Many people are aware that the cost of computer memory (RAM) has increased significantly but the reality of the impact has not even started yet.
We have spent 2 weeks analysing trends, finding news events, speaking to insiders and here are is our reality check for 2026.
The RAM prices are just the tip of the iceberg – there are bigger problems.
RAM (Tracking Common DDR5-5600 2x32GB Price in GBP) in July 2025 was £165 and in January 2026 is now £741 as the lowest available price.
Currently by the end of January we are on a 5x (4.5x on Jan 23rd) increase over 2025 prices and 32GB is expected to hit over £1050 by July or possibly even leap frog to £1500+ if a large scale stock shortage takes place.
The problem is, there is almost no possibility of this price dropping in 2026, in fact 2027 will likely be no different based on current industry news.
Our only hope is that the AI purchasing of RAM (the cause) will slow down in 2027 and help to reduce the cost but there is no firm confirmation of this, only dreams at this point but we are working on current facts and insider information.
So how does this RAM increase affect businesses and home users?
Currently, computer enthusiasts, designers, editors or gamers have suddenly realised that they can’t buy a new system at a reasonable price or even upgrade their systems due to stock outages or huge price increases but this is just the beginning.
By February 2026 most stock with legacy pricing from 2025 will be depleted for certain and this is when the suppliers will be forced to increase the prices of all other products, like laptops, graphics cards, storage and pre-built computers to the latest values.
People are likely to pay double the price on any basic home computer, work laptop and triple the price on high end systems. A basic work 16Gb laptop that costs £900 now could well be £1400 to £1800 and a good laptop of £1900 now will be £2800+
If you are a SME and it was time to upgrade your ageing office computers with a modern yet basic system with 16Gb of RAM:
Basic Office 50 computers @ 2025 base box pricing 50x £750 = £37’500 but mid 2026 you would be paying 50x £1200 = £60’000.
Design Office 20 computers of 64Gb+RTX @ 2025 pricing 20 x £1500 = £30’000 and in 2026 it would be 20 x £3500 = £70’000.
Graphics Cards: NVIDIA 16GB RTX 5080 from £1000-£1200 to £2000 to £2600+
NVIDIA is shifting production from January 2026 to AI chips in 2026 downscaling production of consumer graphics cards for extra profit.
RTX 5070 Ti and 5060 Ti are being ‘paused’ possibly indefinitely due to high RAM costs vs card values.
RTX Super cards are now no longer going to be produced and overall a pause on new releases.
You may think the 5090 predictive prices seems a bit excessive but it’s due to the card using a full scale GB202 architecture vs normal cards with cut down chips, which means NVIDIA is likely to use this production line on expensive AI wafers and reduce production massively for the 5090.
Storage NVMe/SSD: 1TB NVMe SSD from £60-£80 to £230-£320 and 2TB £130-£150 to become £400-£550.
RAM will likely stabilise mid way through the year.
How is this going to affect computer retailers?
After calling some of the leading computer suppliers in the UK – most will not even discuss how this has affected their business, only Scan.co.uk had the honesty to talk about it and due to their stock diversity will hopefully weather this storm.
Other companies like Overclockers UK literally refused to talk to us and after looking at their financials, I would say they are in panic mode.
Private people and businesses are going to hold out most likely until 2027, hoping for a price drop but its going to kill sales in 2026.
Expect to see a collapse of some major IT retailers in 2026, we lost Ebuyer recently and that was prior to these increases.
Bottom line.. if you need to buy anything – do it right now don’t wait unless you are willing to wait at least a year or pay the premium.
Also consider the trend of switching to Linux and your older equipment will perform a lot faster than on Windows 11.
