Framework skyrockets DDR5 RAM upgrade pricing by up to 50% or $720 as RAM prices out of control

Framework has just announced it will be increasing its DDR5 RAM upgrade prices by 50% in a new blog post with its Framework Laptop DIY Edition RAM upgrades in the near future.

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The company explained the price increases in a new blog post, saying that they've been forced to do this as there are "substantially higher costs we are facing from suppliers and distributors".

Framework says that the new pricing "remains below" what's available in the open market, and that they won't be changing the pricing on any existing orders, and they're not updating the pricing on their pre-built laptops or Framework Desktop which come with RAM, adding that it makes the 128GB RAM configuration of the Framework Desktop a "bargain".

• Read more: Samsung shifts focus from HBM to DDR5: DDR5 = FAR more profits than HBM
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• Read more: Epic Games CEO: RAM prices a 'real problem for high-end gaming for several years'

Framework adds that the memory market is currently "extremely volatile" and that they expect costs from suppliers to "continue to increase over the next weeks and months". Not only that, but Framework says it's highly likely that they will need to make further price updates on both DDR5 modules on their systems that come with memory -- whether that's DDR5, LPDDR5X, or GDDR memory.

The company explains what's driving the cost increases throughout the industry, as we all know there is a gigantic supply and demand imbalance for memory. Framework continues: "On the demand side, the boom in AI data center construction and server manufacturing is consuming immense amounts of memory. A single rack of NVIDIA's GB300 solution uses 20TB of HBM3E and 17TB of LPDDR5X. That's enough LPDDR5x for a thousand laptops, and an AI-focused datacenter is loaded with thousands of these racks!"

Framework continues: "On the supply side, the memory industry since its inception decades ago has gone through repeated boom and bust cycles, making the three main surviving memory die makers Micron, SK Hynix, and Samsung hesitant to speculatively invest the billions of dollars needed for fabrication capacity expansion. Now that the demand exists again, there is a years-long lag time to catch up on supply. Worse for us in the PC space though, both the existing capacity and the new capacity is being prioritized to higher-margin server-focused memory like HBM and the server markets for DDR5 and LPDDR5X over the PC market".