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Is 2026 going to be the year of the RAM drought? It's starting to feel entirely possible
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(Image credit: Maingear)
- Two major boutique PC makers are warning about memory-driven price increases
- Maingear's CEO tells us to consider buying now, as RAM 'prices will continue to rise'
- CyberPowerPC says the prices of its gaming PCs are going up from December 7 due to the RAM price hikes
If you want more evidence that Black Friday might be the best time to buy a new PC, then we've just been treated to another couple of nuggets (among other recent warnings).
This isn't just about new PCs, mind, but specifically the price of memory rising sharply – so system RAM is now suddenly very expensive, as is storage (a different kind of memory, of course). The combined rise in the cost of RAM and SSDs means pressure is being put on the price of new desktop computers with these components inside. (GPUs are another casualty here, too, as these boards use video RAM, compounding the difficulties for PC manufacturers).
- Amazon Black Friday deals are live: here are our picks!
The first nugget comes from Wccftech interviewing the CEO of PC maker Maingear, Wallace Santos, asking what advice he'd give to consumers who are building, or upgrading, a PC, given the possibility analysts have raised that memory shortages might continue into 2027.
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Santos observed: "We’ve already seen DRAM prices skyrocket due to the shortages and are holding off those price changes for our customers as long as we can. For consumers that are interested in getting a new PC or upgrading their current system’s GPU, SSD or RAM, they should consider shopping now and looking for offerings that have not seen price increases yet."
On top of that, VideoCardz flagged that CyberPowerPC, another supplier of prebuilt computers, has announced on X that the prices of its gaming PCs will be going up as of December 7 due to unfavorable market conditions, namely those memory price hikes.
CyberPowerPC says that RAM prices have surged by 500% and that SSD prices have doubled, and that this obviously has a direct impact on the cost of its gaming PCs, an effect that has been felt since the start of October.
Price Changes Coming December 7th 2025, Due To Market Conditions 🔔‼️ pic.twitter.com/et0HADhc08November 25, 2025
Analysis: RAM raisers
CyberPowerPC is correct when it notes that October was when RAM prices really shot up, after several months of warnings that this was going to happen. Although nobody predicted the magnitude of these rises (which actually started late in September, based on what I've seen, but that's nit-picking really – the gist is it's a recent development).
Get daily insight, inspiration and deals in your inboxContact me with news and offers from other Future brandsReceive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsorsBy submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over.Has the price of memory increased sixfold, though, over the past two months? Well, no, not for consumers anyway. RAM kits have doubled in cost, or in worst-case scenarios come close to trebling – which is still a nightmarish rise, of course.
CyberPowerPC notes in the replies on the highlighted thread on X that its "price increases will be temporary" and they will "adjust back accordingly when market conditions change". The PC maker mentions that its current projected increase in price is in the order of $80 for a PC with 16GB of RAM and a 1TB SSD, and $160 for a gaming rig with 32GB and a 2TB SSD.
So, if you are thinking of buying a new PC, a Black Friday deal is likely your best bet for possibly quite some time. Because firstly, you'll likely be able to find some kind of a discount, and secondly, you're getting in before these price hikes really start to be felt.
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As Maingear's CEO notes, the PCs it's selling now were sheltered from the price hikes, as the components were bought a while back. But that won't be the case for much longer, and indeed Santos makes it clear that the situation is going to get worse, saying: "I anticipate that the prices will continue to rise and then we will eventually have to increase our lead times as stock and allocation becomes constrained."
While CyberPowerPC talks about 'temporary' prices rises, don't let that give you the impression that they will be short-lived – it just means they won't be permanent. As to how temporary these hikes might be, the overall buzz is suggesting that 2026 is going to be a bad year for memory pricing, and maybe we might witness an actual RAM drought.
Attach the usual caveat about not having a crystal ball, but it's getting to the point where it's difficult to believe that this memory shortage isn't going to be a full-blown crisis throughout much, if not all, of next year, and perhaps on into 2027. And if you're looking at PC components, it's kind of too late for RAM, but a Black Friday deal on an SSD or particularly a graphics card could be a smart move, too. We also have the best Black Friday laptop deals if you want to go that route as well.
The best graphics cards for all budgetsOur top picks, based on real-world testing and comparisons➡️ Read our full guide to the best graphics card1. Best overall: AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT2. Best budget: Intel Arc B5803. Best Nvidia:Nvidia RTX 5070 Ti4. Best AMD:AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX
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Darren AllanDarren is a freelancer writing news and features for TechRadar (and occasionally T3) across a broad range of computing topics including CPUs, GPUs, various other hardware, VPNs, antivirus and more. He has written about tech for the best part of three decades, and writes books in his spare time (his debut novel - 'I Know What You Did Last Supper' - was published by Hachette UK in 2013).
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