Even *PC Building Simulator* can’t take it anymore? Memory prices have gone insane.

A single 16GB memory stick has surged from around 200 yuan in the first half of last year to over 800 yuan today. This kind of price jump looks less like a normal hardware fluctuation and more like the chain reaction that follows when a battlefield supply line is suddenly cut off. For PC gamers, the most immediate impact is not a change in specs, but a sharply inflated build budget—money that could have gone toward a mid-range graphics card is now being swallowed up by RAM first.

This round of price increases is no longer just a matter of isolated brand adjustments, but a global wave of rising memory prices. In electronics markets such as Huaqiangbei in Shenzhen, the cost of building office PCs and gaming rigs alike is climbing, and prices for mainstream memory modules have even multiplied several times over. Take Kingston’s entry-level model as an example: 16GB has gone from about 200 yuan to over 800 yuan, an increase of more than threefold; 32GB is even more extreme, soaring from around 800 yuan to 3,800 yuan, close to a 300% jump. If this kind of increase happened in military procurement, it would no longer be just “a bit more expensive,” but enough to alter the entire equipment configuration plan.

In terms of what’s really happening, this market shift is not mysterious at all. The core reason is that AI servers have driven memory demand sharply higher. Public information shows that a single AI server requires 8 to 10 times as much memory as ordinary equipment, which is equivalent to one heavy platform consuming the quota of multiple civilian devices at once. More importantly, the three major manufacturers—Samsung, SK hynix, and Micron—have already shifted about 80% of their advanced capacity to HBM and server-grade DDR5, leaving only 20% for consumer-grade DDR4. With the supply side squeezed, the consumer market has naturally fallen into imbalance.

Looking at the production system, there is almost no chance of a rapid rebound in the short term. A newly built wafer fab takes 18 to 24 months to begin production, while HBM itself is constrained by 3D stacking technology, with yields of only 60% to 70%. That means manufacturers do not simply lack the will to produce more—it is just extremely difficult to reinforce the front line as quickly as switching troop types. Industry estimates suggest that additional capacity may not be gradually released until the end of 2027. In other words, high memory prices are unlikely to be a brief, sharp charge, but rather a prolonged war of attrition.

At the tactical level, my advice to gamers is very clear: if your current platform can still run mainstream games stably, there is no need to force a new build right now. This is especially true for users aiming to upgrade to 16GB or 32GB—first calculate the overall return on the full system. If your budget is tight, consider second-hand memory from reliable channels, or postpone your upgrade plans and wait for prices to fall before making a move. Memory matters for gaming, but at current price levels, continuing to spend more on it has clearly become a poor value proposition.

What I dislike most is that some people describe this round of price increases as an ordinary market fluctuation. That judgment is not rigorous. The essence of the current situation is that AI demand has reshaped how firepower is allocated across the memory industry, pushing consumer gamers to the rear. If no new capacity actually comes online afterward, the PC building market will continue to face pressure. For players planning a new build, this is not the moment to charge—it is more like a positional war, a time to tighten supplies and wait for a better window.