Memory is now also nice and cheap – Prices DDR4 and DDR5 are just dropping

DDR5 is still (slightly) more expensive than DDR4

DDR5 had a rocky start at release, as is normal with new standards. At the beginning of last year, DDR5 memory was more than 2.5 times as expensive as DDR4. In addition, DDR5 was very poorly available. The sets that were available quickly were sold almost exclusively at extortionate prices.

In recent months, that price difference between DDR4 and DDR5 has narrowed enormously, although it seems to have bottomed out. Last time we took stock, in april, DDR5-4800 memory was about 35 percent more expensive than DDR4-3200. In the following month, that difference fell to 28 percent.

Meanwhile, nonetheless, DDR5 prices have fairly stagnated. DDR5 memory has hardly changed in price since May. The average DDR5-4800 price in August, based on Pricewatch data, was historically low at 3.15 euros per gigabyte. A month earlier that price was on average one cent higher.

Remarkably enough, the average price per gigabyte for DDR4 fell slightly further at the beginning of this month. Currently, a gigabyte of DDR4 costs an average of 2.24 euros, where it was 2.47 euros in July. That represents a decrease of about 9 percent. During the same period, the average price of DDR5-4800 fell by 0.3 percent.

Especially faster DDR5 memory is getting cheaper; DDR4 prices drop slightly

The same is reflected in the prices of DDR4 and DDR5 memory at different speeds. Although prices have indeed fallen since August, the fall is less extreme than before. Certainly with lower clocked DDR5 sets, from 4800 to 5600 megatransfers per second, the price drop in the past four months is relatively small.

Higher clocked DDR5 sets have dropped in price relatively much. This is especially true for DDR5-6400 and DDR5-6600 kits. This is the case for both average and lowest quoted prices per gigabyte. The price of a DDR5-6600 set has fallen by an average of 27.8 percent since April. The lowest recorded price per gigabyte fell by about 23.5 percent over the same period. As an illustration, the average prices of slower DDR5 sets, at 4800 and 5200MT/s, fell 10.9 and 9.3 percent respectively. The minimum prices of DDR5-4800 even increased by 7.1 percent.

DDR5-6200 memory is an outlier. This memory speed has a relatively high additional cost of 21 percent compared to DDR5-6000. On average, DDR5-6200 memory is even more expensive than DDR5 memory at 6400MT/s. nonetheless, that is not reflected in the minimum prices per gigabyte, where DDR5-6200 memory is slightly cheaper than DDR5-6000 and DDR5-6400. That difference lies in a few outliers. In our dataset, DDR5-6200 has on average more memory kits that cost more than 4 euros per gigabyte. At 6000 and 6400, more sets are for sale that cost less than 4 euros per gigabyte, although the lowest price per gigabyte is actually higher.

DDR4 sets have also become somewhat cheaper in recent months, although the price difference is relatively small compared to April. A major exception is DDR4-4800 memory, which has dropped in price more than three times since last year. Compared to April 2023, that decrease is even greater.

nonetheless, that does not mean that DDR4-4800, which previously had a disproportionately high additional price, is now actually a positive buy. This memory is still significantly more expensive than all other DDR4 kits. The average and lowest DDR4-4800 prices are even higher than DDR5-6600. As far as DDR4 is concerned, 3600MT/s is the proverbial one sweetspot. With DDR4-4000, prices go up by more than 84 percent on average and with DDR4-4400 even by 148 percent.

Surcharge for fast DDR5 memory decreases slightly, but is still significant

The price drops noted above are reflected in the lowest quoted prices for actual memory sets. In April, a 32GB set of DDR5 memory cost just under 100 euros, where at the beginning of 2022 it was still more than 364 euros. Such sets are now immediately available for just over 80 euros, with a delivery time of one working day.

As we concluded earlier, the difference is even greater with higher clocked DDR5 sets. In April, DDR5-6600 sets of 32 GB were available from 189.90 euros. That has now decreased by more than 36 percent to 120.90 euros. DDR5 sets of 6800MT/s and faster experienced similar declines. For example, the minimum price of a 32GB set of DDR5-7800 memory dropped by 37 percent since April.

DDR4 memory has also dropped in price. 16GB DDR4-3200 memory is now available for just under three decades. That was 36 euros a few months ago. It is also now possible to buy a 32GB kit for less than 50 euros, a tenner less than in April. 32GB DDR4-3600 memory now costs less than six tenners, where it was available in April from 72.90 euros.

Stock and supply of DDR5 memory continue to increase

The supply of DDR5 memory is also constantly increasing. At release, DDR5 was almost unavailable, but now that is a completely different story. In April, stocks of DDR5 sets had already improved considerably compared to last year and that increase has continued in recent months.

The Pricewatch now contains 503 DDR5 sets with a delivery time of one day, of which 476 pieces with a capacity of 8, 16, 32 or 64GB. In April that was still 348 sets. The majority of these are still 32GB sets, by far the most popular capacity with 186 available DDR5 sets. That is followed by 64GB sets with 121 pieces and 16GB kits, 91 of which are immediately available. Only 8GB kits remain in short supply, with only 23 immediately available kits in the Pricewatch.

The availability of DDR5 is therefore no longer a problem factor; there are plenty of different sets available, often at reasonable rates. The offer is still dwarfed by DDR4, of which 1395 sets are immediately available. nonetheless, DDR4 has been commonplace since 2015, where DDR5 made its debut in the consumer market about two years ago.

Fast memory has become cheaper, but stocks remain low

As we mentioned earlier in this article, fast DDR5 memory has dropped in price relatively much in recent months. nonetheless, that does not mean that fast memory is now a budget-conscious choice. DDR5 sets of 6800MT/s and faster are still sold for a considerable additional price.

That difference has clearly narrowed in recent years. In April, a DDR5-6800 set was about 98 percent more expensive than a DDR5-4800 set. Now, in August, the difference has narrowed to about 63 percent. A set of DDR5-7600 memory was 190 percent more expensive four months ago and now that difference is 114 percent.

Stocks of fast DDR5 sets remain low, even now that prices have fallen somewhat. In total, only 35 sets of 6800 megatransfers per second or faster are available; considerably less than the 503 available sets with lower speeds. The availability of fast memory has increased slightly; in April there were 20 sets with a delivery time of 24 hours. In addition, no 64GB sets of 6800MT/s or faster were available in April. Now it does, although that only involves two DDR5-6800 kits.

With these faster memory sets, 32GB sets also remain the most popular. That capacity is also overrepresented in this category; of all available sets of 6800MT/s or higher, more than 74 percent are 32GB kits. 16GB accounts for 20 percent and 64GB sets account for the other 6 percent of the immediately available inventory.

Conclusion

The current memory market is positive news for consumers. DDR4 and especially DDR5 are currently offered at near historically low prices and individuals can take advantage of this when upgrading their system.

nonetheless, prices seem to have stagnated, especially for DDR5. Memory manufacturers have reduced their flash production in recent months to prevent further price falls. This will have an effect in the coming period. Analyst firm Trendforce already claimed at the beginning of July that DDR5 price drops this quarter almost come to a standstill. That prediction seems to be coming along nicely.

Of course, further price falls in the coming weeks and months cannot be ruled out, but the bottom now seems to be in sight, if not already reached. So if you need more memory for your PC, now is a positive time to make the jump; after all, the prices of memory are lower than they have been in years.