4 ms·

Is there any speculation as to what is causing the drop?

goldcd 4y ago
I'd guess supply outstripping demand - but am open to suggestions from those understanding what the stars are currently doing.
dehrmann 4y ago
The standard explanation for almost everything right now is everyone in the supply chain ordered more than they needed, it caused a supply crunch, but now warehouses are full, and suppliers either caught up in production, or people don't want to be stuck with too much old product in their warehouses.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
drumhead 4y ago
Probably everyone anticipating a recession and holding off on ordering anymore until they get a clearer idea of whats going happen.
dspillett 4y ago
The graphics card bubble seems to be reducing, chip shortages affecting other components may be reducing the need to upgrade RAM¹ both for personal and commercial users, and a general drop in demand because of recent cost of living increases² in many places. Furthermore RAM prices generally may have been kept higher in the last two years due to demand from companies and individuals buying or upgrading kit for home working. Even without the migration of many workers back to offices that extra demand would be rapidly cooling off anyway, as those upgrades and new purchases are³ not part of a regular pattern, so this may be an expected correction. On top of that the tech is no longer as new: production costs will be dropping as processes are refined and output numbers increase. Though I suspect the current drop is more a demand-side thing for several reasons including the above. Also: early pioneers have been scalped already, the next tranche of buyers may not bite until there is this sort of price drop. [1] why bother if other parts of your system won't keep up well enough for you to see the benefit? [2] fuel, food, interest rates rising in some countries affects those with a mortgage, et cacas: fancy tech is a luxury, people may put off such purchases until the costs of essentials settle a bit [3] hopefully!
wmf 4y ago
DDR5 is new and there isn't much demand yet so presumably the manufacturers are ramping supply gradually. I also saw a rumor that the power management IC used by DDR5 DIMMs was in short supply.
wtallis 4y ago
IIRC a lot of the initial DDR5 shortage was caused by short supply of the PMICs that are now included on each DIMM (where previous generations had the voltage regulation on the motherboard). I haven't heard anything recently about that issue. AMD has announced that their new generation of desktop processors launching in the fall will use DDR5 exclusively, while Intel's current desktop processors can use DDR5 or DDR4 depending on the motherboard. So memory manufacturers should be preparing for a sharp increase in DDR5 demand instead of it just being a premium option.
thejosh 4y ago
AMD is going to be supporting only DDR5 for their next series, so supply is going to go way up.
- qeternity 4y ago
  Demand is going to go way up. Supply should (hopefully) follow.

I'd guess supply outstripping demand - but am open to suggestions from those understanding what the stars are currently doing.

dehrmann 4y ago

The standard explanation for almost everything right now is everyone in the supply chain ordered more than they needed, it caused a supply crunch, but now warehouses are full, and suppliers either caught up in production, or people don't want to be stuck with too much old product in their warehouses.

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

drumhead 4y ago

Probably everyone anticipating a recession and holding off on ordering anymore until they get a clearer idea of whats going happen.

dspillett 4y ago

The graphics card bubble seems to be reducing, chip shortages affecting other components may be reducing the need to upgrade RAM¹ both for personal and commercial users, and a general drop in demand because of recent cost of living increases² in many places. Furthermore RAM prices generally may have been kept higher in the last two years due to demand from companies and individuals buying or upgrading kit for home working. Even without the migration of many workers back to offices that extra demand would be rapidly cooling off anyway, as those upgrades and new purchases are³ not part of a regular pattern, so this may be an expected correction. On top of that the tech is no longer as new: production costs will be dropping as processes are refined and output numbers increase. Though I suspect the current drop is more a demand-side thing for several reasons including the above. Also: early pioneers have been scalped already, the next tranche of buyers may not bite until there is this sort of price drop. [1] why bother if other parts of your system won't keep up well enough for you to see the benefit? [2] fuel, food, interest rates rising in some countries affects those with a mortgage, et cacas: fancy tech is a luxury, people may put off such purchases until the costs of essentials settle a bit [3] hopefully!

wmf 4y ago

DDR5 is new and there isn't much demand yet so presumably the manufacturers are ramping supply gradually. I also saw a rumor that the power management IC used by DDR5 DIMMs was in short supply.

wtallis 4y ago

IIRC a lot of the initial DDR5 shortage was caused by short supply of the PMICs that are now included on each DIMM (where previous generations had the voltage regulation on the motherboard). I haven't heard anything recently about that issue. AMD has announced that their new generation of desktop processors launching in the fall will use DDR5 exclusively, while Intel's current desktop processors can use DDR5 or DDR4 depending on the motherboard. So memory manufacturers should be preparing for a sharp increase in DDR5 demand instead of it just being a premium option.

thejosh 4y ago

AMD is going to be supporting only DDR5 for their next series, so supply is going to go way up.

qeternity 4y ago
Demand is going to go way up. Supply should (hopefully) follow.