Generative “AI” data centers are gobbling up trillions of dollars in capital, not to mention heating up the planet like a microwave. As a result there’s a capacity crunch on memory production, shooting the prices for RAM sky high, over 100 percent in the last few months alone. Multiple stores are tired of adjusting the prices day to day, and won’t even display them. You find out how much it costs at checkout.

    • Geologist@lemmy.zip
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      19 seconds ago

      Ddr4 is apparently out of manufacturing at a lot of places now, so it’s even more affected (at least in my market, prices rose more then ddr5)

    • Valmond@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      5
      ·
      3 hours ago

      Yeah but even second hand drives are stupid-priced today. No, I dont want to buy your 2014 1TB drive for 25€ + shipping.

      I can’t wait for this to pop, I mean if it does in a way that produces selloffs.

  • TheObviousSolution@lemmy.ca
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    6
    ·
    4 hours ago

    If this bubble doesn’t pop soon, I expect a memory card thefts to start making the headlines. Small and easier to carry off while being more expensive than some jewelry of the same size.

  • Agent641@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    77
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    7 hours ago

    First they came for the hard drives, and I did not speak out because I didn’t need a hard drive. Then they came for the GPUs and I did not speak out because I had a pretty dope GPU. Then they came for my 8gb of ram and there was nobody left to speak out for me.

  • demizerone@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    50
    ·
    edit-2
    7 hours ago

    I have 128gb of corsair ddr5 in my closet. IM RICH!

    Just did a quick check, it’s worth double what I paid for it. I’ll just let it sit in my closet until it’s worthless.

    • krooklochurm@lemmy.ca
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      11
      ·
      5 hours ago

      I also have 128gb of ddr5 ram

      And 64gb of ddr5 ram

      And some laptop ddr5 ram

      I’m going to wrap them all in Saran Wrap and stick them up my ass so my brain works faster

      • Technikus5@feddit.org
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        8
        ·
        4 hours ago

        Ah, but you see, if you wrap it in Saran wrap, they won’t be able to make contact. You’d be better off using contact grease for that easy insertion

        • krooklochurm@lemmy.ca
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          6
          ·
          4 hours ago

          Of course. That must be why it didn’t work the last time. Thank you kindly for that wonderful advice.

  • vacuumflower@lemmy.sdf.org
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    2
    arrow-down
    10
    ·
    2 hours ago

    RAM is not really expensive. You get enough RAM for most tasks the use of which you can understand, as a fraction of the normal amount for any machine.

    You can load a can’t stress how good planetary map into RAM wholly, without paging it.

    Many text editors today just load the whole file into RAM.

    That there’s much demand from some other side - oh yes.

    BTW, I just got a thought that this might be aimed at hurting China and East Asia in general, when the bubble pops, in the west it’ll be just investors losing what they deserve to lose, but in East Asia it’ll be actual production rebuilt for the bubble dying in pains.

    • HereIAm@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      8
      ·
      1 hour ago

      What? You might want to proof read that. The only thing I got from your text is that text editors load an entire file into memory, which has been the case for decades unless you go with a special purpose editor.

      • tal@lemmy.today
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        edit-2
        36 minutes ago

        Many text editors today just load the whole file into RAM.

        been the case for decades

        One data point: emacs normally loads the whole file, unless you’re using the vlf package or similar.

        TECO and ed might not. Dunno.

        • HereIAm@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          30 minutes ago

          Ed and sed don’t load the entire file in, but vim does. Not heard of TECO before 😄

      • vacuumflower@lemmy.sdf.org
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        arrow-down
        8
        ·
        1 hour ago

        The only thing I got from your text is that text editors load an entire file into memory, which has been the case for decades unless you go with a special purpose editor.

        Holy crap, and these people think they have right to talk about computers.

        You can have a 12G text file, logs, suppose, you are going to load the entire file into memory? And you think it’s normal?

        You might want to proof read that.

        I think you might want to put more effort into reading. This seems to be your weak side.

  • flubba86@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    7
    ·
    5 hours ago

    This is nothing new. I worked at a small computer shop in a small town between 2005-2007. The owner treated memory as a commodity. He checked national ram module prices daily. Buying low, and selling high. He sometimes adjusted the module price on a per-customer basis.

    I get that it’s much harder to do that with online stores, where prices are published to multiple places, and for chain stores where the price needs to be consistent between locations.

    • ikt@aussie.zone
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      3
      ·
      5 hours ago

      I was like DDR4 doesn’t count

      One well-documented memory industry trend that is behind the price increases seen is said to be makers shutting down their DDR4 production in favor of DDR5 and other more profitable lines. In February, we noted that the likes of Micron, Samsung, and SK hynix were being rudely elbowed out of the DDR4 market by Chinese players (such as CXMT and Fujian Jinhua) ruthlessly undercutting them in this segment.

      Samsung was seen to flinch in late April, as reports circulated that the South Korean technology and manufacturing giant had scheduled to cease DDR4 production in early June.

      Now there are indications that oversupply from Chinese ‘dumping’ is at an end, as CXMT has been instructed by the Chinese government to abandon DDR4 manufacturing. Thus, the reported spikes in DDR4 pricing in recent weeks may stem from a perfect storm of the above supply-side factors all exerting an effect over a relatively short period of time.

      https://finance.yahoo.com/news/ddr4-prices-continue-surge-reportedly-122337204.html?fr=sycsrp_catchall

      But still ouch :)

      • Valmond@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        3 hours ago

        Sells st a lower price: the web: they were Ruthlessly undercutting!!

        They even don’t need to lower prices to “undercut”, just not raise them too much!

  • artyom@piefed.social
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    19
    ·
    7 hours ago

    Multiple stores are tired of adjusting the prices day to day, and won’t even display them. You find out how much it costs at checkout.

    Someone should tell them about those e-paper price tags…

    • mack@lemmy.sdf.org
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      4
      ·
      edit-2
      5 hours ago

      because we’re in an era where there always will be a gold rush for a specific component. upgrades have slowed down considerably in the past 10 years, my laptop is 4 years old and still kicks like the first day, I still game on my 8 year old laptop which is permanently attached to the TV and running as a steam machine with more than decent performance.

      this wasn’t even thinkable in the 00’s

      I’m pretty sure after hard disks, GPUs, rams the next shortage is either Arm CPUs or a specific future type of PSUs

    • notabot@piefed.social
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      94
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      10 hours ago

      It wouldn’t be quite so bad if the previous gold rush ended first, but they seem to just be stacking up.

    • Assassassin@lemmy.dbzer0.com
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      42
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      10 hours ago

      This is why I’m still running ddr4. Every time I think about upgrading a generation, there’s a run on some integral component.

        • Assassassin@lemmy.dbzer0.com
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          9
          ·
          8 hours ago

          With how good my 5600x still performs, I could very well see it lasting that long. Assuming it doesn’t randomly kill itself after a few years like my previous ryzen 5.

          • gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.works
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            7
            ·
            8 hours ago

            I was silly and got myself a 5950X. But I feel less silly about it now tbh. It’s gonna become my new homelab core whenever I get the chance to do a new gaming build again that’s not a high 4-figure investment.

            • Assassassin@lemmy.dbzer0.com
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              3
              ·
              8 hours ago

              Totally worth it with how good ryzens have held up performance wise. Unless you’re doing some really CPU heavy stuff or have a beast of a GPU, you probably won’t get bottlenecked by the CPU for at least 5 more years.

              Unless you’re using windows in your homelab. I assume you’re not since you have a home lab.

          • Truscape@lemmy.blahaj.zone
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            3
            ·
            edit-2
            7 hours ago

            In a sane world, the limitations of a CPU socket would be reached, and then newer SKUs would no longer be release and all stock for prospective builders would be second hand.

            That’s clearly not the case here. AM4 continues to get new CPU releases and parts are still available new from retail, years after the support officially ending. That’s a good thing for variety and entry level machines, but such dependency means a future CPU could be limited in featureset/performance if it releases on AM4 instead of AM5, which there may be enough demand to force designers to downgrade chips for AM4 compatibility.

      • Wildmimic@anarchist.nexus
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        10 hours ago

        I dki so too - just upgraded my X2600 with a shiny X5950, the nicest cpu my aging mainboard can run. with 16 cores and 64 gigs of ram i see a future when i simply replace the entire machine for daily use and make this one a very nice server.

    • Hubi@feddit.org
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      5 hours ago

      I feel like the luckiest person because I built my last PC right before the crypto hype and my current one right before the AI bubble.

    • Em Adespoton@lemmy.ca
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      9
      ·
      10 hours ago

      It’s why I started treating computers as commodities — I rarely upgrade anymore; just wait the 5 years and by an entirely new system.

        • Pope-King Joe@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          4
          ·
          8 hours ago

          This is about my upgrade cadence, except for storage. I ran my Ryzen 1600 until the 7000 series dropped and upgraded mobo+RAM at once for about $600.

          I then moved the old parts to another case to use as a low load server only for both the motherboard and CPU die within a few weeks. 🫡

  • BD89@lemmy.sdf.org
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    35
    ·
    9 hours ago

    Lol pricing computer parts like they do fish in an expensive restaurant.

    What a time to be alive.

    • Valmond@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      3
      ·
      3 hours ago

      In paris there was this street “rue Montgallet” selling computer stuff like that around y2000, the prices for the most sold things were printed on a cheap paper daily or you had to ask. Guarantee? Yes, but it stops when you leave the shop, or so was the saying.

    • comador @lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      14
      arrow-down
      3
      ·
      8 hours ago

      Thing is, this isn’t new in the slightest.

      I remember calling around to different PC stores in the 90s and early 00s to find the cheapest RAM and hard drive prices.

      Before that, I remember my grandfather, an IBM employee in the 60s-90s calling places looking for best pricing on 64k-128k SIPP memory for an ibm pizzabox 286.

      • Sir_Kevin@lemmy.dbzer0.com
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        3
        ·
        5 hours ago

        I’ll never forget the time someone in my neighborhood found out one of the local PC shops had a deal on 8MB of RAM for like 100 bucks. That’s not a typo kiddies 8 Megabytes. We were so excited, a bunch of us piled into one car and rushed over there before they sold out!

      • 3abas@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        11
        ·
        8 hours ago

        That was the norm before it was so easy to buy online from across the country, local stores set their own prices and a few minutes of calling to find the best deal is like searching on Google for a few minutes to find the best deal… But they weren’t doubling in price in a couple months, that I can recall anyway.

  • shalafi@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    12
    arrow-down
    8
    ·
    6 hours ago

    So? Don’t fucking buy it! Has that never occurred to some y’all? If the rest of the world had my purchasing habits we’d already be looking at Depression 2.0.

          • tal@lemmy.today
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            1
            ·
            29 minutes ago

            https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zram

            zram, formerly called compcache, is a Linux kernel module for creating a compressed block device in RAM, i.e. a RAM disk with on-the-fly disk compression. The block device created with zram can then be used for swap or as general-purpose RAM disk. The two most common uses for zram are for the storage of temporary files (/tmp) and as a swap device. Initially, zram had only the latter function, hence the original name “compcache” (“compressed cache”). Unlike swap, zram only uses 0.1% of the maximum size of the disk when not in use.[1]

            Open-source RAM is better.

  • pressedhams@lemmy.blahaj.zone
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    20
    arrow-down
    4
    ·
    10 hours ago

    It’s not a fucking lobster. Base pricing per unit based on whatever profit margin you need on that item.

    Nope, let’s get as much as we can at all times, like it’s silver bullion.

    • osaerisxero@kbin.melroy.org
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      19
      arrow-down
      3
      ·
      9 hours ago

      No, they have to base the price on what it costs to order the next shipment, unless they want to just stop carrying ram or you expect them to take on a loan for that. The wholesale market for ram must be fucking wild for a retail store to think they have to post something like that.

  • Artisian@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    8
    arrow-down
    5
    ·
    7 hours ago

    (I know it’s not the point, but a reminder that data center climate impact, including heat, is nowhere near flight, agricultural waste, or construction. Hate it for its own reasons, not for fake ones.)

    • Engywook@lemmy.zip
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      1
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      3 hours ago

      Yeah, but the average Lemme/Redditor is not going to waste an opportunity to pretend caring, pointing his/her finger and accumulate fake internet points.