Short answer: RAM is so expensive in 2026 because the three big memory makers have turned their factories towards AI data centres, which pay better, and PCs get what is left. Contract prices for standard DRAM rose by about 93% to 98% in the first quarter of 2026 alone, according to TrendForce's 1 June 2026 report, and TrendForce's 11 November 2026 forecast has PC DRAM contract prices rising another 13% to 18% in the fourth quarter of 2026. TrendForce is not forecasting a fall, so don't park a build waiting for one. If you're buying in South Africa now, buy only the capacity you'll use, keep the DDR5 you already own, and look at DDR4 if the budget is tight.
RAM prices have been going up for more than a year, by TrendForce's count on 11 November 2026, and you can see it in the DDR4 and DDR5 memory we stock. On 15 November 2026 the cheapest matched 32GB (2×16GB) DDR5 kit we had in stock, a Corsair Vengeance RGB DDR5-6000 kit, cost R11 631. An AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D cost R9 046. The memory costs more than the processor.
Prices checked on 15 November 2026 and include VAT. AZ Online sells memory and some of the other products in this guide. Prices and stock change daily, so apart from a few dated figures we link to the live page.
Why is RAM so expensive in 2026?
RAM is expensive in 2026 because the three largest memory makers, Samsung, SK hynix and Micron, moved production towards AI data centres. Those data centres buy HBM, the high-bandwidth memory used in AI servers, along with high-capacity server DRAM modules. TrendForce's 1 June 2026 report describes the three makers favouring those higher-priced, higher-margin server products, with new supply going to server modules first. That, it says, limits what PC and phone makers can get.
The effect shows up in contract prices, which are what big buyers such as server, PC and phone makers agree with the chip factories. For conventional DRAM, TrendForce's label for ordinary memory chips as opposed to HBM, they rose by roughly 93% to 98% in the first quarter of 2026. TrendForce has forecast a further rise for every quarter since, each smaller than the last.
| Quarter of 2026 | Change (%) | Status | TrendForce release |
|---|---|---|---|
| First | Up 93–98 | Reported result | 1 Jun 2026 |
| Second | Up 58–63 | Forecast | 1 Jun 2026 |
| Third | Up 13–18 | Forecast | TrendForce, 3 Jul 2026 |
| Fourth | Up 10–15 | Forecast | TrendForce, 30 Sep 2026 |
These are contract prices for chips, quarter on quarter. They are not rand shelf prices, and one does not convert neatly into the other. Local pricing also depends on exchange rates, shipping and what stock is in the country, as one supplier told MyBroadband on 13 April 2026. It lags, too. In the same report Acer's South African country manager said stock secured in late 2025 had been cushioning the rises, and that he expected the full effect on retail shelves between May and July 2026.
How much have prices risen in South Africa?
South African retailers told MyBroadband on 8 January 2026 that their RAM prices had risen by at least 150%, and by 200% to 250% for DDR5. On 13 April 2026 one of them put DDR5 at 180% to 220% above the fourth quarter of 2025, and DDR4 at 90% to 140%.
Those are sellers' estimates, measured from different starting points, so don't read them as a trend line. For anyone pricing a whole PC, MyBroadband's own comparison of 22 August 2026 is more useful. One 16GB DDR4 kit cost about 229% more than it had just over 500 days earlier, yet a PC built from the same or similar parts came to roughly 21% more. Memory is one line on the quote.
None of these figures is newer than August 2026. Treat them as a guide to scale, not to today's shelf.
Will RAM prices go down in 2027?
Nobody can tell you when RAM prices will go down, and as of 15 November 2026 TrendForce was not forecasting a fall. Its 11 November 2026 note has PC DRAM contract prices rising 13% to 18% in the fourth quarter of 2026, with the increases slowing from the quarter before.
There are signs the pressure is easing. The same note says notebook shipments fell 15.8% from the second quarter of 2026 to the third, that some PC brands ordered more memory than they needed, and that some now plan to adjust their memory orders for the fourth quarter and the first quarter of 2027.
There are also signs it will hold. Memory makers have tentatively planned cuts to PC DRAM supply for 2027, the note says, because AI demand still comes first. In a 6 November 2026 note about phone memory, TrendForce said DRAM price increases are expected to gain further momentum in the first quarter of 2027.
So the rate of increase has slowed and the direction has not changed. We don't know when it will, and neither does anyone selling you RAM.
What should you do if you're building or upgrading now?
If you're building or upgrading a PC now, buy the memory the build needs when it needs it, and put your effort into not paying for memory you won't use.
Buy the capacity you'll use
Capacity is where the money goes. On 15 November 2026 a single Hiksemi Hiker 16GB DDR5-4800 stick cost R4 466, so every 16GB you add is a real line on the quote.
Measure before you buy. On the PC you have now, open Task Manager with Ctrl+Shift+Esc, go to the Performance tab and watch the memory figure with your heaviest game or project running, along with the browser tabs and chat apps you normally leave open. If use stays well inside what is installed, extra memory you never fill does nothing for you. If it sits near the limit, the next step up is money well spent.
Buy it as a matched pair where you can. A single stick runs in single-channel mode, and a matched pair is the usual choice for a gaming build. Two of those Hiksemi sticks cost well under the matched DDR5-6000 kit above, but they are base-speed modules sold singly, and our own product page tells gaming builders to look past them. For an office PC, or a first build that can live at base speed, the saving is fair.
On a tight budget, DDR4 still makes sense
DDR4 still makes sense in two cases: you're adding to a PC that already uses it, or you're building to a budget on a platform that takes it. AM4 and Intel LGA1700 motherboards that take DDR4 are still on sale, and on 15 November 2026 two 16GB DDR4-3200 sticks on our site cost less than half of what two 16GB DDR5-4800 sticks did.
There are two catches. DDR4 has not escaped the shortage: the 229% figure above is for a DDR4 kit. And DDR4 does not fit a DDR5 motherboard, so the memory can't follow you to a newer platform later. If you would rather buy a matched pair than two single sticks, the GeIL Orion RGB 16GB (2×8GB) DDR4-3600 kit is one we stock.
If you're on AM5, keep your DDR5
If your PC is already on AM5, the memory is the part to leave alone. AMD said on 31 May 2026 that it is extending support for the AM5 socket through 2029, and that a longer roadmap "can reduce the need for full system replacements".
In practice a processor swap can be the whole upgrade: keep the board, keep the DDR5, change the chip. That only works if your board has the BIOS update the newer chip needs, so check the board maker's CPU support list before you order. And if the DDR5 you own works, swapping it for a faster kit is about the poorest use of money we can think of this year.
Buy memory with a local warranty
When chips are scarce, where a module came from matters more than usual. In a MyBroadband report of 18 June 2026, the chief executive of a South African distributor that supplies us warned that some smaller memory and SSD makers, unable to get new chips, were building products with used, pulled or reworked ones. Some assemblers, he said, were mixing chips from different manufacturers on one module, which can cause compatibility or performance problems.
His company sells memory to shops like ours, so he has an interest in where you buy. The check is worth doing anyway. Before you pay for memory at a price that looks too good, find out who honours the warranty and in which country, and buy stock that came through authorised local distribution.
Everything we list is new and sourced through South African distributors. The warranty period is shown on each product page, and a claim goes through us, not overseas to the manufacturer.
Questions people ask
When will RAM prices go back to normal?
Nobody can give you a date. As of 15 November 2026 TrendForce was still forecasting rising DRAM contract prices, though more slowly than earlier in the year. The first real sign will be a TrendForce quarterly forecast of flat or falling PC DRAM contract prices. Shelf prices lagged contract prices on the way up, so there may be a gap on the way down as well.
Should I buy RAM now or wait?
If you need the memory for a build or an upgrade, buy it: nothing in TrendForce's forecasts rewards holding out for a market-wide fall. Individual specials come and go, and ours are on the deals page, but one discounted kit tells you little about where prices are heading. If you don't need more memory, the cheapest move is to buy none.
Why are SSD prices so high too?
SSD prices are high because SSDs are built on NAND flash, and data centres have been buying that up as well: TrendForce's 3 July 2026 note names AI and large data-centre deployments as the main driver of NAND demand. The pressure on PC drives is lighter than on PC memory, though. TrendForce's 11 November 2026 note forecasts contract prices for client SSDs, the drives that go into PCs, rising by less than 5% in the fourth quarter of 2026. Buy the capacity you need from the SSDs and NVMe drives we stock.
Are graphics cards affected by the memory shortage?
Yes, though by less than RAM. A graphics card carries its own memory, called GDDR, and TrendForce's 30 September 2026 note says suppliers are scaling back GDDR6 production while GDDR7 output stays limited, which it expects to keep graphics memory prices rising. A South African retailer told MyBroadband on 13 April 2026 that graphics cards were up 20% to 25%. Check current graphics card prices before you budget on a figure you remember from earlier in the year.
Next steps
- See today's DDR4 and DDR5 prices.
- Price a full build in the PC Builder, which checks that the parts you pick are compatible.
- If you're replacing the processor and motherboard of an older PC in one go, look at the upgrade kits.
- If you don't know what memory your motherboard takes, send us the model number on WhatsApp, weekdays 08:00 to 17:00.
Delivery is free on orders of R2 500 or more and R180 below that, so add the fee to the sum if you're buying a single stick.