Thinking of a system RAM upgrade for your PC? Now might be a good time to buy

We've been hearing quite a bit about PC components getting much cheaper in the recent past - SSDs, for one thing, and RAM too, but system memory price drops may be coming to an end.

That's the view of analyst firm TrendForce, which in a new report (spotted by Tom's Hardware) makes an estimate for the current quarter (Q3 2023).

Namely that DRAM prices will likely drop by a maximum of 5%, best-case scenario (for us buyers, that is), or prices might stay the same in the worst-case outcome (a 0% change).

Compare that to Q2 where price drops of between 13-18% were witnessed, and you can see a clear picture of a slowdown in the decline of price tags for RAM (this prediction incorporates not just RAM for desktop PCs, but also server chips, and graphics memory - the entire market).

Is there a reason for this happening now? Yes indeed, and it's because the major manufacturers have cut production to be more in line with demand, and with the supply/demand equation changing, pricing will of course settle down.

TrendForce further notes that during this year, DRAM prices are under great pressure to bottom out, so we may be seeing the bottom of the market now, or in the very near future. A rebound in pricing could happen in 2024, we're told.

To buy, or not to buy...

So, is now the right time to buy system RAM? If this report is on the money, it'd seem that it wouldn't be a bad decision to make a purchase now, especially if you're buying DDR5, as that's more likely to resist further price drops.

TrendForce observes that with DDR4, these memory modules are still in oversupply, and a quarterly drop of perhaps 3% up to as much as 8% could be witnessed - so you might want to hold off still, in that case.

Whatever you're looking at RAM-wise - and make sure you pick up 32GB, for future-proofing - there's no real big rush to pull the trigger on new sticks, but that said, it seems likely that making a move this year is the thing to do (particularly if it's DDR5 system RAM you're after, as mentioned).

We recently reported on SSD prices having dropped by 25% since March 2023, so those thinking of picking up some of the core components required for a new build PC may want to start looking into making those purchases soon.

Even GPU prices are dropping somewhat, with bargains to be had with last-gen models, which very much seem more popular than RTX 4000 or RDNA 3 graphics cards. (Certainly NVIDIA's current-gen graphics cards are struggling in particular, due to Team Green's pricing strategy).

Further note that AMD's RX 6800 and RX 6900 GPUs are supposedly due to run short on stock very soon, so that's another component to pick up in the near future, if you were planning to go this route with your graphics card for a new build.