Six months ago, a Lexar NQ790 SSD with a 1 TB capacity had a Price of 67.68 euros on Amazon. Today that same unit is 139.99 euros: more than double. The worrying phenomenon that we have already seen with DRAM memories is now also beginning to be a reality in this type of storage units, but the worst is yet to come.
what’s happening. At the end of 2025 we already saw how the average price of RAM memory modules had tripled or quadrupled in some cases. This component is becoming an absolute luxury for users and manufacturers not only of PCs and laptops, but also of mobile phones.
AI, once again guilty. The AI industry demands all production for itself, and that has made manufacturers focus on that segment for a simple reason: they make more money than ever thanks to it. The problem? That by dedicating themselves to memories for AI chips and for data centers, they do not have the resources to manufacture memories for the rest of the segments and of course not for end users. And what we already saw with RAM memories is now clearly seen in other components such as SSD units and also graphics cards for gamers.
bad business. If you are undecided when it comes to building your PC, two messages. The first: it doesn’t surprise us. The second: if you are going to Buy the components, do it as soon as possible. The catastrophe that is occurring with DRAM memories was just a prelude to what will happen with other components, and among them, SSD units are directly affected, which will soon also become a small luxury product.
Price of a Lexar 790 1TB SSD on Amazon. Source: CamelCamelCamel
They are already worth more than gold. What happens with the 1 TB capacity Lexar drive is almost anecdotal compared to larger capacity SSD drives. At Tom’s Hardware they made a disturbing comparison: an 8 TB M.2 NVMe SSD weighs 8.2 grams on average and right now its average price is $1,476. And pay attention, because 8.2 grams of gold today costs about $1,150. 4 TB SSD units are “somewhat cheaper” than gold by weight, but even these models can be comparable if we choose one of the units with the best features.
Dangerous trend. In PC Part Picker they have price tracking graphs and the evolution of SSD unit prices is clear. As the image shows, the average price of 4TB NVMe drives is already practically 50% more than it was more than a year ago. For now, prices seem to be weathering the storm due to the inventory that was available, but as shown by the fact that the gray area already occupies almost the entire graph in recent months, those inventory units are disappearing and demand will predictably make this growing trend maintain… or skyrocket even more.
Better not even talk about graphics cards. The RAM memory problem is also affecting the graphics card segment and in recent days we are seeing an important collateral effect. Some manufacturers are abandoning the manufacturing and marketing of some “more affordable” models to focus on more expensive ones. ASUS recently announced that it was stopping sales of its GeForce RTX 5070 Ti, and the reason is simple: this card has 16GB of GDDR7 memory, which is the same as used in the RTX 5080. Why settle for selling a $749 MSRP card when you can sell a $999 card instead?
If you want to buy, the sooner the better.. If you were thinking about upgrading or building a new PC, it seems clear that the best time is yesterday. The prices of memory, SSD units and graphics cards are beginning to break worrying records, and it is not likely that these increases will relax. In fact, everything indicates that they are going to get worse. Bad time for those who were hoping to renew their PC.
In WorldOfSoftware | The situation with RAM prices is so desperate that there are already those who build their own memory at home
