- DDR5 RAM in Germany is now about 4.4x more expensive than in July 2025
- DDR5 rose 27% month on month in January 2026
- DDR4 and DDR3 jumped 46% month on month and are now 3.2x higher than July 2025
- GPUs and storage are also rising, making full PC builds significantly pricier
If you have been thinking about upgrading your PC memory, here comes another unwelcome reality check. RAM prices in Germany are still rising fast, and the latest numbers suggest the wider market is not done squeezing buyers yet. What makes this week’s update especially grim is not just how high DDR5 has climbed, but how quickly older memory is now following the same path.
A German pricing tracker that monitors retail listings across a spread of popular RAM kits has updated its latest index for January 2026, and the results reinforce what many PC builders have been feeling for months. The cost of system memory is inflating at a pace that makes even recent price spikes look tame.
DDR5 remains the headline culprit. It has already become painfully expensive, and while its rate of growth has slowed slightly, it is still climbing hard enough to hurt anyone building a new rig or trying to future proof an existing one.
DDR5 is still the main pain point
According to the January 2026 snapshot, DDR5 RAM in Germany is now roughly 4.4 times more expensive than it was back in July 2025. That is a massive jump in only half a year, and it tells you everything about how tight supply and demand has become.
Month to month, DDR5 pricing rose by 27% in January. That is still a steep hike, but it looks almost reasonable compared to the previous surge, when DDR5 shot up by an eye watering 93% from November to December.
In other words, DDR5 is not calming down. It is simply switching from a near vertical climb to a slightly less extreme slope. That might sound like progress, but for buyers staring at checkout totals that have doubled and tripled, it is not much comfort.
The practical result is predictable. More people are delaying upgrades, buying smaller kits than planned, or hunting for any value they can find across mainstream speeds and capacities. The problem is that even “good deals” now feel expensive, because the baseline price has moved so far upward.
DDR4 and even DDR3 are starting to chase it
Here is where things get more worrying. DDR5 was always expected to carry a premium, especially while it becomes the default for newer platforms. What is harder to swallow is that DDR4 and even DDR3 are no longer the safe fallback options they used to be.
In January 2026, DDR4 and DDR3 kits tracked by the same index jumped 46% in price compared to the previous month. That is not only a huge monthly rise, it is also faster than their increase the month before, which was already bad at 30%.
Overall, DDR4 and DDR3 pricing is now around 3.2 times higher than it was in July 2025. That still puts them below DDR5 in total inflation, but the momentum is clearly building. Older memory is catching up, and the gap is shrinking.
This shift makes sense when you look at how buyers behave during a pricing crisis. Once DDR5 becomes too expensive to justify, people start leaning on DDR4 builds. Some even dust off DDR3 systems for basic computing, simply because it feels like the last remaining bargain in a market that has lost its mind. That extra demand puts pressure on supply, and the cycle feeds itself.
Even so, DDR3 is a compromise most users should avoid unless they truly have minimal needs. It can keep a simple machine running, but it is not a sensible long term plan for anyone who cares about performance, modern compatibility, or upgrade flexibility.
This is not just about RAM anymore
The bigger story is that memory is not the only PC component creeping upward. The same tracker points to another uncomfortable trend: GPUs are also rising in price, up 14% compared to September 2025. That might look small next to RAM’s wild jumps, but graphics cards are already expensive enough to blow a budget on their own. A steady increase there adds insult to injury.
Storage is also taking a hit. SSD prices are reportedly up 79%, while hard drives have climbed 53% compared to July 2025. Put it all together, and building a PC from scratch is becoming a far pricier project than it was just months ago.
The outlook is not exactly encouraging. Prices do not appear to be heading back down anytime soon, and the best case scenario is that some components plateau rather than continue rocketing upward. A true drop would likely require a major shift in the market, and right now there is no obvious sign of that kind of relief arriving soon.
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