Component shortages

RAM shortages & price increases.

What is RAM?

RAM/Memory is your computer’s short-term working memory. It temporarily stores data and instructions that your processor needs to access quickly while you’re actively using your computer.

Think of it like a desk workspace: RAM is where you spread out the documents and tools you’re currently working with, while your storage drive (SSD/HDD) is like the filing cabinet where everything gets stored long-term. The more RAM you have, the more programs and tasks you can juggle simultaneously without slowdowns.

When you open a game, application, or browser tab, it loads into RAM so your processor can access it instantly. If you run out of RAM, your computer must swap data back and forth with the much slower storage drive, causing lag and stuttering.

For gaming PCs specifically, having adequate RAM (typically 16-32GB these days) ensures smooth gameplay, faster loading times, and the ability to run games alongside other programs like Discord or streaming software without performance hits.

Timelines

Currently the computer industry is experiencing a severe memory crisis with dramatic price increases that began intensifying in mid-2025 and is expected to continue through at least 2027-2028. Here’s what’s happening:

RAM

RAM/Memory component contract prices have increased by 171.8% year-over-year as of Q3 2025, making memory price increases outpace even gold. Consumer DDR5 RAM prices have more than tripled since mid-202. So our normal Adata XPG 32GB DDR5 kit that cost was costing us £107 in July, now sells for around £330. 

Graphics cards

Nvidia are reportedly no longer supplying VRAM to its GPU board partners in response to memory crunch. This has lead to a supply issue with the Nvidia RTX 5070 Ti graphics card. Which means we are no longer able to get hold of stock at reasonable prices, due to this we are no longer selling 5070 Ti gaming PCs. 

It is also looking like this will be extending to the RTX 5070 graphics cards aswell with price rises and stock shortages already showing. We expect to stop selling 5070 gaming PCs in the near future. 

SSDs

The issues have now also spread to SSDs. A 2TB SSD used to cost us around £96. The same SSD now costs £240.00.

Root Causes

AI Data Centre Demand: The primary driver is the explosive growth in AI infrastructure. Memory manufacturers have reallocated more than three times the capacity to produce High Bandwidth Memory chips for AI workloads compared to conventional DRAM.

High Bandwidth Memory chips (HBM) are used in AI like NVIDIA graphics cards, which is far more profitable than normal RAM. So RAM manufactures like Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron are shifting production away from consumer DDR4/DDR5. With some brands like Crucial, now stopping the sale of RAM to consumers entirely.

Supply Shift: The three major manufacturers control roughly 70% of the DRAM market and began phasing out legacy DDR4 and mobile memory to focus on lucrative AI server memory.

Depleted Inventories: After oversupply in 2022-2023, DRAM inventory fell to approximately 8 weeks delivery by Q4 2025, down from a peak of 31 weeks delivery in Q1 2023.

Panic Buying: Device makers and system builders are over-ordering and stockpiling memory to hedge against future shortages, creating additional demand pressure.

Beyond DRAM

The crisis extends to all memory types. NAND flash memory for SSDs is also experiencing shortages, with some companies claiming this is the first time in 30 years that DRAM, NAND, and HDD storage are all simultaneously in shortage. SSD controller specialist Phison’s CEO warned of NAND flash prices doubling in six months.

Timeline and Impact

Industry experts warn that shortages will worsen in Q1 and Q2 2026 once distribution stockpiles are exhausted, with relief not expected until late 2027 or potentially beyond. Memory prices are expected to surge an additional 30-50% every quarter from the end of 2025 through the first half of 2026.

For your gaming PC business, this means significantly higher component costs that will likely persist for several years, affecting both your build costs and customer pricing. The shortage is impacting all memory-dependent products including DDR4, DDR5, SSDs, and even graphics cards due to GDDR memory constraints.

What this means for JS Computing?

Unfortunately, this component shortage means that we cannot guarantee the cost of our PCs for any length of time, the price quoted on our website is only valid when you view the price.

So, the price of our PCs may increase on a day-to-day basis.

We are also expecting that we may have to cease all sales of computers due to stock shortages, our suppliers have even go so far as to warn us of this and pre-emptively limit the amount of RAM each customer is allowed to purchase at any one time.

We are currently no longer advertising 64GB of RAM options on our website. This is because the price of 64GB of RAM has gone from costing us around £150-£180 including VAT to a now staggering £820 for the exact same memory kit. Even using different memory or using two sets of 32GB RAM would cost around £600.

We are quite happy to do custom builds with 64GB of RAM, please get in contact if you’d like to discuss this.

We are no longer able to get hold of stock at reasonable prices, due to this we are no longer selling 5070 Ti gaming PCs. 

As mentioned in the article above it looks like the price & shortages will only get worse as time goes on. The minute we can drop prices we will do.

To find out more you can also watch this video by Gamers Nexus on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9hLiwNViMak

If you have any questions please do get in contact and we will be happy to help.