DDR5 RAM pricing begins to stabilize in Germany, January saw only a 0.1% increase — Some kits even saw price cuts as volatility begins to plateau

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Is it over yet?

RAM Price Index 2026
(Image credit: Future)

Amidst the dire and ongoing RAM shortage, there's a tiny sliver of hope stemming from Germany, where DDR5 prices have "come to a complete halt," according to 3DCenter.org's recent analysis. Prices from mid-January only saw a 0.1% increase on average across 20 DDR5 kits at the end of the month. While this doesn't suddenly signal normalcy — the stabilized prices are still high — it's a much-needed slowdown.

In particular, we're looking at the cheapest listings on Geizhals, a popular retailer in the region, whose inventory shows basically no uptick in pricing in the past 2+ weeks. Individual kits still fluctuate, especially if they're more sought-after models as mentioned before, but conversely, there are some kits that've actually received price cuts!

The biggest difference is seen with 64 GB (2x32) 6000 MT/s kits getting a 15% reduction compared to the start of January. The average price for these has fallen from 699 EUR to 596 EUR, implying that nature is taking its course. We can't be too hopeful, though, since 96 GB (2x48) 6400 MT/s kits saw a 17% price increase in the same time frame, followed by an 11% increase in 32GB (2x16) DDR5-6000 CL28 memory.

Regardless, the sweet spot for current-gen PCs — 32 GB DDR5-6000 — is still selling for 400 EUR, which is an astronomical 432% increase since July of last year, the most for the entire category. So, even though this month saw next to nothing in price hikes, we haven't escaped the crisis. The onslaught of attacks has stopped, but the damage already done will take a long time to repair, and that's if there are no more strikes.

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Hassam Nasir
Hassam Nasir
Contributing Writer
8 Comments Comment from the forums
  • JarredWaltonGPU
    Let me rephrase that headline:

    The memory companies have increased the prices so much over the past few months that — in Germany! — they didn't need to tack on an additional increase this month.

    Probably because hardly anyone is willing to pay these stupidly high prices. Eventually, prices will have to come down. The only way to keep prices this high is if there's demand for it, and while the AI bubble will provide a lot of demand, you can't put standard DDR5 kits into servers. They need RDIMMs, so just refuse to pay server memory prices for consumer RAM kits. (I'm not planning on buying any RAM for the next year at least, possibly two or three years if things continue in the current trajectory.)

    TLDR: Don't buy DDR5 at current prices.
    Reply
  • pjmelect
    The prices have stabilised because hardly anyone is buying them at these prices, most people are waiting for the price to drop, I know I am.
    Reply
  • ejolson
    Are the actual memory chips used on the DIMM different between the buffered and unbuffered versions of DDR5?
    Reply
  • Shiznizzle
    As others have said. Capitalism is "working", no demand means the price has to come down. Retaielrs are seeign that nobody is buying anything so it is silly to raise them even more.

    The insane prices for M2 storage continues though. I am seeing some 1 tb stick on amazon priced at 170 pounds. Only an idiot or somebody really desperate would pay that.

    Let the retailers sit on their product. With prices like this, it is likely they are doing amazon a favor by going bankrupt.

    I wont need to buy any hardware at all now for at least 5 years as long as nothing breaks. If my Am5 system breaks i have the old Am4 system i can use which i kept and is more than capable of todays games and games for the next few years. I am one that can play without all the eye candy.
    Reply
  • JarredWaltonGPU
    ejolson said:
    Are the actual memory chips used on the DIMM different between the buffered and unbuffered versions of DDR5?
    No, but the buffered DIMMs include an additional chip and circuitry for the buffer. RDIMMs have a register (or buffer) between the DRAM modules and the memory controller, which stabilizes signal integrity. It allows for more DIMMs per channel, but does increase latency slightly, and most RDIMMs also support ECC (which IIRC requires an extra DRAM chip per eight chips to store the ECC values).

    So once the decision is made to create an RDIMM or UDIMM, you can't use that DIMM in the other type of system. Though in theory you could desolder the DRAM chips and reuse them on the other type of DIMM, in practice this is too costly to be worthwhile.

    Ultimately, if a company like Corsair (just an example — I don't even know if they make server RDIMMs) buys DRAM and makes a DDR5 UDIMM kit, then sells that to a distributor for $350, the distributor will need to sell it at more than $350, and then the retail outlet will need to increase the price yet again from there. Since Corsair in this case could have potentially created an RDIMM instead, it probably based the price of the UDIMM on what the equivalent RDIMM would have cost, leading to a situation where there are products in the consumer space that are simply too expensive for most consumers.
    Reply
  • vanadiel007
    I have a scene from a movie in my head.
    1 MILLION DOLLARS <insert evil laughing special effects>
    Reply
  • Dntknwitall
    Why is this still being referred to as a shortage? This is not a shortage in the grand aspect of things, it is only a shortage in the consumer market because a massive portion has been redirected to another sector. So this is not a manufacturers shortage, it is price fixing with a market redirect because these 3 companies know that the AI companies will pay these steep prices, but are they actually paying for the product or is this just a way to make share prices skyrocket. This is becoming annoying as the ram market is being inflated for shareholders pockets and infinite riches into these companies coffers. It is time the investigation starts on these 3 companies. Shortage is not what this is and will never be. It is a rip-off of staggering proportions so please call it what it is.
    Reply
  • JarredWaltonGPU
    Dntknwitall said:
    Why is this still being referred to as a shortage? This is not a shortage in the grand aspect of things, it is only a shortage in the consumer market because a massive portion has been redirected to another sector. So this is not a manufacturers shortage, it is price fixing with a market redirect because these 3 companies know that the AI companies will pay these steep prices, but are they actually paying for the product or is this just a way to make share prices skyrocket. This is becoming annoying as the ram market is being inflated for shareholders pockets and infinite riches into these companies coffers. It is time the investigation starts on these 3 companies. Shortage is not what this is and will never be. It is a rip-off of staggering proportions so please call it what it is.
    How much DRAM is produced annually? How much is projected to be consumed by AI this year? If the first is substantially less than the second — and it is, despite your rant without facts — then we have a DRAM shortage. AI servers are using more DRAM than ever, and AI companies are placing orders for servers, which means the server manufacturers are placing orders for memory and other components, and the result is that there's simply not enough DRAM to go around.

    The same thing is happening with NAND. The last projection I heard was that total global NAND production for 2026 is projected to be at least 15% short of the total global demand. That doesn't mean a 15% increase in price, however, because to get their share of the limited supply, some companies are willing to pay far higher prices. So in the past six months or so, SSD prices have increased by 50~100 percent.
    Reply