Memory Shortages Drive DDR4 Prices Over 50% In Q3 2026, DDR3 Also Impacted By Higher Costs

Persistent memory shortages are now affecting older DRAM standards, with prices going up for both DDR4 and DDR3 products.

Memory Supply Chain Expects Significant Price Hikes For DRAM & Flash, As DDR4/DDR3 Prices To Surge By Over 50% In Q3

We have reported on how memory prices are going to see a major surge in the coming quarters, but as per the latest supply chain reports, it looks like the initial estimates were lower than what is actually imminent.

According to DigiTimes, memory contract prices for Q3 2026 are still being finalized, and they are going to be much higher than initially thought. DDR5 is already facing price surges, and now, the older DDR4 memory is expected to see prices over 50% in Q3 2026. These are specific to the 8Gb DDR4 modules.

Memory contract prices for Q3 2026 are being finalized. While it was initially estimated that price increases would slow due to a high base in the previous period, supply chain sources revealed significant price hikes for DRAM and Flash memory, far exceeding initial expectations. In particular, AI-driven demand for enterprise-grade SSDs (eSSDs) is surging, potentially leading to a supply-demand gap for DDR4 8Gb DRAM that could last for up to two years.

via DigiTimes

The spot prices for DDR4 16 Gb memory are already high, and in some cases, they are already higher than DDR5 DRAM of the same specs. This is due to their application in PCs, where these memory chips are primarily being used, and we reported yesterday how many PC vendors are doubling down on DDR4 platforms to keep the market above the red line as demand weakens.

DDR4 memory saw a significant uptick in demand in Q2, which led to the prices unexpectedly breaking through the previously expected price ceiling. It is also reported that Taiwanese-made DDR4 memory is priced much higher than Samsung's offerings, although Samsung is now jumping all aboard the DDR5 and next-gen "premium" memory standards to drive up its own revenues from AI customers.

Another cause for the large surge in DDR4 demand is coming from enterprise-grade SSDs, which are equipped with DRAM memory. There are plenty of DRAM-less solutions currently being rolled out in the markets, but having DRAM offers various benefits, such as latency reduction, higher speeds through caching, and more. As storage requirements grow in the data center segments, the need for high-capacity SSDs with even more DRAM is required. Samsung just introduced its 16 TB PCIe 6.0 SSDs for data centers, and others are also rolling out their next-gen solutions for AI.

Currently, Nanya Technology and Winbond Electronics handle the majority of DDR4 production since SK Hynix, Micron, and Samsung have moved to more premium segments, retaining a small production of the older DRAM. And these two companies are producing DDR4 memory that is far below the actual global demand, plus focusing on DDR4 production has led them to dismantle their DDR3 supply lines.

The ever-increasing supply-demand gap is now resulting in DDR3 memory, such as 4 Gb DRAM, to see price hikes, too. Both 4 Gb DDR4 and DDR3 prices are expected to surge through the second half of 2026. Just for comparison, the following is the average price and price per Gb for DDR3 vs DDR5:

Average Price (July 2026)

• DDR3 4Gb (512 MB x 8) - $12.75
• DDR5 16Gb (2 GB x 8) - $47.07

Price Per Gb

• DDR3 4 Gb - $3.19
• DDR5 16 Gb - $2.94

Industry experts estimate that DRAM prices for DDR5, DDR4, and DDR3 memory will continue to surge until shortages last, which is expected till 2028. In the near future, we expect further price hikes by Q4 2026, and we will wait and see how bad things get in 2027, as Samsung has already warned that 2027 is going to be far worse than 2026.

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