The global semiconductor crisis continues to ripple through the hardware market, with memory prices climbing at an alarming pace. Fresh data from Germany confirms what industry watchers have been observing worldwide since the second half of 2025: the upward trend shows no signs of slowing as 2026 begins.
According to an analysis shared by 3DCenter, German retail price lists reveal a steady and sustained increase in RAM costs. While the data is localized, it closely mirrors the situation across Europe, North America, and Asia, reinforcing the idea that this is a structural, global issue rather than a regional anomaly.
DDR5 hit the hardest
As expected, next-generation memory is bearing the brunt of the crisis. DDR5 modules are currently the most affected segment, with prices soaring by as much as 440% compared to July 2025. Although the pace of increases has eased slightly compared to the extreme spikes seen at the end of last year, the figures remain striking.
In January alone, DDR5 prices rose by nearly 28%, on top of a massive 93% jump recorded between November and December. To put this into perspective, a 64 GB DDR5 kit that already cost around €530 in December is now approaching €680, pushing high-end PC builds firmly into luxury territory.
Hoping to save money by sticking with older platforms has proven largely futile. DDR4 and even DDR3 memory have been dragged into the same inflationary spiral. Retail prices for these older standards are now roughly three times higher than their historical lows recorded in July 2025.
This dynamic highlights a broader market imbalance: when supply tightens across the board, even legacy technologies become scarce and expensive, regardless of their age or technical relevance.
Why prices keep rising
The underlying causes are well known and increasingly difficult to counter. Demand from major AI players continues to dominate the semiconductor landscape, with manufacturers prioritizing high-margin products such as HBM (High Bandwidth Memory) designed for data centers and artificial intelligence workloads.
As a result, production capacity has been effectively diverted away from the consumer memory segment. With supply constrained and speculation filling the gap, consumers and system builders are left exposed. In the short term, expectations of a meaningful price correction are close to nonexistent.
Unless manufacturing capacity expands significantly or AI-driven demand eases, elevated RAM prices are likely to remain a defining feature of the PC hardware market throughout 2026.
