'PC apocalypse' fears rise as RAM supply for 2027 officially 'runs out'
Many of the world's biggest memory manufacturers have reportedly sold all of their supply up until the end of next year, making building your own PC a frightening prospect for the foreseeable future.
Everyone in the PC gaming space is more than well acquainted with what has been lovingly referred to as the 'RAMpocalypse' across the past year, but some might still be under the impression that things will eventually get better.
The latest news coming out of leading memory suppliers like Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron appears to suggest otherwise, as reported by Taiwanese outlet DigiTimes, with the manufacturers already selling all of their supply for the next year and a half.
While this immense demand for DRAM and HBM capacity should theoretically lead to a dramatically increased supply of memory, the aforementioned companies indicate that no additional production has been planned, leaving the consumer electronics industry in danger.
Why is this bad for PC gaming?
This certainly isn't exclusively bad for PC gaming, but some might argue that it's the sector that has been hit the hardest as it's one of the few consumer areas where people are directly and individually buying memory capacity.
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For a short while it had felt as if gaming had reached a RAM utopia of sorts, with 32GB of DDR5 memory at high speeds being more than affordable for the first time in a long time.
That was clearly too good to be true, however, as the AI boom caused prices to quite literally skyrocket, as what was once little more than $100 now reaches close to $500 in many cases.
This has caused many gamers to hold off on upgrading their PC in a time when the performance demands of the latest games are higher than ever, making keeping up with the curve a challenging prospect if you don't want to be fleeced for what is – in the grand scheme of things – a relatively 'inconsequential' component compared to the GPU or CPU.
With memory supply completely wiped out for the foreseeable future though, it suggests that this high price is simply the 'new normal' that's not going to change any time soon thanks to major long-term agreements with AI labs, as per TweakTown — so you might just need to pay up or get off the PC gaming train altogether.
How could this impact other electronics?
Worryingly, pretty much every form of consumer electronics used in your life also requires memory to function, and these shortages are causing prices to rise dramatically across the board.
We've already seen the cost of consoles reach eye-watering levels at the end of a generational cycle for the first time in history, and it's hit the smartphone world hard with Apple reluctantly rising costs for the iPhone and many speculating the end of the 'budget phone' for good.
What's not making it easier for people too is the disapproval many have towards AI in general as it threatens the environment and puts jobs at risk, so it's not seen as a worthwhile sacrifice to plunge the rest of the tech industry into chaos for.