Thoughts about Skyrocketing RAM Prices and the Bleak Future of the Video Game Hobby

Since the start of November, I’ve noticed RAM and SSD prices have been rising quite a bit. It’s especially true with the former, as, believe it or not, many devices use RAM, including computers, mobile devices, gaming consoles, cars, and more.

With the rapid increase in RAM prices, it’s starting to affect a good number of the electronic devices we buy. You might be wondering why this is happening. It’s because of the thing that begins with the initials A and I. Recently, OpenAI struck deals with memory manufacturers to purchase 40% of the memory used for its data center buildouts. As a result, RAM demand has increased, leaving little for consumer devices. Even Micron, which produces RAM and SSDs for consumers, has pulled out of the market altogether as a result.

As a result, we have been seeing RAM prices skyrocket to levels that are unbelievable. While picking up some stuff from electronic stores, I have seen RAM kits being sold for close to 1000 dollars. Thankfully, I upgraded my home lab this summer and built a mini PC used for gaming with an Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090, so I will be suitable for several years to come. I also bought a Nintendo Switch 2 at launch .

Of course, for those who haven’t, I feel this will price many people out of gaming because the parts to build a gaming PC are just too expensive due to supply shortages, especially RAM and SSDs. Not to mention, this happened when GPUs that just reached or are below MSRP are expected to skyrocket due to RAM shortage after being so high for years.

This reason makes me more skeptical of the value of AI. Sure, machine learning is helpful in scientific fields for making discoveries, stopping SPAM, and improving data-driven decision-making, etc. However, things like LLMs (Large Language Models), image generation and videos are very dubious in quality as they create a lot of slop, misinformation due to hallucinations, and even cause mental health issues as people believe inaccurate information from these chatbots. Also, the slop ironically adds more work than it saves.

That is, besides the economic issues it may cause, I feel most of it is due to high interest rates; it can make recent graduates have a harder time getting their first job due to AI. Not to mention, most “AI” companies are not profitable. They are doing circular deals to show revenue, which is very suspicious and makes it feel that there is an AI bubble, just like with the “dot com” bubble in the early 2000s.

I feel that this RAM shortage will definitely price many people out of gaming, at least temporarily. It may take several months to a few years for prices to go down. After all, we have seen this before with RAM price-fixing and GPUs bought for cryptocurrency mining in 2017-2018 and 2020-2022. Eventually, the supply caught up, or crypto eventually crashed, thus flooding the market with used GPUs.

That said, while things may look bleak amid dark predictions that RAM, SSDs, and GPUs will become unaffordable or even unavailable for years, there is a silver lining. If it doesn’t sell, supply will eventually catch up, and prices will start to go down from their peak. Also, if the AI bubble bursts, we may see a buildup of RAM, SSDs, and GPUs, and companies that make them shift back to the consumer side.

That said, between Black Friday and Cyber Monday is the best time to get a GPU or an SSD, when prices are still somewhat reasonable. But what if you can’t afford it? Before Christmas, prebuilt gaming PCs were an alternative to high RAM prices, but that is no longer the case. Various prebuilt companies, such as Dell, HP, and Asus, have announced price hikes. Also, recently, Valve discontinued the LCD Steam Deck, thus raising the entry price to $550.

It’s not the end of the world, as you can play games at lower settings, play older games or rather, finish your backlog. Even playing games from older generations is also an option, although older console games can be expensive depending on the console. Believe it or not, I will be playing old Nintendo 64 games on the recently released Analogue 3D, a Nintendo 64 recreation powered by FPGA technology.

I do think this is a wake-up call for the gaming industry. Companies really need to optimize games for baseline specs rather than chasing graphics that even the most powerful high-end GPUs struggle to run. For too long, gaming companies have the mantra of “moving fast and breaking things.”

With so many poorly optimized releases due to companies using Unreal Engine 5, people are questioning whether they should even buy the game at release, since it will run poorly. Not only that, poorly optimized releases give players a poor experience with the game, especially if they play it on a gaming PC that only meets the minimum specs.

If the gaming industry wants to sell games when good gaming PCs, GPUs, and RAM are out of reach for most people, they will need to focus on building games that meet the specifications that most people have and scale up from there. That means taking the time to make the game run better rather than relying on things like upscaling and frame generation, which introduce issues of their own. In reality, I don’t think they will optimize games or continue making games for high-end hardware that the majority won’t be able to afford due to high prices.

That said, I am set for the next 5 years. I am happy that I upgraded my 2021 M1 Pro 16″ MacBook Pro to an M4 Max one in 2024 since I felt 32 GB is not enough given my uses. With tech being so costly, it’s kind of sad for someone interested in playing with it. I guess it’s bound to happen after upgrading my tech in 2024 and the last bit in 2025.

Of course, with things like A and I, I do feel that there will be more hate grifters. In other words, people getting on the hate grift are spreading more Nintendo misinformation and, of course, other negativity. That is why the prices of gaming become unattainable for people who can’t afford them; they get priced out. There is an increasing trend of people hating on things or hoping a game is bad so they won’t buy it. I won’t rehash it since I covered it at my main blog. Still, it’s understandable that people are frustrated, given that most things are going up; there is an affordability crisis. However, I feel that most of these rage-bait videos and posts are there to try to get people upset.

That said, it will be a rough few years until the A and I bubble bursts. I guess, for now, people have to make do with what they have if they’re not lucky enough to update before prices rise. As for me, I guess I’m set for a while, until things settle down, but at least I will save a lot of money not having to upgrade tech for a few years.

See Also

NVidia: WTF and RAM: WTF by Gamers Nexus