Building or upgrading a PC may become more expensive as analysts predict DDR4 and DDR5 memory prices will rise throughout 2025. Experts estimate that this rise could reach up to 45%, with an overall average between 15% to 20% when including other types of memory. The driving force behind this increase is the EOL status of DDR4, which will naturally induce market turbulence as DDR5 takes centre stage.
According to TrendForce’s latest findings, all three major DRAM suppliers are shifting their memory production capacity from legacy solutions, namely desktop/server DDR4 and mobile LPDDR4X, toward high-end offerings. Consequently, this transition has sparked aggressive restocking of legacy DRAM products like DDR4, driving demand and prices up.
TrendForce projects these prices to rise by 10-15% in Q3 2025, rising to 15-20% when including HBM. This has knock-on effects for DDR5 too, but the effect should be less pronounced with cost increases of 3-8%.
More notably, GDDR6 VRAM could see price hikes of up to 33%. This would directly impact the production of Radeon RX 9000 Series graphics cards as well as Nvidia RTX 5050 and Arc B580.
LPDDR4X RAM prices could soar up by 23-28%, while LPDDR5X should only see smaller rising costs of 5-10%. The latter will affect the costs of current generation laptops, particularly notebooks, as well as handheld devices including Steam Deck.
Taking these forecasts into account, I’d suggest picking up that RAM upgrade you’ve been mulling over sooner rather than later. This same advice applies to any of you considering entirely new systems too, as integrators will likely have to raise prices to accommodate higher inventory costs.
