Memory Shortages To Last Till At Least Q4 2027, Higher Prices Expected Throughout 2026-2027, 256 GB DDR4 Kits Retail For Over $3000, Entry-Level DDR5 32 GB Kits Over $300

Hassan Mujtaba
•
Dec 5, 2025 at 09:10am EST
Micron Crucial DDR5 RAM sticks on a dark surface with purple lighting.

Memory prices are getting out of control on both the DDR5 & DDR4 fronts, and it looks like the situation won't improve even in 2027.

DDR5 & DDR4 Memory Prices Are Out of Control, Shortages Will Last Till Q4 2027, & Prices To Peak Out In 2026

A few days ago, we all saw the unfortunate news of Micron killing off its consumer brand, Crucial. The DRAM and NAND manufacturer made this difficult decision due to rising demand from the AI segment, which has hit all aspects of the consumer market with full force, leading to higher prices across all tech products such as memory kits, SSDs, and GPUs.

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But the storm is only just brewing up. We have been talking to multiple sources, and it looks like things are about to get way worse than you can possibly imagine. Think of the crypto boom, COVID shortages, and scalpers era, all combined into one.

What we have heard is that memory shortages across all products, including DDR5 and DDR4 memory, will last till at least Q4 2027. We haven't even entered 2026 yet, and our sources are saying that these shortages will last for two years from now. This means that consumers shouldn't expect prices of various tech products to return to normal till late 2027 or even 2028.

The problem is that DRAM goes into two key PC products, memory kits and GPUs. Both of these have already started seeing price hikes. Then there are products that use these technologies, such as desktop PCs, Laptops, Mini PCs, handhelds, and even consoles. Every product that utilizes some form of these technologies will see a price bump.

Why the price bump, you ask? The answer is simple: AI. The surging AI demand means that data centers have a bigger demand for memory and storage space. Data Center customers are also willing to pay more than consumers to secure these technologies, which is why Micron killed off Crucial because they know they can gain an unimaginable amount of profits from the booming AI segment versus the much smaller desktop and laptop PC markets.

And Micron isn't the only one, major DRAM/NAND suppliers such as SK hynix, Samsung, etc, are all gunning for higher profitability from AI, and there's nothing that's going to stop them from doing so. Gamers and consumers can boycott, but that's not going to lead to any change; in fact, that's going to make things worse since that would lead to even lower supply for consumers when demand falls, and more allocation towards AI segments. Even before the price hike, Micron had discontinued its DDR4 memory.

We also have a statement from Teamgroup on this matter, and that only paints a further bleak picture of the entire situation:

We have indeed observed noticeable upward pressure on prices across the NAND and DRAM markets. The current situation is not merely a matter of price fluctuation but a result of an unprecedented supply shortage, primarily driven by surging demand for AI and DDR5 server platforms. In addition, as data storage demand in data centers continues to grow while hard drive manufacturers have yet to expand production, cold data storage has gradually shifted toward SSDs, further tightening NAND Flash supply.

With wafer foundries and component suppliers already operating near full capacity, all categories of DRAM products — including DDR5, LPDDR5, GDDR6, GDDR7, and DDR4 — are facing widespread shortages, and the supply-demand imbalance is expected to persist through at least the first half of next year.

While the market remains dynamic, we continue to leverage strong partnerships and agile inventory management to maintain supply stability and strengthen our foundation for future growth.

via Teamgroup General Manager - Chen Qingwen

It is also reported that the current prices aren't even the peak that we will see on the memory front. The actual peak will occur sometime close to mid of 2026, which is crazy to think since memory prices have already doubled, tripled, and in some cases, even quadrupled versus what they were selling for just a few months back.

A few memory makers have stated that they are already paying double for memory ICs, and some have stated that major memory suppliers give them only a couple of hours to make the payment before they drop it, raise the price, and tell them that their batch was sold off to someone else, and now they gotta pay up even more than before.

Looking at Taiwan's PCHome retailer, the memory prices for 256 GB DDR4 kits have now hit a peak of $98,070 NTD, which is over $3000 US. The prices for 256 GB DDR5 kits are now closing up on the $2000 USD mark, which is insane.

Image Source: PCHome

And for US retailers, the lowest prices for DDR5 memory kits at Newegg are as follows:

The lowest prices for DDR5 memory kits at Amazon are as follows:

According the PCPartPicker's memory price trends, we get a clear picture of just how much DDR5 and DDR4 prices have exploded in a span of 2-3 months:

So yeah, there you have it, our current report on the memory shortages and what the future holds within this segment. I know things are only going to get worse from here, but PC gamers and PC consumers have braved previous periods of shortages, higher prices, and we can just sit back and wait till everything goes back to normal.

About the author: A Software Engineer by training and a PC enthusiast by passion, Hassan Mujtaba serves as Wccftech's Senior Editor for hardware section. With years of experience in the industry, he specializes in deep-dive technical analysis of next-generation CPU and GPU architectures, motherboards, and cooling solutions. His work involves not only breaking news on upcoming technologies but also extensive hands-on reviews and benchmarking.

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