Administrator DKT27 Posted December 21, 2015 Administrator Share Posted December 21, 2015 With supply exceeding demand, prices should continue to fall in 2016. According to recent data from DRAMeXchange the spot price for a single 4Gb DDR4 DRAM IC dropped 38.62 per cent between June and October. Over the same period a single 4Gb DDR3 chip's spot price dropped 29.4 per cent. The continued downward pressure in the spot market has been good for consumers this year as memory module prices have tumbled. Some DDR4 memory kits are less than half the price they were launched at, earlier in the year. Tech site AnandTech published some price trend graphs for a couple of popular DDR4 memory kits. Evidence of the DDR4 price drop was shown in two examples. First of all the Kingston HyperX Fury Black 2133MHz CL14 16GB kit was sold at $229 in March but at the time of writing is available for $97. (Amazon price tracking via CamelCamelCamel). The more recently introduced G.Skill Ripjaws V DDR4 3200MHz 16GB dual-channel kit sold at $176.64 when it first became available in early November and is now $136.59. There are plenty of other examples you can look up on via CamelCamelCamel. So what's happening? The price drops are due to DRAM industry excess supply. Everyone knows that in markets supply and demand balance at certain prices. Firms can stockpile and do other things to artificially constrict supply and try to keep prices up, but that isn't efficient or sustainable. Two major market influencers have caused an excess of DRAM supply; one is the declines in sales of devices that need to be equipped with DRAM chips (both PCs and tablets), the other big influence on price is that DRAM manufacturers have started to adopt smaller process technology. Samsung was the first to move to 20nm and it enjoyed reduced production costs over rivals. In a competitive market it used the 20nm advantage to beat rival prices, driving prices down, while maintaining profits. Its notable that Samsung controlled 46.7 per cent of the DRAM market in Q3 2015. Looking into next year supply should continue to outpace demand, says DRAMeXchange, and therefore DRAM spot prices and average market prices will continue to drop. View: Original Article Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Amigaspace Posted December 25, 2015 Share Posted December 25, 2015 This is nice, but can someone please explain me why DDR2 prices are so high, instead of going down due to being old older technology? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vibranium Posted December 25, 2015 Share Posted December 25, 2015 Because of the tighter supply and "antique value" especially for the higher-capacity sticks. As the years roll on, though, prices will fall, fall, fall. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Halteclere Posted December 26, 2015 Share Posted December 26, 2015 Hmm, is DDR4 backwards compatible? I have an older system that it wouldn't hurt to upgrade... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrator DKT27 Posted December 26, 2015 Author Administrator Share Posted December 26, 2015 1 hour ago, Halteclere said: Hmm, is DDR4 backwards compatible? I have an older system that it wouldn't hurt to upgrade... No it's not, unfortunately. None of the newer DDR RAMS are backward compatible, unlike PCI-E based graphics cards. One needs to have a DDR4 compatible motherboard and CPU to use them. Also, there is no big difference between DDR3 vs DDR4 in gaming though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CODYQX4 Posted December 26, 2015 Share Posted December 26, 2015 On 12/25/2015 at 10:08 AM, Amigaspace said: This is nice, but can someone please explain me why DDR2 prices are so high, instead of going down due to being old older technology? If nobody wants to make them anymore, than the supply drops and those who want/need DDR2 will have to pay more. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Halteclere Posted December 27, 2015 Share Posted December 27, 2015 12 hours ago, DKT27 said: No it's not, unfortunately. None of the newer DDR RAMS are backward compatible, unlike PCI-E based graphics cards. One needs to have a DDR4 compatible motherboard and CPU to use them. Also, there is no big difference between DDR3 vs DDR4 in gaming though. That's a shame. Looks like prices are still falling though, so I suppose I can hold out until I buy a new computer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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