If you’ve tried to piece together a PC build over the last six months, you know the pain. RAM prices haven't just been high; they've been astronomical.
We went from $150 DDR5 kits to $700 "luxury items" almost overnight. But for the first time in 2026, we’re actually seeing some downward movement.
It looks like the "AI-driven shortage" might have been built on a bit of a hollow foundation, and the market is starting to realize it.
One of the biggest reasons for the sudden cooling is a massive shift in market sentiment.
Reports from Tech4Gamers and various industry insiders suggest that the "RAM-pocalypse" was partially fueled by hype.
Word on the street is that OpenAI signed "Letters of Intent" with Samsung and SK Hynix for a staggering 40% of the world’s DRAM wafer supply.
While the market treated these as ironclad purchase orders, sending prices into a vertical climb, it turns out they weren't actually binding.
As it becomes clear that these massive amounts of RAM haven't actually changed hands, the artificial pressure on the supply chain is starting to leak out.
Google’s "TurboQuant" to the Rescue?
The other major factor is technical. Google recently unveiled an algorithm called TurboQuant.
In simple terms, it's a new way for AI models to handle "working memory." Researchers claim it can compress the memory requirements for large language models by up to 6x without losing accuracy.
Their logic: If the AI giants (who have been outbidding us for every single chip) suddenly need 80% less RAM to run their bots, that supply has to go somewhere.
And as a result, we're seeing "cracks" in the price surge as manufacturers realize they might actually have to sell to gamers and regular consumers again to keep their volume up.
What the Prices Look Like Right Now
We aren't back to "cheap" yet, but the needle is moving. According to price trackers like CamelCamelCamel and PCPartPicker, we’re seeing drops across the board:
Component, Peak Price (Early 2026), Current Price (April 2026)
Corsair Vengeance 32GB DDR5, $439 $379
Crucial Pro 6400MH32GB, $420 $310 - $350
High-end 64GRDIMMs: $700+ $55050
Should You Buy Today?
This is the million-dollar question. Analysts at Gartner recently warned that memory costs could still remain volatile through the rest of the year because manufacturers are shifting so much focus to AI-specific chips (HBM).
However, if you’ve been sitting on a 16GB kit and your PC is chugging, this is the first real "sale" we've seen in nearly a year.
If the Google TurboQuant tech actually rolls out to data centers over the next few months, prices could drop another $50–$100.
But if another AI hype cycle kicks off, we might look back at $310 for a Crucial kit as a "steal."
Personally, I'm holding for another few weeks to see if the "OpenAI ghost order" news forces retailers to get even more aggressive with their discounts.
Are you guys holding out for lower prices, or have you already pulled the trigger on an upgrade?
