RAM Prices Chart for the memory market

Down 3.4% from the previous successful point. Compared with the Aug 2025 four-kit backcast, the chain-linked median trend is 399% higher. The latest tracked median is $17.81 per GB, based on 4 eligible products across 4 brands; the basket is healthy. Our current view is that a broad fall in the tracked DDR5 retail basket is unlikely through the rest of 2026. The case is constrained memory supply alongside AI-driven demand; this is an informed opinion, not certainty.

The mean reacts sooner when one included product makes a large move. The median is more resistant to one unusual listing. Seeing both reveals whether a move is broad or concentrated.

The live retail index is rebased to 100 at its first valid weekly observation. Later values show the proportional change in the overlapping product basket, while the dollar-per-GB lines show the actual observed level.

For each eligible kit, the listed price is divided by total kit capacity. A $160 32GB kit is $5.00 per GB. Normalizing this way lets 32GB and 64GB kits contribute on a comparable basis.

Yes. The latest published weekly point is for Sep 28, 2026: median $17.81 per GB and mean $17.85 per GB, based on 4 eligible products across 4 brands. Compared with the Aug 2025 four-kit backcast, the chain-linked median trend is 399% higher. Our current view is that a broad fall in the tracked DDR5 retail basket is unlikely through the rest of 2026. The case is constrained memory supply alongside AI-driven demand; this is an informed opinion, not certainty. The chart is refreshed as new weekly observations are published. Micron Q3 2026 investor presentation.

Four established 32GB and 64GB desktop kits are reconstructed from dated public listed-price histories. Product-month medians are normalized per GB and chain-linked using price changes for products present in adjacent months. The line is rebased to 100 where live MPC collection begins.

The basket uses new 32GB and 64GB two-module desktop DDR5 kits from Kingston, Corsair, G.Skill, and TEAMGROUP. A product needs a rating of at least 4.2 plus either 25 ratings or 50 bought in the past month, with no explicit thin-stock or compatibility warning. Those marketplace signals are used privately for screening rather than reproduced beside each public basket row.

A currently unavailable offer contributes no price. An explicit hard failure such as out of stock, very thin stock, a compatibility warning, or a failed market-evidence gate removes it from the active basket; a product merely absent from search receives a six-search grace period.

The old product and its observations remain in the database. A qualified replacement can enter the active basket after six missed searches—about two weeks at the normal cadence. Historical weeks remain in the database.

The index excludes unsupported brands, low ratings, thin demand evidence, explicit stock of 10 units or fewer, compatibility warnings, non-new or incompatible product types, and parser-implausible prices. Ranking uses demand and rating evidence rather than choosing the cheapest offer.

Retail searches run Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Each product’s observations are collapsed to a weekly median before the basket mean and median are calculated, detecting developing moves earlier without publishing every short-lived listing change.

The index is built from scheduled observations of eligible US retail listings. Collection happens on the site’s servers; your browser never contacts data sources when you view or filter the chart.

The combined DDR5 point is labelled healthy when at least four eligible active products from at least three brands are observed. Smaller samples can still be shown, but they are explicitly marked thin.

The current basket median is $17.81 per GB ($17.85 mean) at the Sep 28, 2026 point. Use it as a reference for a compatible 32GB or 64GB desktop DDR5 kit, not as a universal target: speed, timings, seller, shipping, and urgency still matter.

Our current view, as of the Sep 28, 2026 chart point, is that a broad fall in the tracked DDR5 retail basket is unlikely through the rest of 2026. In June 2026, Micron said industry DRAM and NAND demand continued to significantly exceed supply and that it expected tight conditions beyond 2027. Consumer DDR5 can diverge from the wider memory market, so this remains an informed opinion rather than certainty; the view will be revised if the chart trend changes. Micron Q3 2026 investor presentation.

A retail kit price can reflect memory supply and demand, retailer inventory, capacity and speed mix, promotions, and the specific products still available. This chart measures the resulting listed-price movement in a controlled basket; it does not claim to identify one global cause.

No. It is a descriptive tracker of observed US retail listings. A rising or falling sequence can inform context, but it is not a forecast or a recommendation to buy or wait.

A genuine promotion on an included product may move the mean before it moves the median. A one-week offer can therefore appear, but product diversity limits the influence of a single listing.

The launch index uses the listed product price in nominal US dollars. Sales tax is excluded. Shipping is excluded unless a provider exposes a reliable separate amount and the methodology is updated to say otherwise.

It means more capacity per listed dollar, not better performance. Speed, latency, memory-controller support, motherboard compatibility, warranty, and workload can matter more than the basket-level price.

Use it as a broad reference. Confirm the exact capacity, module count, DDR generation, form factor, condition, seller, shipping, and return terms on the live product page before buying.

Most replaceable desktop system RAM is DRAM, and DDR5 is a generation of synchronous DRAM. “RAM” is the broader everyday term, while DRAM describes the underlying volatile memory technology.

They can be displayed side by side, but they are different product markets with different compatibility and lifecycle effects. This launch keeps DDR5 separate; a future DDR4 series will have its own basket.

Not in the live DDR5 index. NAND is non-volatile storage used in SSDs and other devices. It will be added as a separately sourced series rather than mixed into the RAM number.

No. High Bandwidth Memory is sold to accelerator makers under confidential contracts and has no comparable public retail market. Any future HBM view will be clearly labelled as estimates from specialist sources.

No. Laptop SODIMMs are excluded from the launch basket to avoid mixing a separate form factor and compatibility market with desktop UDIMM kits.

No. Registered, ECC, server, and workstation memory are excluded because their capacities, features, buyers, and pricing behave differently from mainstream desktop DDR5.

The default one-year backcast begins in August 2025 and follows four established retail DDR5 kits. The vertical handoff marker shows where the source basket changes to this site’s live six-product collection. The chart shows the timing and size of listed-price changes; it does not prove that a single demand driver caused them.