All the companies that were price fixing were sued before 2007

To date, five manufacturers have pleaded guilty to their involvement in an international price-fixing conspiracy including Hynix, Infineon, Micron Technology, Samsung, and Elpida.

These five companies were in the price-fixing cartel...
They no longer price fix

$160M Fine is alot of money(Infineon was sued that amount being the third largest anti-trust fine ever in the US)
and price-fixing makes companies lose money than gain money

If you live outside of the US oh well good luck

 

[Guest]

3 years = not long ago

 

[treesmoker]

So will these prices be dropping everywhere? like the UK for example, or just in the US?

 

[Lurker101]

Prices are still heavily artificially inflated these days though, because the companies know they can get away with it. Thankfully, I got my DDR3 modules early, before they started bumping up the prices at a stupid rate. If I want to buy the same mudules now, it'd cost me an extra £60-£70 for 6GB

 

[LinkedKube]

That's funny, if I were to buy the same ram I have now I'd save over 230 usd from when I first bought them.

 

[Archean]

If everything plays out as expected, you shouldn't have to part with a kidney

You know that was one fact, which made me not to buy an DDR3 motherboard for my C2Q, when recently the old motherboard died a silent death, so I ended up buying an MATX board first time ever. I guess, if SandyBridge is out in the same range as i7 8xx series ....... I am going to upgrade this thing much sooner now

On the side note, if someone sells their kidney in India to some wealthy person (ideally from west/ME), they can probably buy a high end PC not just the RAM

 

[Lurker101]

And on that note, it's off to India

 

[Archean]

Well, you can do that once ................. second time around you need a new PC, what will be your plans then?

 

[captaincranky]

Dialysis maybe......?

 

[Guest]

"These five companies were in the price-fixing cartel...
They no longer price fix"
LOL come on - it wasn't like they raised there hand and said we were price fixing. No multiple investigations - whistle blowers, charges, fines...

You think those fines hurt them. They were far outweighed by the profits reaped.
I'll but a kidney up against the notion that they aren't price fixing again. Just as before the prices rose suspiciously - reasoning given increase in demand....

I'll be my left foot that someone comes forward or has already and that's why the prices are beginning to fall so rapidly and evenly.

 

[Archean]

Ahh ...... fixing ....... first it was spot fixing, now price fixing hmmm no wonder people are getting caught up in these fixing cycles every now and then.

Dialysis maybe......?

But why would he have dialysis on his remaining kidney it would only cost him money ......

On the contrary perhaps he can work for one of those sperm banks ? Not sure how much money he'll get lol