Price Check Q3 2016: DRAM Prices Down Over 20% Since Early 2016
by Anton Shilov on July 25, 2016 12:01 AM ESTHigh Capacity and HEDT DDR4 Pricing
Now, let’s take a look at larger kits designed for HEDT systems. Due to the intracacies of the quad-channel memory controllers inside Core i7 Extreme Haswell-E and Broadwell-E processors, HEDT kits do not boast with extremely high frequencies because it is hard to run four modules at high clock-rates. Even then, at moderate frequencies such DRAM sub-systems deliver a lot of bandwidth. What memory kits for HEDT do require are sub-timings optimized for their operation in quad-channel mode since in far not all situations a pair of dual-channel kits will work fine in quad-channel mode.
Due to the fact that HEDT kits do not operate at extreme data-rates, there are a lot of options to choose from since virtually all suppliers of DRAM modules offer such kits, including Crucial, Corsair, G.Skill, Mushkin, Patriot and so on.
Crucial Ballistix Sport LT DDR4-2400/CL16 4×8 GB (BLS4K8G4D240FSC)
Crucial introduced its Ballistix Sport LT DDR4-2400/CL16 32 GB (4×8 GB) kit (BLS4K8G4D240FSC) relatively recently and back in February it used to retail for $224. Today, it is available for $139.99 at Amazon and for $139.99 at Newegg. Moreover, there are Ripjaws 4 kits from G.Skill with CL15 timings that cost $134.99 at Newegg, but which are absent at Amazon, most likely due to distribution.
Next up are 64 GB DDR4 kits for high-end desktops. Another quad-channel set of memory modules from Crucial, the Ballistix Sport LT DDR4-2400/CL16 64 GB (4×16 GB) kit (BLS4K16G4D240FSE) seems to be among the most affordable options. The product currently costs $249.99 at Amazon and the same amount of money at Newegg. When it was added to Amazon’s database in early May, it was priced at $300, but at some point later on its price declined to as low as $195 and $215.
If you want fast memory for HEDT, be ready to pay a lot for it.
Corsair’s Vengeance LPX DDR4-3200/CL16 (4×16 GB) CMK64GX4M4B3200C16
Corsair’s Vengeance LPX DDR4-3200/CL16 64 GB (4×16 GB) quad-channel kit (CMK64GX4M4B3200C16) currently costs $389.99 at Amazon and $389.99 at Newegg. Its competitor, the G.Skill TridentZ DDR4-3200/CL16 64 GB kit (F4-3200C16Q-64GTZKY) retails for $359.99 at Newegg. A good news is that prices of even such high-end kits are rapidly declining: back in February the Vengeance LPC 64 GB DDR4-3200 quad-channel kit cost $630.99.
Corsair's Dominator Platinum Quad-Channel Kits for HEDT
Meanwhile, Corsair’s top-of-the-range Dominator Platinum DDR4 modules continue to be the most expensive in the industry. The company’s Dominator Platinum DDR4-2666/CL15 64 GB (4×16 GB) quad-channel kit (CMD64GX4M4A2666C15) has MSRP of $439.99. However, its actual price at Amazon is $631.99 (up from ~$530 a month ago), hence, no changes from December 2015.
At the moment Newegg does not carry the CMD64GX4M4A2666C15 kit, but it used to cost around $430 in late June there.
By contrast, an octa-module CMD64GX4M8A2666C15 kit is priced at $540.39 (up from $475 a month ago) at Amazon, which is lower than its MSRP of $584.99.
Meanwhile, Newegg sells the Corsair Dominator Platinum DDR4-2666/CL15 64 GB (8×8 GB) kit for $469.99.
It is evident that market trends have an effect on prices of even ultra-high-end memory solutions, which is why their prices are generally declining. Nonetheless, such DRAM kits are still expensive and their exact prices can depend on supply from the manufacturer or distibution rather than the price of DRAM ICs in general. We advise to keep this in mind because fluctuations in pricing can occur on a weekly basis.
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Minion4Hire - Monday, July 25, 2016 - link
JoeyJoJo, just select 180 days instead of 120 on that first chart you link to and you'll see quite clearly that Anandtech's reporting is correct. Compared to the beginning of the year, the current prices are lower. Sure, there have been even lower prices than right now, but prices are still lower than they were 7 months ago.milli - Monday, July 25, 2016 - link
Here in Belgium the same. Prices are up massively. 20 to 40%yuhong - Tuesday, July 26, 2016 - link
DRAMeXchange also shows a higher price for 4Gbit DDR4 than months ago, while 4Gbit DDR3 prices did not increase as much. I noticed that 8Gbit DDR4 is getting close to crossover now.yuhong - Friday, July 29, 2016 - link
8Gbit DDR4 has hit crossover on DRAMeXchange. At the time of this writing, "DDR4 8Gb 1Gx8 2133 MHZ" is at $3.664 and "DDR4 4Gb 512Mx8 2133 MHz" is at $1.836.iwod - Monday, July 25, 2016 - link
Not really interested in consumer DRAM pricing, I mean they are already very very cheap. And it is properly more interesting for LPDDR4 to drop price, since that will be use in some Laptop, Smartphone and Tablets.More interested would be 32GB DIMM and 128GB DIMM drop price, so we can fit 128GB to 1TB Memory on server for very cheap. SQL and Cache Servers.
Flunk - Monday, July 25, 2016 - link
Past trends don't show much connection between the price of DRAM and Nand on phones and tablets. Most of the time then manufacturer pockets the difference.yuhong - Tuesday, July 26, 2016 - link
Interestingly, even 32GB DDR3 LR-DIMMs has been dropping in price. I wonder if this is due to oversupply.tipoo - Monday, July 25, 2016 - link
Offset a bit by the CAD being down to 76 cents American now :(Story of my life is piece together a nice mid range PC on PCpartpicker, oh nice I got it under 1000 - crap, forgot to hit the Canadian flag. Price is now 33% higher plus 15% tax plus the "we hate canadians" markup companies like to do despite nafta. Delete build and cry self to sleep. Repeat monthly.
JoeyJoJo123 - Monday, July 25, 2016 - link
Nobody hates Canada; That's just the price of doing business there in Canada, along with the taxes and other such exchange related problems that businesses are facing and then unfortunately have to reflect down to you, the consumer.If you're upset about Newegg charging you ~40% more than the American website does, then either go across the border and have your parts purchased and mailed there for cheap, or complain to your government officials about the relatively weak Canadian dollar. This really just boils down to economic policy and what your government is doing about it.
andrewaggb - Monday, July 25, 2016 - link
Well to be fair, the whole 'buy america' thing comes across as 'hates Canada'. There's some pretty ridiculous stuff that has resulted, like tearing down a bridge for too much Canadian Steel and stuff like that. And Obama really had it out for the Alberta pipeline, despite plenty of US oil projects and pipelines being built.Anyways, I doubt our current government will do much to improve the $. I think it's more about social policy, child care, etc this time around.