DDR4 RAM Price per Gigabyte Today

What changed and why

DDR4 is no longer the cheap option it was, and that catches a lot of people out. Micron issued end-of-life notices in June 2025, and Samsung and SK hynix extended production only because DDR4 prices had risen far enough to justify running an old line. At points through 2026 DDR4 traded above DDR5 per gigabyte. Moving to an older platform is not a way around the shortage; it is a way into a part nobody is building more of.

Desktop memory is priced by a market it is not part of. The makers divide wafer capacity between high-bandwidth memory for AI accelerators, server DIMMs and consumer modules. HBM earns the most per wafer, server modules next, consumer least. When AI demand expanded, consumer allocation was cut first, and the price of a gaming kit became a function of how many accelerators are being built.

DRAM contract prices rose roughly 90 to 95% quarter on quarter in the first quarter of 2026, and the pressure has not eased since. TrendForce forecasts a further 10 to 15% on DRAM contract prices in Q4 2026, with AI server demand sustaining increases even as consumer demand weakens. That last detail is what breaks the usual intuition: softening consumer demand normally pulls prices down, but the consumer buyer has stopped being the marginal buyer.

Reported capacity commitments make it concrete. DRAM and HBM output for all of 2027 is described as booked and sold under long-term agreements, leaving no additional supply to release into the retail channel that year. Separately, production needs to grow around 12% a year through 2027 to meet demand against projections nearer 7.5%, which leaves makers able to fill roughly 60% of global demand by the end of 2027.

Who it hits, and how hard

Every figure on this page is a median across several brands for each specification, not a lowest price. A lowest-price index is dominated by whichever single listing happens to be discounted that day, which makes the market look more volatile than it is and means the number you see is rarely one you can buy.

Owners of existing DDR4 desktops adding a stick or two are in the best position: a small purchase at a premium is still cheaper than a platform change.

Anyone planning a large DDR4 expansion should price it against a newer platform including what the old machine is worth. End-of-life parts at a premium can cost more than they are worth putting into an old board.

Server owners on 14th and 15th generation Dell or HPE Gen10 hardware face the sharpest version of this, because those platforms cannot take DDR5 at all. Our DDR4 RDIMM page covers it specifically.

Laptop owners with DDR4 SODIMM slots should check the maximum the machine supports before buying density, since many cap below what the processor allows.

What to do now

1. Compare the current DDR4 and DDR5 per-gigabyte medians before assuming the older generation is cheaper.
2. For a large expansion, price the modules against a platform change including the resale value of the old machine.
3. Decode an unfamiliar part number with our RAM part number decoder to confirm rank, width and whether it is registered.
4. Check whether your board enables ECC at all with the ECC support check before paying for ECC modules.
5. For servers, read the registered DDR4 page, where the end-of-life premium is sharpest.
6. Buy matched pairs where the platform wants them; mixing speeds makes everything run at the slowest module.

Outlook

No cited source promises relief before Q4 2027, and several extend to 2028. Samsung and Micron have both reiterated that shortages last through 2028.

We publish no forecast of our own. Everything above is someone else's published position, with the date it was published and a link to it, because a price forecast from a site that sells against those prices is worth nothing to you.