A Stunning Shift in PC Component Value
In a dramatic illustration of today’s volatile tech market, a new milestone has been reached: you can now buy a top-tier NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 graphics card for less than a high-capacity kit of DDR5 memory. This price inversion, once unthinkable, highlights the extreme supply and demand forces currently reshaping the PC hardware landscape, driven overwhelmingly by the global artificial intelligence boom.
In China, the Asgard Valkyrie 256GB DDR5 Memory kit is listed for 16,999 RMB, while the official MSRP for NVIDIA’s flagship GeForce RTX 5090 D V2 graphics card in that region is 16,499 RMB. This means the memory kit, a component once considered a supporting player, now carries a premium of roughly 500 RMB (about $70) over one of the most powerful gaming GPUs on the planet.
Soaring Prices for Maximum Capacity
The kits in question are not standard memory. They represent the extreme high end of consumer capacity: a 192GB kit (4x48GB) and a 256GB kit (4x64GB). These are designed for users who need massive memory for professional workloads like 8K video editing, complex simulations, or AI model development on desktop platforms.
The price trajectory has been steep. Just months ago, similar 192GB kits could be found for under $1,000. Today, the Asgard 192GB Thor kit is priced around 8,599 RMB (~$1,200 USD), and Corsair’s comparable 192GB kit in the US retails for over $2,249. The 256GB kit’s jump from 14,599 RMB to 16,999 RMB in a short period shows how quickly manufacturers are adjusting to market pressures.
The Root Cause: AI Demand and DRAM Memory Shortages
This unprecedented situation stems from a perfect storm. The explosive demand for high-bandwidth memory (HBM) and DRAM from AI data centers has created a severe industry-wide shortage. Memory manufacturers have pivoted production to meet this lucrative demand, constricting the supply of chips for the consumer market.
As a result, the remaining supply for DIY PC components has become more expensive. With companies like Micron reportedly shifting focus away from parts of the consumer segment, the remaining vendors have greater pricing power. This has led to a rapid inflation in the cost of high-capacity memory, affecting everyone from professional creators to PC enthusiasts who simply want plenty of RAM for their new build.
Also, Read
- ASRock Radeon RX 9070 Hits Record-Low $509, Undercutting AMD’s MSRP
- ASUS Demands $4,600 to Replace RTX 5090 Over Microscopic Crack, Customer Calls It a Design Flaw
- AMD’s Next-Gen Gaming CPU, Ryzen 7 9850X3D, Spotted in Early Benchmarks
For PC builders, this serves as a stark reminder of the interconnected nature of modern technology. The same AI revolution enabling new software features is also making it more expensive to build the powerful machines needed to run them.