Between price explosion and market distortion: How the DRAM boom is strangling the gaming market

The dramatic price increases for DRAM, both DDR5 and GDDR6/6X, will cast a long shadow over the gaming PC market in 2025. Edward “Ed” Crisler, PR Manager at Sapphire, gets to the heart of the matter in the Hardware Unboxed podcast: “The current price trends are eating through all levels of GPU manufacturing like a black hole, fueled by the insatiable demand from AI infrastructure.

RAM is eating up the market

The equation is brutally simple: DRAM is becoming scarcer, DRAM is becoming more expensive. The massive expansion of AI data centers in particular is causing memory manufacturers to redirect their production capacities towards HBM, GDDR6 and specialized server solutions. The end customer? Must pay or do without. Ed draws parallels here to the Bitcoin era: whoever pays more gets the contract, the rest go away empty-handed. The result is a multiple domino effect: if you can’t afford the memory, you don’t build new PCs. Those who don’t build new PCs don’t buy mainboards, power supply units or coolers. The market is not shrinking linearly, it is collapsing in phases.

AIBs between price pressure and system limits

The internal mechanics of manufacturers such as Sapphire are also interesting. The memory package (GPU VRAM) is supplied directly by AMD, including a price premium. According to Ed, this is currently a moderate 10-20 dollars per card. This sounds manageable, but is quickly put into perspective in view of the extremely volatile raw material and logistics costs. The partner companies (AIBs) themselves have hardly any leeway. Although they can cushion smaller price spikes, in the end it is the retail price that is dictated by supply and demand. And it is precisely the latter that is being artificially consumed by the AI sector.

The bottleneck is not just storage

Ed makes it clear that it is not just memory that is limiting. Production capacities at TSMC, supply bottlenecks at ASML and packaging problems in final chip assembly are also causing a systemic shortage. More production sounds good in theory, but is years away in practice.

Stabilization? Yes. Easing? No.

Sapphire’s optimistic outlook: the greatest uncertainty could subside by mid-2026. Not because prices are recovering dramatically, but because the market is starting to get used to the new price level. According to Ed, the real poison is not the price increase itself, but the chaos caused by a lack of predictability.

What this means for gamers

Ed appeals to common sense: if you don’t have any acute upgrade pressure, you should wait and see. Because the technology cycles have already shifted. If you have a reasonably up-to-date GPU today, you can easily play for 3-4 years without having to upgrade. Panic buying will only drive prices up further.

Shadows of the past, risks of the future

An underestimated point: the GPU market has grown thanks to gamers. Should the industry permanently move away from this base – in favor of short-lived AI profits – there is a risk of strategic misallocation. Ed warns that anyone who forgets their roots is risking the branch they are sitting on. As a positive example, he cites Valve’s Steam Deck initiative, a possible alternative if classic GPUs become a scarce commodity.

Source: Youtube