I wonder if there will be a point after the bubble bursts that RAM will be cheaper than it’s ever been due to the fact that “demand” have seemingly fallen off a cliff for them between when they sold out and when the bubble finally pops.
If the RAM they were building for the datacenters was identical to the RAM for PCs, then maybe. Instead, I think they’ll have to slowly switch back to making regular PC RAM, and the shortages will continue.
What seems possible is China intervening. RAM isn’t as difficult to produce as other chips, so it’s possible they might spin up fabs and factories to supply their own domestic market, and eventually start exporting too. Currently 90%+ of RAM is made by Micron (USA), SK Hynix (South Korea) and Samsung (South Korea). China doesn’t like to depend on other countries, and it probably has the capacity to manufacture RAM. And, it probably knows that if it gets good at making RAM it has a good chance at outcompeting the other 3 in the long run. So, I don’t expect any short term fixes, but in the long run this might mean cheaper RAM with a 4th major supplier.
Well the chips itself are the same, but instead of soldering them onto pc ram sticks, they solder them onto data center RAM which is incompatible with a typical consumer pc.
However if the bubble bursts you could start resoldering the chips.
This is expensive and takes some skill. And not every chip will survive it.
I wonder if there will be a point after the bubble bursts that RAM will be cheaper than it’s ever been due to the fact that “demand” have seemingly fallen off a cliff for them between when they sold out and when the bubble finally pops.
If the RAM they were building for the datacenters was identical to the RAM for PCs, then maybe. Instead, I think they’ll have to slowly switch back to making regular PC RAM, and the shortages will continue.
What seems possible is China intervening. RAM isn’t as difficult to produce as other chips, so it’s possible they might spin up fabs and factories to supply their own domestic market, and eventually start exporting too. Currently 90%+ of RAM is made by Micron (USA), SK Hynix (South Korea) and Samsung (South Korea). China doesn’t like to depend on other countries, and it probably has the capacity to manufacture RAM. And, it probably knows that if it gets good at making RAM it has a good chance at outcompeting the other 3 in the long run. So, I don’t expect any short term fixes, but in the long run this might mean cheaper RAM with a 4th major supplier.
They’re already spinning up fabs since a few years ago, and they’re not that far behind. Gamers Nexus did a video on that topic a few weeks ago…
GN video
Well the chips itself are the same, but instead of soldering them onto pc ram sticks, they solder them onto data center RAM which is incompatible with a typical consumer pc.
However if the bubble bursts you could start resoldering the chips.
This is expensive and takes some skill. And not every chip will survive it.
But still might be cheaper than buying new RAM.