PS5 now costs less than 64GB of DDR5 memory. RAM jumps to $600 due to shortage

Rapid RAM Price Increases & User Anecdotes

• Many commenters report 2–3× price hikes for DDR5 (and notable DDR4 jumps) since late summer or early fall.
• Multiple people “dodged a bullet” by upgrading earlier this year; exactly identical kits have gone from ~$150–250 to $500–800+ in weeks.
• Some now regret returning RAM they thought would depreciate, and are scavenging or selling homelab/old DDR4 to capitalize on high prices.
• Builders of recent gaming PCs or homelabs feel lucky; others postponed builds and are now forced to cut capacity (e.g., 128GB → 64–96GB).

Perceived Causes of the Shortage

• Dominant explanation: massive AI datacenter build‑out by hyperscalers consuming huge amounts of DRAM (including HBM), with manufacturers shifting fab capacity from low‑margin consumer DRAM to higher‑margin AI/server products.
• Discussion that UDIMM and RDIMM use the same DRAM dies, so constrained chip supply and HBM competition spill over into consumer modules.
• Some mention US export controls on advanced tools for China fabs as an additional supply-side drag.
• A minority suggests Windows 10 end‑of‑support PC refreshes may add to demand, though others think data‑center AI is the main driver.

Market Structure & Cyclical Dynamics

• Several note DRAM’s long history as a brutally cyclical commodity (“pork cycle”): boom → overbuild → crash → consolidation → repeat.
• Skepticism that the classic cycle works as well now, given a three‑player oligopoly, high barriers to entry, and past price‑fixing scandals.
• Others expect Chinese DRAM (e.g., new DDR5 lines) to eventually introduce more competition.
• Debate over whether this is mostly a spot‑market/retail spike vs. a 30–60% underlying contract price rise.

Impact on Consumers, PCs vs Consoles

• “PS5 as a unit of cost” is viewed as rhetorical: highlighting that a single 64GB DDR5 kit can now cost more than an entire capable console.
• Some argue it’s misleading: PS5 only has 16GB GDDR6; for gaming PCs, 16–32GB DDR4/DDR5 still works fine.
• Others counter that realistic PC usage (browser, Discord, Electron apps) makes 32–64GB increasingly necessary, and that GPU and SSD prices are also rising, making full PC builds much less attractive than consoles.

Broader AI, Inequality & Efficiency Concerns

• Strong sentiment that AI is currently a net negative for ordinary users: driving up prices of GPUs, RAM, storage, electricity, and even water, while marketed as “abundance.”
• Long subthreads debate capitalism, oligopoly behavior, bubbles, and whether individuals can realistically hedge by buying AI‑exposed stocks.
• Some hope higher RAM prices might discipline software bloat (Electron, heavy web apps), but others doubt developer behavior will change.