Have 4GB Laptop RAM modules increased in price?

I haven't been tracking 4GB DDR3 RAM modules, but to get 8GB (2x4GB) costs minimum $170 at newegg.com. Has this changed recently because it seems expensive.

 

In March and April when I was looking at my laptop, 8 gigs were running $370 to $400. So I would say $170 is a very good price.

 

I havn't been looking at laptop ram but desktop 2gb x 2 sets have gone down ~$10-20 since July.

 

Hmmm, $170 is still a little steep for me. Guess I'll wait a while longer. I toy with virtual machines on my desktop with 8GB (4x2GB) and have been using my laptop more and more and even for some virtual machines. Would be nice to have the extra space... oh well, will have to do for now. Maybe when I buy my next laptop sometime next year.

 

I say buy now while it's cheap. I've never seen 4 gig sticks this cheap before. If you can't afford it now, I doubt you'll be able to afford it down the road. Chances are prices will go back up.

 

RAM prices have gone up* since the fall of a ram giant Qimonda back in 09~. They filed bankruptcy.
That plus the transitioning of DDR2 to DDR3. :| Ram prices suck, and will keep going up in price.

 

I thought RAM prices went up for a while because most factories were retooling facilities from DDR2 to DDR3? So there was little production of DDR3 during that time driving DDR3 prices up as well as DDR2 beacuse little production of either was being made?

And what companies does Qimonda make chips or modules for?

 

DDR2 went up as it's being phased out, DDR3 is dropping as it's the current standard.

DDR3 will continue to drop for a while to come but I wouldn't expect 8gigs of DDR2 to make any significant drop for a few years. It's probably pretty close to bottoming out.

 

Phew... A ton. I've seen them on every laptop/desktop brand, excluding apple i believe..
Not to mention qimonda also makes chips for several aftermarket ram vendors:
Crucial
Aeneon (Qimonda)
Corsair
Patriot
OCZ
Nvidia GPU's (8800 series is confirmed to have used Qimonda on certain brands)

Are some that I know 100% have used Qimonda before.
I am not sure about others personally, however I do not doubt that every aftermarket ram manufacturer has used them before..

Here's some short ram lists.
DDR2 RAM List
DDR3 RAM List

Also they're were of the few companies producing GDDR3/GDDR5.
Here's some article about the price increase.
DRAM prices spike after Qimonda bankruptcy | ITworld

 

All/most. The dram market is extremely convoluted and there aren't direct supply chains like you would think.

 

Great... wonder how they could have gone bankrupt. Well, maybe corrupt management as usual?

 

Well, it's either replace my five year old RRoD Xbox 360 or get 8GB of DDR3 for my laptop

I guess I could sell my 2x2GB DDR3 for $50 if that's even a decent rate considering new is about $80 and offset the price a bit.

 

They went bankrupt not because of management but due to massive price drop in memory when there was an oversupply two years ago (remember when you could get dirt cheap DDR2?). Since they made memory chips for so many companies, they lost a lot more money than other companies.

 

Yeah I remember 1gb DDR2 going down to near $17~ each stick. 4gb (2x2gb) kits were in the $50-$60's.

 

I remember buying 2x2GB DDR2 800 sodimm brand new for $43 shipped in August '09. Now that was ridiculous.

 

Supply and demand... swings and roundabouts...

It was nice to have it working in our (buyer) favour for once, rather than all the out-of-stock-ness that usually accompanies the good much-demanded stuff.

Although, all the 1333MHZ sodimms I can find at reasonable price are CL 9, which is really very little difference in performance from CL 7 1066MHz ddr3 (I wouldn't be surprised if they're the same chips)

But here in Oz we get shafted... same Corsair 8gb 1066CL7 kit on newegg for usd$179 is aud$269 cheapest... and $aud has been over usd$0.90 for a long time now...

 

Don't worry. It is still more expensive in mainland China than the US, and that is where a lot of it is made.

 

Geez, i didn´t know about the Qinonda situation, and why the RAM prices became higher.
Last year 2 x 2Gb DDR2 was at about US$ 50, now it´s US$ 80

 

Well, the good thing for now at least is 4GB is more than adequate for probably 99% of users out there. Heck 2GB is probably fine for most.

 

i agree... 4GB is really enough.

 

... you say as you sit there smugly with your 8GB. Personally I'd prefer 6 or 8GB but can't justify it atm unless I run into serious issues with my virtual machines. XP is fine with 512MB and Win7 with 1GB for what I do, but sometimes it gets me to ~ 3.8GB.

And according to this poll, people must find 4GB as the sweet spot or just don't want to spend the money for 6GB or 8GB.

 

personally , i haven't used more than 4GB ever out of 8GB...its just good to know you won't be bottlenecked with 8GB RAM for CAD , Photoshop or Matlab

 

Yeah, well most G73's came stocked with 8GB anyhow didn't they except for the Best Buy model?

I was gonna say you could sell 4GB and use that towards a 60-64GB SSD but I see you already have a 128GB C300. Jerk. J/K.

 

4GB modules have gone down in price a ton in the last six-seven months.

During the Winter they were $250 and gradually decreased to about $150 in the spring, and over the summer have dropped to $100 or less on Newegg.

The way I calculate of RAM modules are expensive is by looking at the capacity of the single stick vs. two sticks that equal its capacity, e.g.:
Corsair 2x2GB kit: Newegg.com - CORSAIR 4GB (2 x 2GB) 204-Pin DDR3 SO-DIMM DDR3 1333 Laptop Memory Model CMSO4GX3M2A1333C9 $86.99
Corsair 1x4GB kit: Newegg.com - CORSAIR 4GB 204-Pin DDR3 SO-DIMM DDR3 1333 Laptop Memory Model CMSO4GX3M1A1333C9 $90.99

No reason to upgrade if you are not using 75% or more of your RAM often . . .

 

Sorry but i ain't poor ... anyways , i had as much money to spend on the G73JH as the UK one which was 2400USD so i got a 128GB C300.. i've used 30GB only so far

 

yeah, if you have an SSD *AND* a Momentus XT, you really only need space on the SSD for OS and apps. Games and everything else (even page file) can go on the XT. At least that's what I did.

 

wait... wait .. how do u get the pagefile on XT?

 

Fairly simple, right click computer -> properties -> advanced system settings -> Advanced tab -> Performance settings -> Advanced Tab -> Virtual Memory click "Change..." -> On this page do the following:

- Deselect "Automatically manage paging file size for all drives"
- Click C: (SSD) drive and select "No Paging File" click "Set"
- Click D: (XT) drive and select either "system managed size" or set "custom size" and click "set"
- Clik Ok all the way back out and reboot.

 

Right-click My Computer->Properties->Advanced System Settings

Click the settings button under "Performance", click the "Advanced" tab, then the "Change" button under "Virtual Memory."

Uncheck "Automatically manage paging file size for all drives" then you can set it to whatever you want, on whatever drive you want, or have no page file at all. Set what you like, reboot, and you're done.

I have mine at 2 GB because some legacy stuff I run can sometimes behave weirdly if I disable it entirely.

 

I got the idea to run some benchmarks to see if it makes any difference for my usage. I'm the average user with web, music and some office.

I found out 4GB does actually make some tasks faster. But you're right 2GB would be fine for me too.

 

I run 2GB in my netbook and is used for basic tasks, heck even some gaming, and memory useage is usually less than 1.5GB, typically under 1GB.

 

i have actually felt the RAM Bottleneck wehn using 1GB of RAM with XP so 4GB was a real upgrade but to be frank , 4GB should be the minimum for nowadays..