If you have made a purchase laptop You are not alone in finding prices recently, compared to just a few months ago. Analysts like myself are closely monitoring the situation and its root cause: Memory prices have skyrocketed. This caused everything complete computers to memory-dependent components such as graphics cards rise in value.
What’s worse? Top-end memory manufacturers like it SK Hynix I don’t see relief until 2030. It’s a long time to bear these inflated costs, which will affect the performance of any memory-based device. No technology category that uses RAM chips is immune to this new reality.
I’ve been testing and pricing computers for over a decade, so I can safely say that 2026 will be a particularly tough time to buy a new laptop. Not because you can’t get good ones. But because of some of the bits inside, they will get more and more expensive.
Why is RAM so expensive now?
First, let’s understand why RAM prices have increased so much and why they will continue to increase. The simple answer is the huge demand from AI-computing giants.
Massive memory banks are critical to AI’s peak performance, making memory chips essential to meeting the growing need for AI power. Data centers concentrate this power ChatGPT and other artificial intelligence tools consume a large portion of available memory production bandwidth. AI applications do not necessarily require the same types The memory that PCs make, but the respective memory factories, or fabs – these days mostly concentrated among the big three players Micron, Samsung and SK Hynix – only have so much capacity.
This year, AI-centric memory is predicted to consume 70% of global memory hardware production. TrendForceA Taiwan-based industry analysis and consulting company focused on the semiconductor industry. That leaves only so much capacity for consumer goods.
(Credit: Google)
To meet this AI data center hunger, major memory chipmakers are shifting some of their production capacity to stacked-design high-bandwidth memory (HBM) and server-grade DDR5, further reducing the supply of chips intended for consumers and consumer-grade machines. How big of a change is that? For example, there is the American memory giant Micron exited the direct-to-consumer memory market has completely shut down the long-standing Crucial sub-brand familiar to many upgraders and home computer manufacturers. It will still supply memory to commercial computer manufacturers, but the crisis is affecting them as well.
A hungry supply with no reduction in demand means prices are through the roof, and they’re expected to remain high for a year or more as AI software giants like OpenAI and AI hardware titans like Nvidia try to lock in supply prices, contracting large numbers of wafers and chips that haven’t yet been produced.
It’s not just RAM: Graphics Cards, SSDs are also under pressure
The problem is that these increased prices will not be limited to DDR5 RAM modules. (DDR memory is also called DRAM.) We already see Improvements in DDR4 and DDR3, older memory standards that don’t provide the speed needed for current AI technology, but work well for more pedestrian use.
Moreover, this lack of supply affects other components including memory as a whole. The immediate ripple effect will affect dedicated memory-based graphics cards to aid graphics rendering and native AI workflows. (And memory shortage aside, graphics cards themselves (there are also big increases in demand.) Prices for the GDDR6 and GDDR7 video memory used by those cards are rising for the same reasons: The cost per gigabit has more than tripled in the last six months, and that price increase will translate directly into more expensive desktop and laptop graphics cards.
(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)
As PC users feel the memory crunch, they will turn to fast solid-state drives (SSD) and software solutions to compensate for limited RAM. But the companies that make DRAM overlap with those that make the NAND chips used for the SSDs that laptops and desktops rely on. If DRAM demand drives manufacturing capacity away from consumer DRAM chips, it will also drive capacity away from the chips that make up SSDs. According to the supply chain analysis firm, the price of NAND wafers has increased by up to 60% since last November, climbing the ladder along with memory. Purchase Pro.
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Of course, as the price of those components increases, so does the total cost of a new laptop. Likes major laptop brands Dell, HPand Lenovo have already publicly estimated price increases of 15% to 30%, and smaller companies like Framework not only Raise RAM prices as well prefer to sell complete systems on standalone parts to discourage scalpers from making parts only for resale.
Now, if you’re shopping for a laptop right now, you may not be seeing the signs yet. to some extent, current prices are stabilized due to available inventory. Companies like Apple have been able to avoid price increases at the moment because they have lots of chips available at lower prices. But after these stocks dry up, the competition for the remaining ones in the market will heat up. To be honest, a 30% markup sounds conservative to me.
Package? Prices aren’t just peaking, they’re going to be higher for a while. As companies pre-purchase production capacity, it may take years for the situation to stabilize.
Laptop Pricing Forecast: Expect Some Big Price Increases
These price increases will be across: Every laptop category Chromebooks for gaming laptopsmemory will become more expensive as price and availability bottlenecks remain. And it will hit these categories in different ways.
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High-end laptops for gaming and media creation are already luxury items, but prices for 32GB and 64GB systems will continue to rise. High memory configurations (in any category) will be much more expensive.
(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)
Meanwhile, ultraportable laptops (both business and consumer models) can switch to all-solder memory chips – Lenovo’s ThinkPad T-series and Framework’s modular offerings aside, slot-connected DDR5 RAM was already hard to find in such laptops. My guess is that the lingering supply problem will wipe out most of what’s still around. (That said, mobile workstations will likely continue to use memory modules; their prices are traditionally high and they’re considered more investment-grade machines.) I’d expect 16GB to emerge as the new ceiling for mid-range laptops, and 32GB models to be even more premium.
Prices on budget systems and Chromebooks may not be as high, as most of them only offer 4GB or 8GB of storage to start with. But when prices are low, a $500 laptop quickly turns into a $650 laptop when you factor in a 30% price increase. I would expect the choice of machines in the sub-$500 category to decrease next year, and perhaps 4GB will re-emerge as a more common memory size in the cheapest machines. Google’s Chromebook Plus guidelines, for one thing, require at least 8GB of storage, so these models can no longer start at the $399 base price we’ve seen on these machines in recent years.
Apple is new MacBook Neo At $599, it bucks that trend. However, this is a scenario that can only be realized by Apple using the remnants of “junk” processors removed from the production of smartphone chips and using a deeply refined manufacturing process. (This is explained in our full review.)
How to buy a laptop in the RAM-pocalypse
This new pricing paradigm means several things for laptop buyers. The first tip is similar to what I once suggested technological tariffs was the price threat of the moment: If you know you need to buy something relatively soon, buy it now before prices rise. Over the next year or two, laptop prices are going to be more volatile, and they’re only going to go one way: up.
Second, plan for today and tomorrow, that means paying more for the extra RAM you might need, or looking for a system that allows you to upgrade the RAM. With many systems today using soldered memory, you’re stuck with whatever you choose when you buy. So either bite the bullet and pay for the RAM you need at checkout, or buy a system that will allow you to upgrade after this wave of demand has passed.
Finally, if you really need to save this year, don’t look forward, look back. A 2025 or even 2024 laptop model may be a year behind in processor or graphics technology, but you can save a lot by buying, say, an Apple M4 MacBook or an early Intel Core Ultra model. before RAM crisis. Act fast, however, because speculators may start dismantling old or used systems for chips or flipping the entire system later for profit.
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About our specialist
Brian Westover
Chief Writer, Office
Experience
From laptops on your desk to satellites in space to ubiquitous artificial intelligence, I cover a lot of topics here at PCMag. I’ve covered PCs and technology for over 15 years in PCMag and other publications, including Tom’s Guide, Laptop Mag, and TWICE. As a hardware reviewer, I’ve handled dozens of MacBooks, 2-in-1 laptops, Chromebooks, and the latest AI computers. As the resident Starlink expert, I have years of hands-on experience with the satellite service. I also explore the most valuable ways to use the latest AI tools and features in our Experiment with AI column.
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