DDR2 price increases while DDR3 price set to drop

Author: Tim Smalley
Published: 24th January 2008
Comments (16) Stumble
If 2007 was the year when DDR2 prices hit rock bottom, 2008 looks like it will be the year when DDR3 becomes affordable.

If 2007 was the year when DDR2 prices hit rock bottom, 2008 looks like it will be the year when DDR3 becomes affordable.

After a year where DDR2 memory prices hit absolute rock bottom (with 2GB DDR2 kits now available on the market for just over £30), it looks like they might actually be on their way up again.

DRAMeXchange, a Taiwanese market research company that monitors the DRAM industry, has data that shows the price of DDR2 memory is slowly increasing.

At the start of last year 512Mbit DRAM chips cost around US$6 a pop, but by the end of the year, the same chips would only cost memory manufacturers around US$0.94 each. Just this week, these DRAMs have now increased to between US$1.00 and US$1.20 a chip, depending on the type of memory chip the memory manufacturers are looking to buy.

Meanwhile, the price of 1Gbit DRAM chips has also increased to over US$2 each, with current prices around the US$2.10 to $2.40 mark. This means that it’ll cost memory manufacturers between US$16.80 and US$19.20 to acquire enough DRAMs to build a 1GB module.

At the other end of the market, DDR3 has had little penetration thus far because it has been far too expensive for it to make sense in the DIY market. However, DigiTimes reports that Intel, in conjunction with the DRAM manufacturers, is aggressively pushing to increase the volume shipments for DDR3 in an effort to drive the prices down to within 10 percent of the price of equivalent DDR2 modules in the second half of this year.

The report claims that Intel is expected to subsidise some PC manufacturers if they migrate to DDR3-based Intel platforms, as it will eventually help to migrate the entire industry over to DDR3. Additionally, DigiTimes’ sources reckon that around 30 percent of new PCs will be DDR3-based in the fourth quarter of this year.

With the increased DDR2 DRAM chip prices, it’ll be interesting to see how prices change over the next few weeks and, at the same time, we’ll have to wait and see whether or not DDR3 makes its push for the mainstream later in the year.

Discuss in the forums
Quote MilkMan5 24th January 2008, 16:13
No surprises here, DDR-III needs to make an impact this year.

DDR-III pricing is wayyy tooo expensive at the mo.
Quote <A88> 24th January 2008, 16:24
Best buy that 8GB of DDR2 sooner rather than later then :(.
Quote WhiskeyAlpha 24th January 2008, 16:26
Better not sell my G.Skill HZs just yet then eh? ;)
Quote Angleus 24th January 2008, 16:27
I knew it, I had this argument with my housemate about 4 months ago, HAHA now I am proven right!
Quote mrb_no1 24th January 2008, 16:27
WICKED AWESOME, i was thinking of going x38 and ddr3 in the latter part of this year, maybe now it wont cost so much, lovely!

peace
Quote HourBeforeDawn 24th January 2008, 19:42
well this only makes since, look at DDR prices compared to DDR2 prices, so naturally DDR3 would go down and DDR2 to go up, not to mention pc manufactures will make the switch to DDR3 and that will certainly drop the price as they pick up the grunt of the cost making it cheaper for the consumer, which is nice but once the pc manufactures drop DDR2 prices will really start to go up and by then I really dont want to see what DDR will go for lol.
Quote Redbeaver 24th January 2008, 21:09
i'm glad too i picked up 4gb of ddr2-1066 for my 64-bit OS already, for $59.99/2gb kit ;)
Quote [USRF]Obiwan 24th January 2008, 22:29
"seeing is believing"
Quote naokaji 24th January 2008, 23:00
in the uk ddr2 prices never went as far down as elsewhere.... but i bet the price increase will still hit here too....
Quote ToMMo 25th January 2008, 00:06
unless it's all a ploy to make us buy more RAM in which case the prices might go down even more :O
Quote supertoad 25th January 2008, 00:27
ah-ha! i knew buying that motherboard with ddr2 and ddr3 slots would pay off.
Quote Blademrk 25th January 2008, 06:39
looking at the price of 2GB corsair kit in the shopping section for £37 incl postage, I think I may have to get that next month.
Quote cpemma 26th January 2008, 01:14
One thing, DDR2 is a quarter the price of DDR these days. Replacing a 512Mb PC-3200 was going to cost me at least £25, for £27 I've got 2Gb of PC2-5400.
Quote boiled_elephant 26th January 2008, 01:36
Even if DDR2 put on a third of its current price, it'd still be dirt cheap :p I'd best start buying too, though.
Funny, I read the article, but I still don't see why DDR2 prices need to rise. I feel like someone is trying to rob me :(
Quote Gravemind123 26th January 2008, 05:06
Quote:
Originally Posted by boiled_elephant
Even if DDR2 put on a third of its current price, it'd still be dirt cheap :p I'd best start buying too, though.
Funny, I read the article, but I still don't see why DDR2 prices need to rise. I feel like someone is trying to rob me :(

Could be more expensive as facilities switch to making more DDR3, leaving less facilities to turn out DDR2.

Same thing happened with DDR when DDR2 started to take over.
Quote 8igdave 26th January 2008, 16:00
It will be ages till the high speeds of DDR3 are truely needed for overclocking, by then decent DDR3 will be out with lower timings and even better boards to run it on.
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