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My computer has $18 million worth of RAM in it

I recall that when I bought my first RAM chip they were expensive, very, very expensive.

It's my recollection, although it was a very long time ago so I could be wrong, that the first RAM chips I used were Intel 2102 devices that provided just 1 Kbits of storage.

Since these were static RAM, they were pretty expensive on a "bits per buck" basis. Dynamic RAM chips would later lower the price dramatically but were harder to design around because extra circuitry was required to generate the essential refresh signals that kept the data stored in them alive and well.

The only reference I found for the price of these chips was that they cost around US$7-$9 each, meaning that 1K of memory would set you back as much as US$75 in 1979 -- which is a gobsmacking US$335 in today's money.

Given that the average desktop computer today has at least 16GB of RAM, that would cost of US$5,360,000, if prices hadn't fallen dramatically over the past 45 years.

So you might think that RAM prices are a steal these days and you'd be right but they are rising, and rising quickly.

According to a story on TomsHardware.com, DRAM prices skyrocket 171% year-over-year, outpacing the rate of gold price increases.

Why?

Well the main driver seems to be demand.

With the sums of money being invested in hardware to support the latest and greatest AI systems, the demand for RAM has gone through the roof and the "laws of supply and demand" have kicked in, pushing prices skyward.

It perhaps doesn't help that the average desktop PC is also now sporting twice as much memory as it did just a year or two ago.

The final (albeit small) factor could be the fact that gold prices have also soared of late and, as we know, gold is an essential element in the fabrication of LSI integrated circuits such as those used in the production of RAM modules.

Pitty the poor folks in the USA, for they are also now having to cope with tariffs that further hike the price of all things made in the East. The cost of building a new computer or upgrading the memory capacity of an existing one just got a whole lot hurtier.

This is somewhat similar to the effect that crypto-mining had on the availability and pricing of GPUs a few years back. Datacentres are soaking up a huge percentage of the RAM manufacturers' output and many of those manufacturers are focusing on enterprise-type RAM rather than simple DDR5 memory for home/business computers. However, unlike the crypto/GPU crisis there's little chance of a windfall for regular computer users if/when the AI bubble bursts. Those enterprise RAM modules won't work in your desktop machine if some of those datacentres are decommissioned.

At a time when the cost of almost everything from food to clothing to energy to housing is going through the roof, a hike in RAM prices is the last thing any keen computer user needs.

The increasing complexity and size of applications, especially computer games, means that regular memory upgrades are becoming a necessary part of simply "keeping up".

Still, if I feel upset I only have to look at my video editing computer which has about NZ$18 million dollars worth of RAM in it... at 1979 prices.

Carpe Diem folks!

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