In brief: Do you have an old PC that you never got round to throwing away or selling? If it contains DDR3 memory, you might want to hang onto it until the end of the year---those modules are predicted to dramatically increase in value throughout 2021.
According to a DigiTimes report (via Tom's Hardware), DDR3 prices are expected to rise by 40 to 50 percent across 2021. What's behind the surge? It's the same reason why we can't buy an RTX 3000 series, Zen 3 CPU, PS5, etc.: demand is far outweighing supply.
Few home PCs still rock DDR3, with the overwhelming majority of people now using its successor, DDR4. Moreover, DDR5 is on its way; TeamGroup in December said it had become the first DRAM company to enter the validation process of a consumer DDR5 memory module.
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But DDR3 is still found in a lot of legacy enterprise systems and IoT devices. In the first quarter of this year, increased demand combined with reduced production will see its price leap 20 percent, reaching up to 50 percent as the year goes on, according to industry sources.
Tom's notes that many memory manufacturers, including Samsung and SK Hynix, are either slowing down production of DDR3 or phasing it out altogether in preparation for the start of DDR5 manufacturing. But not everyone is going down this route; smaller industry names such as Nanya Technology and PSMC are keeping their output steady, though it won't be enough to meet demand.
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