A researcher says ‘we simply undid about 20 years of progress’ on the subject of reminiscence costs, so I broke out my calculator and in contrast precise RAM kits from 2007 to 2026

Everyone knows the price of RAM is ridiculously excessive nowadays due to the worldwide reminiscence scarcity. However it may be helpful (and miserable) to place these costs into context traditionally.

To that finish, scientist, developer, and software program efficiency skilled Daniel Lemire commented on X that “On a historic foundation, laptop reminiscence has been falling at an exponential charge for many years. However we simply undid about 20 years of progress. RAM on a per unit foundation is about as costly because it was in 2007.”

They present a few charts that monitor the historic $/GB metric for RAM. Nonetheless, these are a little bit onerous to parse due to the dimensions and period of the adjustments, so I assumed I might test with some particular costs, evaluating RAM kits from 2007 to immediately. In different phrases, evaluating the costs for reminiscence that you just and I, as avid gamers, would have truly used.

After a little bit of a nostalgic scour by way of a few of my previous discussion board posts round that point (after I was a mere 13 years previous), I found that in 2007 I used to be the proud proprietor of 4 GB (2x 2 GB) of DDR2-800 RAM. I am fairly positive it was 2x 2 GB of TeamGroup Xtreem reminiscence—and sure, that ‘800’ means simply 800 MHz.

Scouring a little bit extra, I discovered that 4 GB capability was on the higher finish for 2007, and lots of people had been nonetheless utilizing 2 GB (2x 1 GB) of DDR2, which was sufficient for 32-bit Home windows (do not forget that?).

discussion board posts discussing offers on RAM kits, we are able to see that good offers on 4 GB RAM kits value about $100 on the time. Actually, some customers again then had been shocked to see 4 GB of DDR2 going for therefore low cost. Keep in mind that these had been deal costs, ie, cheaper than the norm.

Trying to 2 GB kits, there are threads highlighting offers at round $60 (or $45 after rebate).

Judging from these, for the highest capability, again then we had been about $25/GB, and for the extra widespread capability we had been about $30/GB.

What are we coping with immediately? Properly, whether or not we glance to 32 GB or 16 GB kits, on the time of writing the value per GB for reasonably-specced DDR5 is about the identical for each: $15–16 per GB. An honest 32 GB (2x 16 GB) DDR5 package, as an example, goes for about $500 proper now.

So, we are able to see that—a minimum of when contemplating among the hottest high-end RAM package capacities then and now—reminiscence remains to be technically cheaper per GB immediately. However in fact, that is not the total story.

It is in all probability extra helpful to as a substitute evaluate merely how a lot it value to get a ‘good’ quantity of RAM for a gaming PC. Again then, that was 2 GB or 4 GB. Lately, the equal can be 16 GB or 32 GB, with a weighting towards the latter.

Right this moment, it’s important to spend $500 to get some respectable RAM for a high-end gaming PC (32 GB), or about $250 for an inexpensive minimal (16 GB). Again then, you needed to spend solely $65–100. Even factoring in inflation, that may have been about $100–$160. Even when these numbers aren’t utterly correct, they’re so removed from immediately’s RAM costs that the gulf between the 2 definitely holds.

Evaluate that to final yr, earlier than the reminiscence disaster, and we see costs for 32 GB of quick RAM sat round $100–150. In different phrases, about what you could possibly anticipate to spend for 4 GB of quick RAM in 2007. In that sense, all that progress, which permitted 32 GB to be offered for a similar worth as 8x much less capability value in 2007, has been undone.

So, whereas it may not be straightforwardly true, a minimum of so far as end-consumer RAM kits are involved, that we have utterly undone 20 years of progress from the easy perspective of price-per-GB, it’s true that RAM now prices a heck of much more than again then due to the reminiscence disaster.

Final yr, you’ll spend the equal of what you’ll in 2007 to purchase a good quantity of RAM for a high-end PC. Now it’s important to spend 4x that.

It isn’t been the happiest journey down reminiscence lane, however there we go.