'DDR5 retail prices pullback amid market correction': TrendForce report
sparks hope that we might be turning a corner in the RAM crisis

Date:
Wed, 01 Apr 2026 12:01:44 +0000

Description:
Report even hints at 'DDR5 16GB module prices potentially normalizing by end-2026' but I really wouldn't get carried away with that idea.

FULL STORY ======================================================================Copy link Facebook X Whatsapp Reddit Pinterest Flipboard Threads Email Share this article 0 Join the conversation Follow us Add us as a preferred source on Google Newsletter Tech Radar Get daily insight, inspiration and deals in your inbox Sign up for breaking news, reviews, opinion, top tech deals, and more. Become a Member in Seconds Unlock instant access to exclusive member
features. Contact me with news and offers from other Future brands Receive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors By submitting
your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over. You are now subscribed Your newsletter sign-up was successful Join the club Get full access to premium articles, exclusive features and a growing list of member rewards. Explore An account already exists for this email address, please log in. Subscribe to our newsletter A new report from TrendForce gives us some optimistic nuggets of info about the RAM crisis It appears that retail prices are dropping in the US, Europe, and especially over in China right now The bigger picture hasn't changed much, though, according to memory chip makers, but we can still hope this is the start of a turnaround at least for consumers If you were hoping for some
good news on RAM pricing, well, there are some glimmers of light on the horizon though obviously we'd be very foolish to get carried away with any optimism.

VideoCardz spotted various positive signals that mainly come from analyst firm TrendForce, which has a new report (based off a bunch of sources) about how RAM pricing is now falling. That includes recent observations we've already reported on , such as the German retail market seeing a drop of 7%
for DDR5 RAM price tags in March (echoed elsewhere in Europe). The report notes that this is being reflected elsewhere, too, namely in the US and Chinese retail markets, where it's happening in even more pronounced fashion. Article continues below You may like RAM crisis shows signs of easing as DDR5 prices drop but there's a catch RAM crisis gets worse as DDR5 hits a new
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Wccftech recently flagged up that a Corsair 32GB DDR5 RAM kit had dropped in price by 20% in the US, for example, and in China, 16GB sticks of DDR5 have fallen by something like 25% to 30% since hitting peak prices in January through to February (this is on "local e-commerce platforms").

32GB kits in China have also dropped by 15% or more, we're told, and Harukaze5719 on X points to a drop of the equivalent of $15 over the past weekend, noting: "The market is in turmoil as prices have fallen sharply in just one or two days."

And on top of all that, we're told that spot prices have dropped sharply in one of Shenzhen's major electronics trading hubs, with 32GB RAM modules falling in price by as much as a third in some cases.

Part of the reason behind this happening is that consumers are looking at now sky-high RAM prices which, despite the noted falls, are still ridiculously expensive, certainly in the US and Europe and just refusing to buy. This is an inevitable 'softening' of demand from consumers as TrendForce puts it. Get daily insight, inspiration and deals in your inbox Sign up for breaking news, reviews, opinion, top tech deals, and more. Contact me with news and offers from other Future brands Receive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors By submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over.

In the bigger picture in terms of tech developments, we also have Google's TurboQuant which reduces the memory demands that AI makes. And as Hardware Canucks flags up on X , Sam Altman has supposedly gone back on big RAM purchase announcements made for OpenAI previously, and that does align with the firm scaling back its ambitions on multiple fronts (recall the recent pulling of the plug on Sora , too). Analysis: a welcome drop at retail (Image credit: Unsplash / Liam Briese) So, what to make of all this?

On the one hand, TrendForce notes of Bai Wenxi, Vice Chairman of the China Enterprise Capital Alliance and Chief Economist for the China region (via Chinastarmarket.cn ): "Looking further ahead, he expected the structural supply-demand imbalance to gradually ease, with DDR5 16GB module prices potentially normalizing by end-2026." What to read next DDR5 RAM hits painful new high and price-hike misery will likely continue Good news! RAM prices seem to have finally stabilized - bad news, it's probably because memory prices are so high, that it's forcing most of us to give up buying anything MSI exec calls 2026 the 'most challenging year' ever due to RAM crisis

That is, presumably, referring to the Chinese market, and no other forecasts are calling that RAM pricing will stabilize this year at all. Even the brighter predictions are saying this won't happen until 2027 at the earliest (and many reckon 2028, and others still believe that normalization won't
occur until the end of the decade ).

Additionally, TrendForce makes it clear that Taiwan-based memory chip makers are "broadly maintaining strict pricing discipline", so their profits are not dipping meaningfully (yet). TrendForce says: "Contract prices have so far
held firm, and server-side HBM and DRAM demand has remained largely intact, with major suppliers reportedly locked into multi-year agreements with key clients."

This mainly appears to be a drop in prices at actual retail, then although that's obviously great news for consumers, even if the big RAM hoovers out there on the commercial side aren't getting anything much of a break.

The report concludes: "On balance, the current DDR5 price correction appears to be a consumer-driven, short-term adjustment rather than a definitive
signal of structural demand deterioration."

Still, I'll take that, and there's quite a little flurry of more optimistic predictions here, which are definitely welcome compared to the general highly negative vibe around memory price hikes . As ever, we need to watch the
coming months, and keep our fingers crossed that retail prices keep going on this downward track. The best laptops for all budgets Our top picks, based on real-world testing and comparisons

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Link to news story: https://www.techradar.com/computing/memory/ddr5-retail-prices-pullback-amid-ma rket-correction-trendforce-report-sparks-hope-that-we-might-be-turning-a-corne r-in-the-ram-crisis


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