Memory crisis: Asus announces noticeable price increases
Exploding costs, limited availability and expensive old devices: the hardware market is facing difficult times. Asus is directly passing on the massive price increases for memory chips from January and warning of ongoing shortages.
Asus confirms price adjustments for hardware
Asus is raising prices for select SSDs and DRAM kits. The increase will take effect on January 5, 2026. The Taiwanese manufacturer thus confirms indications of corresponding adjustments – which have already been criticized as a “deadweight effect”. Asus also wants to expand the production of motherboards for DDR4 memory in order to offer cheaper alternatives to the more expensive DDR5 standard. However, rumors of getting into RAM production themselves were denied.
For end customers this now means higher prices. Asus is not alone with this step. Dell had already implemented price increases of up to 30 percent in mid-December. Laptop manufacturer Framework stopped selling RAM individually and adjusted its prices.
Massive increase in the cost of memory chips
Asus cites structural changes in the global supply chain as the main reason. The sharp increase in demand for AI hardware is causing manufacturers to shift production capacities to High Bandwidth Memory (HBM). This causes bottlenecks in classic DRAM and NAND flash.
After carefully reviewing market conditions, supply stability and our product quality commitments, as well as continuing our investments in technical research and development, ASUS plans to make strategic price adjustments for certain product combinations starting January 5, 2026. This adjustment is a necessary decision after absorbing and responding to cost pressures over a period of time. The aim is to ensure stable supply, maintain quality and service levels and continue to support your long-term planning for important IT investments. Asus statement
Like the market research company TrendForce citing DigiTimes reported that the prices for memory chips rose significantly more than expected last year. Forecasts from the middle of 2025 assumed an increase of around 45 percent. In fact, DRAM components increased in price by up to 171 percent by the beginning of November, and NAND flash increased by up to 246 percent by mid-December. According to sales sources, memory now accounts for almost 20 percent of the total material costs of a PC.
The development affects the entire PC market. TrendForce lowered its forecast for notebook shipments in 2026 and now expects a decline of 5.4 to 10.1 percent compared to last year. Both new purchases and upgrades are becoming noticeably more expensive for consumers. The price situation is not expected to ease until the second half of 2026 at the earliest.
“Evasive maneuvers” on older platforms
Given the high costs, many PC users are increasingly turning to older generations of hardware. The goal is to avoid spending on DDR5 memory and current PCIe 5.0 SSDs. Zen 3 generation processors for the AM4 socket, including the AMD Ryzen 7 5800X, are becoming increasingly important again because they offer a comparatively good price-performance ratio. This development also has consequences for the used and remaining stock market:
- Used Ryzen 7 5800X3D sometimes achieve higher prices than newer models such as the Ryzen 7 9800X3D.
- System integrators are increasingly selling PCs without pre-installed RAM so that existing modules can continue to be used.
- The availability of DDR4 motherboards is being extended, among other things through appropriate strategies from Asus.
How durable these alternative strategies are remains to be seen. Samson Hu, co-CEO of Asus, said the company is flexibly adapting its product mix and specifications to volatile market conditions, according to reports. For users, this initially means accepting higher prices or relying on existing hardware until the situation in the supply chains eases.
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