4Gamers recently interviewed David McAfee, AMD’s global vice president and general manager of client channel business, and discussed topics such as memory shortages, DDR5 price increases, and AMD’s long-term platform planning. McAfee said that DDR5 memory is still very expensive, but it is expected to recover slowly, but it will take about 2 years to return to normal levels.
He said that although Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron are all preparing to expand production, they are all focusing on HBM high-bandwidth memory, which is urgently needed by the AI market, and do not care about consumer-grade DDR4/5 at all. China Changxin has indeed made great progress, but it will be difficult to change the overall situation in the short term.
He also pointed out that the storage market has always had cycles of ups and downs, going back and forth, but this time, I am afraid it will take much longer.
Data shows that the agreed price of PC DDR5 memory in April's bulk transaction was 16GB US$35, a month-on-month increase of 6%, and has been rising for four consecutive months.
Half a year ago, this price was only about 10 US dollars, and it has increased to 3.5 times in half a year.
Some manufacturers even bluntly stated that memory prices are expected to double by the end of this year!
Even if you see occasional price cuts, don't get excited. In fact, they are clearing out old inventory to make way for more expensive new memory. The fundamental purpose is to continue to increase prices.
