why is ram so expensive right now?

[Legolessed]

i went looking at some ram for a build and it was like $100 for ram when it used to be like $20-$50. whats going on here?

[Zando_]

Larger capacity, faster, basically better. 

[Oshino Shinobu]

Transitioning phase between DDR3 and DDR4 caused a shortage in supply while demand went up, so prices rose. It has stayed high, either due to a continued shortage of supply or simply because the manufacturers realised that people were still buying it at the increased price so didn't lower it again. 

[Orangeator]

I think more of it fails or something like that when it is being manufactured causing the price to go higher.

[Windows7ge]

I also wondered. I use to know an answer at to why but then I legitimately forgot it. I think it had to do with a lot of people were buying. So many people in fact that they dropped the prices so people would buy even more. Then demand dropped of so the price rose again. This was a few years back. Before DDR4 was a thing.

[Ctown0812]

Give this a read .  And the prices will only get higher it seems.  

[A Silver]

12 minutes ago, Legolessed said:

i went looking at some ram for a build and it was like $100 for ram when it used to be like $20-$50. whats going on here?

There is a shortage of the memory or something.

[Cyracus]

I seem to remember Linus talking about 2 of the 3 memory manufacturers working on a die shrink and having a hard time with it, so less yields and more cost for them and well, crap rolls down hill, and we're at the bottom of the hill