Framework Raises Memory Prices Again, Suggests Customers Bring Their Own RAM (tomshardware.com) 56
Framework has announced yet another price increase for memory modules, the second in roughly a month, and the company is now actively encouraging customers to source their own RAM elsewhere if they can find better deals. The laptop maker cited "extreme memory shortages and price volatility" as the reason for the hike, noting that 32GB modules and smaller currently cost around $10 per gigabyte while 48GB modules run approximately $13 per gigabyte.
Framework said it expects to raise prices again by January as its suppliers continue increasing costs, a trend analysts predict will persist through 2026. Framework plans to add a direct link to PCPartPicker in its configurators so DIY Edition buyers can compare prices and find cheaper alternatives. The company said its pricing still compares favorably to Apple's roughly $25 per gigabyte and pledged to stay as close as possible to acquisition costs. Storage price increases are also on the horizon, Framework warned.
Framework said it expects to raise prices again by January as its suppliers continue increasing costs, a trend analysts predict will persist through 2026. Framework plans to add a direct link to PCPartPicker in its configurators so DIY Edition buyers can compare prices and find cheaper alternatives. The company said its pricing still compares favorably to Apple's roughly $25 per gigabyte and pledged to stay as close as possible to acquisition costs. Storage price increases are also on the horizon, Framework warned.
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I don't see why it would be needed. These ads are so effective that even though I can't block it and I don't see it, there's always an AC to remind me of it.
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"even though I can block it"
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And what are these "competent leaders" going to do? Shut down industries just because you don't like them? Switch us to a command economy and be like the USSR when they totally missed the computer revolution?
I could see maybe deregulation helping here, namely cutting (but not eliminating) the red tape involved in building nuclear reactors. So many other countries in Europe and Asia have been allowed to benefit immensely from that, so why can't the United States?
But that's all nonsense, am I right? As every
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"And what are these "competent leaders" going to do? "
Enforce law, prosecute criminals. It really isn't that hard to understand.
"I could see maybe deregulation helping here..."
I'm sure you could see that, because doing anything effective you would oppose.
"...namely cutting (but not eliminating) the red tape involved in building nuclear reactors."
That should really help with memory prices! But sure, we get it. The country should do exactly what AI billionaires demand and remove all impediments to their we
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Enforce law, prosecute criminals. It really isn't that hard to understand.
Which law applicable to this do you believe isn't being enforced?
I'm sure you could see that, because doing anything effective you would oppose.
And what effective thing do you want instead?
That should really help with memory prices! But sure, we get it.
I didn't say it would.
The country should do exactly what AI billionaires demand and remove all impediments to their wealth and power building.
Since you obviously haven't noticed, I'll spell this out for you: The ask for more nuclear power in the United States long predates chatgpt.
Just love these deep thinking MAGA types.
Of course, because you're either a stupid progressive or a stupid MAGA. In fact, you're even more stupid than both.
Re: you're even more stupid than both (Score:2)
Really, being 'more stupid than both' would take a lot of effort, right?
Perhaps 'dfghjk' is actually an AI then?
I don't know, I going back to drinking.
Re: you're even more stupid than both (Score:2)
Wouldn't be surprising. This is far from the first time he's said something incredibly stupid on slashdot.
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Our leaders could stop subsidizing [thehill.com] things private industry is perfectly willing to pay for themselves, and local leaders could stop offering data centers tax credits and discounts on energy. [cnbc.com]
If we can't switch ourselves out of our command economy, the next best thing would be to return the profits at the top back to the people in the form of a tax and dividend or a Basic Income so the rest of us can enjoy some of the financial benefit of our AI investment.
Seek compensation (Score:4, Insightful)
Time to steal office supplies from "AI" firms to compensate for the cost increase to society.
After all, in the end it's the regular folks who end up indirectly paying for it.
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Better yet, expose this stupid bubble so it pops sooner and we get normal hardware & electricity prices again.
The "AI" crowd driving the flock (Score:3)
The samaltmans are using the absurd amounts of cash they are awash in to create an artificial component shortages so that you're driven to their "platform".
Nothing like a little old trick to create "demand" out of thin air.
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And how, exactly, are these component shortages artificial? It sounds to me like it's the result of demand in excess of supply, not a reduction in supply.
A more likely explanation is that you got a lump of crack for Christmas.
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Re: The "AI" crowd driving the flock (Score:2)
They're not cornering it, it's just a classic case of demand exceeding supply. We saw this before with Ethereum mining and GPU demand. As soon as Ethereum switched to proof of stake, the prices even went below normal because suddenly the miners and the scalpers had a lot of inventory to unload.
Right now the AI crap is putting similar pressure on RAM and SSDs, which both use similar manufacturing processes. It's going to keep going this way until one of a few things happens:
- AI runs out of money
- New compan
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That's all well and good but how will I pay for my 256GB M5 Max MBP? 128GB M4 is over $6000 so who knows what it will be in 6 months. Eyes are bleedin here, not sure how cornering the market using speculative investment and government money is all that valid an argument. From someone who is not buying into hype but sees some actual value in AI personally day to day, I *need* my RAM fix more than sammy.
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That's all well and good but how will I pay for my 256GB M5 Max MBP? 128GB M4 is over $6000 so who knows what it will be in 6 months.
That's far and above what even the best RAM should cost you. Shit, I spent $500 on the 4TB version of the fastest consumer SSD money can buy about a year ago, and right now DDR5 CL32 7200MT 128GB will cost you around $2,000. And these are top shelf components, the likes of which are well beyond even the best hardware Apple sells, and even retail pricing at that. Realistically, what you're buying there should carry around a $1,000 BOM for Apple. What the other $5,000 goes towards is anybody's guess. My perso
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How are they not? The "demand" for parts is entirely engineered by the delirious circle jerk of one hardware manufacturer, three or four advertising peddlers that claim an absurd "AGI race", the construction mafia, which is now constructing data centers and a bunch of bubble riders who fan the hype so that there are marks to offload this BS to.
There is no evidence of sales or even "growth" promise that can justify anything close to this idiotic splurge.
Buying out all component manufacturing with the splurge
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How are they not? The "demand" for parts is entirely engineered by the delirious circle jerk of one hardware manufacturer
Which one? SK Hynix is bottom tier shit, and they're selling out. But so are the top tier manufacturers like Samsung, Micron, Crucial, and others. There are no less than 17 competitors in this space, and all of them are struggling to meet demand.
Buying out all component manufacturing with the splurge is nothing but a ruse to block any meaningful work that might happen off those few platforms by artificially inflating the cost of hardware. The deepseek lesson learned.
It's a typical fucking bubble dude. You act as though these AI companies are engaged in a conspiracy to make shit more expensive for themselves.
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Which one?
The one lead by the "visionary" in the leather jacket, who keeps the bubble going.
https://www.reuters.com/busine... [reuters.com]
as though these AI companies are engaged in a conspiracy to make shit more expensive for themselves.
No, dude, they're making it expensive for you to do shit off their platforms.
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The one lead by the "visionary" in the leather jacket, who keeps the bubble going.
It's entertaining that you actually believe one American company is responsible for a global shortage. I'm not sure where to begin...maybe starting with TSMC being their own production bottleneck? Who themselves don't deal only with nvidia. Or that the memory chip companies are doing their own fabrication. Or that nobody is building AI chips with a mishmash of different RAM chip vendors with the requisite logistical nightmare and engineering headache of maintaining multiple board variations with separate su
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It's entertaining that you actually believe one American company is responsible for a global shortage.
It is entertaining to see your failure of reading comprehension, although there's little surprise there. You "free-market" nuts are ignorant of how the world works, but stuffed with so many cliches.
Re: The "AI" crowd driving the flock (Score:2)
Meanwhile, you planned economy nuts always wonder why your preferred system has a 100% failure rate.
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Correct
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DRAM on package (Score:2)
Apple processors in the M series have DRAM on package, which provides better signal integrity than crossing a logic board. Apple could have added a SODIMM or CAMM slot for additional RAM to be used as a RAM disk holding a swap file. But they chose not to, instead putting swap in the SLC intake buffer of the soldered-in SSD.
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which provides better signal integrity than crossing a logic board.
Unless you have components that are total shit, this isn't going to do you any favors. Then again, this IS apple we're talking about, who sources components from companies like SK Hynix, who is so notoriously bad that enthusiasts who build their own computers won't buy from them because it's just not worth the money you save.
But I have to admit that I'm impressed with the way apple convinces their customers to pay a premium for substandard shit.
Apple could have added a SODIMM or CAMM slot for additional RAM to be used as a RAM disk holding a swap file
Why on earth would ANYBODY do this? If you need more RAM, you c
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Regarding putting DRAM modules lower than on-package DRAM in the memory hierarchy:
Why on earth would ANYBODY do this?
When DDR5 was pushing the bandwidth limits of the SODIMM form factor, Dell created CAMM [slashdot.org] and had it standardized through JEDEC. I'm guessing that the shift from SODIMM to CAMM staved off the need to demote DRAM modules by a level in the hierarchy. Maybe some design decision in the Apple M series requires a much faster RAM interconnect then Intel or AMD.
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Maybe, but I hear we will be able to boost memory (slowly) via Thunderbolt. I don't think they would have done that while also riding the psychopathic road you illustrated of intentionally forcing swap to run down SSDs. My battery failed before my SSD did.
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Maybe, but I hear we will be able to boost memory (slowly) via Thunderbolt.
Dear god... I mean, sure, I already knew security is always an afterthought for apple, especially with the way things as basic as text parsing bugs have resulted in rooted apple hardware in the past. But damn...
I don't think they would have done that while also riding the psychopathic road you illustrated of intentionally forcing swap to run down SSDs.
That was their own idea to put the firmware on the SSD. And yeah, installing a separate EEPROM, NAND, eMMC, etc really would cost pennies at most. But then again, who needs a computer that can't even so much as beep or display an error message when it has a dead SSD, amiright?
My battery failed before my SSD did.
And god forbid you repla
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Dear god... I mean, sure, I already knew security is always an afterthought for apple, especially with the way things as basic as text parsing bugs have resulted in rooted apple hardware in the past. But damn...
Considering Thunderbolt is controlled by Intel today, I am not sure why you feel the need to blame Apple. The first Thunderbolt design was jointly developed by Apple and Intel; however, Intel has taken over control of it with Apple even transferring the trademark to them over 12 years ago.
I remember when.... (Score:2)
In 1991, you could still buy a Mac with no menory or hard drive. I bought a Mac IIci in a 0/0 configuration and got the ram and hard drive third party. I paid $1700 or so for then parts and savers that much again over buying with the machine.
Apple changed their policy very shortly after I ordered my machine and I got one of then very last Macs you could buy in a bare config.
Re: I remember when.... (Score:2)
After watching Linus Torvalds on Linus tech tips I am more inclined to defend Apple on controlling the RAM. Linus asserted that the Windows Blue Screen of Death is caused by bad hardware and that is why he insists on ECC RAM in his computer. Apple having tighter control over the RAM may help with reliability and in turn user experience by reducing hardware errors. Still would be nice to have a cheaper option and take the risk as a consumer. But as a business I can understand pushing for premium hardware and
Re: I remember when.... (Score:2)
I don't have an objection to Apple "controlling" the memory that goes into their computers.
Today, for me, I'll just spend whatever, I don't care. At the time of this story I recollected, I was a student and that extra money was a huge deal. As it was, I paid $5500 for that complete system as it was.
Fun fact, I used my savings a 3.5" internal 170MB HD. My peers had 80MB hard drives. Given that the A/UX operating system we were required to run took 72MB or so (I think that was with X Window layer(, that was a
Seems like an odd suggestion (Score:3)
I mean, I'd expect the purchasing power of even a small computer-building company would be greater than that of an individual consumer. Suggesting customers "bring their own memory" is akin to suggesting they pay even more than they would if the company made the purchase.
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Some people have a stash of working components from various broken machines. And some of those people have friends.
There are many ways to bring your own memory...
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Well, if you're replacing a machine, harvest the RAM from the old machine and use it in your new machine. That's the thing going on here.
You might ask why, but DDR4 based platforms like the AMD AM4 and Intel 12/13/14th gen processors are se
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DDR4 based platforms like the AMD AM4 and Intel 12/13/14th gen processors are seeing a huge jump in sales and popularlity because DDR4 memory, while expensive, is cheaper than DDR5 right now
The 2x16GB DDR4 Crucial CP16G4DFRA32A.C8FF in my desktop has about doubled in price since I bought it. I have two sets, and probably would have bought only one if it had been at the current price. I only regert not also building a DDR5 system with 128GB in it right after, I could sell it now for big bucks.
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Right, it is appalling. This comment alone should be disqualifying to potential buyers.
I know what is going to happen... (Score:2)
Is now the time to buy a mac mini? (Score:1)
I was going to wait for m5 mac mini to replace my 2018 mac mini, but I'm wondering if I should buy an m4 now before apple adjust their ram prices? They are actually reasonable now!
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Prices on the m4 seemed really good this month and I was considering one. $460 for a 16gb model. Cue up the slashdot bitching about how they can't get by without 4tb because they build the entire linux userland from scratch every day.
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Cue up the slashdot bitching about how they can't get by without 4tb because they build the entire linux userland from scratch every day.
I use OpenBSD, you insensitive clod!
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I picked up a fantastic "like new" souped up 2023 mbp to replace a 2016 model as a buffer at 40% what I would have paid, while waiting for an m5. If yours works for you fine, I couldn't wait but didn't want to get something I would have buyers remorse over. I am greatly enjoying this machine so far and can hang on to it or sell for half off. For Mac mini I would guess in March the M5 should be out.
No RAM to source (Score:2)
Translation: They can’t source RAM in quantity at any price or are worried they will soon not be able to.
Apple Memory Cost (Score:1)
> The company said its pricing still compares favorably to Apple's roughly $25 per gigabyte
Worth noting that is the maximum they charge. For some upgrade options they go as low as $10/Gb.
Configured laptop, almost $3,000 ouch. (Score:1)
How much is market driven... (Score:2)