RAM prices have soared, which is bad news for people interested in buying, building or upgrading a computer this year, but it's probably good news for people annoyed by the rumors about so-called AI PCs.
As Ars Technica has reported, growing demand from data centers, fueled by the AI boom, has led to a shortage of RAM and flash memory chips, sending prices skyrocketing.
In an announcement today, Ben Yeh, chief analyst at technology research firm Omdia, said that by 2025, “mainstream PC memory and storage costs rose by 40 to 70 percent, passing cost increases on to customers.”
Overall, global PC sales are up in 2025, according to Omdia (with 9.2 percent growth compared to 2024) and IDC (which reported 9.6 percent growth today), but analysts expect PC sales to be more tumultuous in 2026.
“The coming year will be extremely volatile,” Jean Philippe Bouchard, research director at IDC's global mobile device trackers, said in a statement.
Both analyst firms expect PC manufacturers to manage the RAM shortage by raising prices and launching computers with lower memory specifications. IDC expects price increases of 15 to 20 percent and that PC RAM specifications will be “reduced on average to preserve available memory inventory,” Bouchard said. Omdia's Yeh expects that “leaner mid-range and low-end configurations will protect margins.”
“These RAM shortages will persist beyond 2026, and the price-conscious part of the market will be the hardest hit,” Jitesh Ubrani, research manager for global mobile device trackers at IDC, told Ars via email.
IDC expects that suppliers will “prioritize mid-range and premium systems to offset higher component costs, especially memory.”
