This version of the article misses important information from the original source Trend Force who issued a report on DDR4 prices which news sites have been quoting.
In addition to the supply constraints mentioned, the original report also cited Trump’s tarrifs which alongside the manufacturing supply slump could cause panic buying in the US specifically. This is speculation but based on the possibility Trump could “issue new tariffs or restrictions related to production capacity against China. This, in turn, may trigger another round of panic buying,”
The original report was posted to twitter with “Tarriff fears may trigger further panic buying”
It’s odd to talk about panic buying and not explain where that has come from. Also odd not to mention Trump’s tariffs when that was a key part of the original report in June.
Panic buying == the republicans’ idea of economic stimulus
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I love me some Dance Dance Revolution, but I had no idea it was coming back
Please tell me why…do we build castles in the sky…
I wouldn’t waste any money on DDR4 at this point. The only excuse I could think of is if you have a motherboard that requires DDR4 and your current RAM is not working. Otherwise, get a motherboard that supports DDR5 and you’re good.
Which would also require a new CPU depending on the current setup. And rebuilding the whole PC just to upgrade the memory?
Get a new case, and fan, and maybe a liquid cooling setup too. And switch operating systems while you’re at it. Might as well upgrade to larger SSDs. And it’s a good opportunity to go down the mechanical keyboard rabbit hole as well.
That’ll be 3500, and 2 months of tweaking please.
What stage is after ‘owning more mechanical keyboards than you have excuses for using them’?
Hmm. I’ll let you know when I figure that out because that’s the stage I am at?
Correct. Yes.
… But also with a lot of other perks and some downsides… if you are willing to consider a different paradigm for a pc build.
I say: Adapt, Improvise, Overcome.
I present to you…
… the Minisforum BD 795i SE.
https://store.minisforum.com/products/minisforum-motherboard
https://www.amazon.com/MINISFORUM-Motherboard-BD795i-SE-PCIe4-0/dp/B0DQ8WXMKP
ITX Mobo + soldered on AMD 7945hx processor, outperforms by a significant margin any standard cpu+mobo combo you could get for the current price, which is under $400 pre tax.
So thats a mobo, high powered labtop AM4 cpu, that uses ddr5 sodimm ram.
Oh and you can just slot any ole normal GPU into its PCIe x16 v5.0 slot, its got two standard SSD M2 2280 gen 4 slots you can put your existing SSD(s) in.
There you go, for your consideration, there’s your upgrade/sidegrade path, or your framework for just a new build, given that GPUs now basically cost as much or more than … everything else in a pc combined.
…
Pop out your old mobo, this thing is ITX so it’ll probably fit in your old case, though that isn’t guaranteed.
Grab 32gb (2x16) of 5200/5400/5600 sodimm ddr5 ram for roughly $90 to $110.
(You could go as high as 2x48gb = 96gb but frankly 95% of people will be a ok with 32gb)
Sell your now apparently appreciating in value standard form ddr4 ram.
Grab a noctua 120mm nf-f12 pwm fan for $20, or some equivalent from your preferred fan company, slap that on the massive built in cpu heatspreader, you’re good to go.
Sell old cpu heatsink/fan or aio loop.
You may lose the ability to run… an extensive argb case fan setup without some finagling on that front, but who cares, you wont need all of them, this is a very energy and heat efficient cpu.
If you’ve got some kind of nest of internal archive HDDs, yeah, that may be a bit of a problem too, but realistically, not too many people do that, and you can put an internal HDD into a ~$20 enclosure and just turn it into an external hardrive, something like this:
https://www.amazon.com/X-MEDIA-XM-EN3451-BK-3-5-Inch-SATA-Enclosure/dp/B00ARNCYEU
Oh and also switching to this kind of paradigm, paired with say a non XT AMD 9070, this’ll do basically all gaming you could want at 1440p, and will almost certainly substantially lower your total setup power draw… if you’re maybe also worried about just general rising energy prices.
Which you probably should be.
You can also now consider just downsizing your rig’s case, and power supply, to a portable ITX form factor, or an mATX form factor, should the idea of your PC not weighing 60+ pounds appeal to you.
There are a good number of ITX cases that will fit most full size GPUs, some via a riser cable, some not even needing one.
A good reason for staying with DDR4 at this point in time is if you need faster boot times. DDR5 makes computers boot slower because it’s less stable and needs more work during POST to get stable.
In many cases it’s not a requirement though, and the speed improvements of DDR5 after boot outweigh the extra boot time.
You mean memory training?
Thats only really an issue during first boots or after a reset due to FW updates (or you didnt turn off memory training after each boot).There are much more steps than just training. Even after training you still have slower boot speeds.
Can’t say that my PC (r7 7800x3d) boots any slower than my company issued notebook (i5 1235U).
Anecdotally the same for my older PC which had DDR4 (i5 6th gen)
Initial Training isn’t done on every start. Training only happens when you change the configuration.
There are much more steps than just training. Even after training you still have slower boot speeds.
Shouldn’t be a problem for me - I plan to skip DDR4 and go straight to DDR5, or maybe what comes after, at some point. Still running 32GB DDR3 here.
What kind of speeds you get on that old DDR3?
I’m not sure - I don’t measure it. It’s in my home server running Linux. It does everything I want and is >90% idle most of the time - so it’s fast enough. And I just realized I lied in my original comment - my laptop has DDR4 RAM, but it’s already at max. capacity so I won’t have to worry about buying more.
I am in the same boat. I am waiting for a CPU that properly handles more then 128gb of memory while not costing 5 grand.
What kind of tasks do you do that require over one hundred gigabytes of RAM? Just curious. Video editing?
Virtualization, container’s, databases to name a few. Mostly hobby though. But I do not need a thread ripper. It would be nice but the huge price jump is not worth it. Unfortunately HEDT is dead.
You must run a bunch of stuff, I imagine.
But yeah, a Threadripper with 96 cores runs at 11k+ USD where I live. There are cheaper ones, like half of that. But that’s still no joke. 5k is still more than I paid for my entire new beefy computer with a 9950X3D, 9070 XT, 64 GB DDR5, 2 TB 9100 Pro SSD, and a 24 TB HDD, plus a very high-end motherboard.
All that, cheaper than a single Threadripper. 😅
Yeah also with Ryzen you quickly run in to PCIe lane limits. 2 GPUs a fiber nic and say 1 HBA and your over the limit
What would you need 2 GPUs for in a server?
Desktop. GPU passtrough.
I thought this was about dance dance Revolution at first?
It is, this is the latest version, Dance Dance Revolution 4: G.SKILL edition.
Came here to say “Wait, aren’t we on like Dance Dance Revolution 20?” DDR4 had some bangers, but shouldn’t affect the solar industry.
Did this also happen when DDR3 was phased out?
It happens every time different types of ram are phased out. The price drops for a while until excess inventory is sold off and then prices increase due to scarcity. You wouldn’t see it with SSDs because new models tend to be backward compatible.
I think DDR3 only became more expensive than DDR4 when there were no new motherboards to support them.
AI is speeding up the process of retiring DDR4 if I am not wrong.
care to explain a bit more?
AI is the culprit. Memory manufacturers prefer to use their available production capacity to make DDR5 and HBM memory. Both forms of faster memory play a role in modern (AI) systems. DDR5 is also the standard for modern computers, but HBM memory is particularly popular for AI accelerators.
Manufacturers have no motivation to increase DDR4 capacity. DDR5 and HBM5 have more customers, and manufacturers who want the legacy memory have no choice but to pay a premium.
Source: https://itdaily.com/news/business/ai-maakt-ddr4-duurder-dan-ddr5/
I’ve seen the claim around but I’m highly skeptical of it. DDR5 is far too slow for anything where memory bandwidth really matters, any newly produced chip that’s gonna be used for AI is on HBM3 or HBM3e, or possibly GDDR6/GDDR7 if it’s a GPU pulled from the consumer segment. HBM5 is still a very, very early research project and is certainly not being produced yet.
It’s about 50€/16GB over here in France. DDR5 goes for 75€ and upwards. Used is a bit cheaper, especially for the SODIMM.
That reminded me that this exists.
Wow. I wonder how well that’ll work out, like stability, need to lower frequency…
