I love the Linux community, because this memory shortage has prompted two quite significant developments. Firstly, quite a substantial speedup of the Zram/Zswap (whichever one it is) systems (and a little improvement on compression), secondly, a potentially whole new memory compression stack referred to as CRAM that could allow reading compressed memory directly at near-DRAM speeds.
While making current memory management more efficient won’t in any case effectively solve the memory shortage, as none of these savings are comparable to effectively giving you a free extra stick, it is awesome that people have spent significant effort on this front.
CRAM is an excellent name
It really is.
Make RAM Doubler Real 👏
Just download more ram lmao
When they say it’s predicted to last another three years what they mean is they hope it lasts another three years because that means they’re Investments will be worth more when the bubble finally does burst.
They can’t predict the market any more than anyone else can so this doesn’t really mean anything. We wait as well be asking tarot card readers if RAM prices are going to decrease anytime soon.
It’s not a crisis when it’s artificial… Just stop allowing companies to hoard shit…
But hoarding shit and accumulation is what capitalism does.
The fact that we as a species have not already collectively decide to enforce the rule that once you get to $100M you get a “YOUR DID IT” trophy and a spot on a private tropical island where you can do hookers and blow for the rest of your life while any further increases in your wealth are nationalised is proof we are, in fact, a bunch of fools.
That’s a bingo! I personally think anything that becomes a monopoly or serves more than 50% of the population of any given state/province/territory should be nationalized. At the very least Grocery stores and telecoms should be. It’s not like there still wouldn’t be other stores as they all wanna win capitalism too.
The government gave us the completely discredited food pyramid and you want them to be in control of grocery stores?
You know there’s more than one government in the world right?
You’re right, better to leave the mentally ill in charge than elected officials.
The future you want: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=VBWpVjzJXIs
The future I want is people bidding for trade routes through a wormhole?
It’s not production shortages due to ai. They are doing what the diamond industry does. Control the flow, falsely increase rarity and raise prices. The shareholders love it.
The main problem I have with RAM increasing in price is not the RAM itself. I personally have enough RAM in my PC and I’m not looking to upgrade at any point in the near future.
No, my issue is how everything else becomes more expensive because of it.
Infrastructure requires two things these days: fuel and computers. And both are getting fucked over. Because of all the things that rely on this infrastructure, everything, even mundane things, will increase in price.
And when the bubble eventually pops, everyone below the ultra rich will suffer for it, another major economical crash like 2008. And of course the people responsible will get away with it.
“the people responsible will get sway with it”
Not only will they get away with it, but they will make massive profits off of it. They will be buying up foreclosed houses, colluding with their friends to short stocks of businesses they buy up and and run into the ground, buying the dip, and still having more than enough leftover to live how they are currently living.
Every time there is one of these recessions or economic crisises, the rich get a lot richer. To them it’s just “buying season”. They have enough money to wait it out.
There’s a saying these fucks have: “Fortunes are made when there’s blood in the streets.”
Unless you can actually afford the ram prices, just play older games. There’s a ton of AAA games that I’ve never played.
Then there’s tons of remastered games too. I haven’t touched those. Older games are affordable and run on max settings with any modern computer.
We already have a life time of quality games and computer parts in circulation.
I think when we look back at this time we will see how new games are optimized and intended to run on lower end hardware rather than the “look how real it is” formula.
A good example is borderlands. Cell shading was created because it was aesthetically pleasing while also consuming the least amount of resources. When optimization and performance were no longer a problem, games like border lands used cell shading but still required all lot of resources.
Still playing tf2 <3
Are you a furry, a queer or a nazi? (Not exclusive) (Im pootis man)
I love how these, accurately, are the only people playing TF2. Of those now i am queer
My main computer is 13 years old, with a graphics card that is even older. No, I haven’t played a lot of the newer games, but there are more than enough to keep me occupied and happy that can run perfectly well on my hardware.
It might be different if I was into multiplayer games, but I’m not.
Last one might need more then a fried potato to run lol
We should organize raiding parties on data centers to get PC parts, pirate style yarrrr, and disrupt AI while doing it. Burn it down to leave no trace.
Jokes on you we will soon be raiding data centers for fresh water
Two birds…two birds
Because what are we going to do with PC parts when we don’t have any electricity anymore. Sadface
Pull in close and fire grapeshot broadside!
Please don’t shoot frag into the booty you want to loot.
Jam the robot guard dogs and use thermite to burn through locks you mean. Break open the server racks, grab the loot, burn the rest.
A ‘memory crisis’ they created artificially and deliberately in order to price gouge as hard as possible.
Why do you think that? Not that they are saints, but the demand shock is a real thing, not something the DRAM manufacturers created artificially. And that prices rise with demand is not price fixing.
the ram cartels have been hit for price fixing time and time again for decades. this most recent has been driven by the irrational over-investment into ai, but it’s a tale old as… commodity RAM lol.
https://tech4gamers.com/ram-price-fixing-lawsuit-exposed/ 2026
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DRAM_industry_price_fixing 2002
https://www.aol.com/articles/80s-had-ram-oil-crisis-021700000.html the 80s
I’m not sure if this is what they are referring to, but they’ve said they aren’t increasing production . It would take a number of years for new production to spin up, so they are either happy to just reap the new massive profit margins or they believe the demand won’t be there for that long.
I think it’s a little of both, but one of my friends left my company producing weird semiconductors to go work at Micron making RAM. They’re definitely ramping up a little, but the equipment and techniques to fab those chips is very specialized. Imagine trying to drill zillions of really tiny, deep pits, and then making sure the very bottom of those pits get coated while the sidewalls are completely unaffected… and you have to do it everywhere uniformly on a hundred 350mm wafers per minute.
That should be long enough to make sure consumer electronics, especially PCs, are dying.
and the industry inflicted it upon itself with the shit eating grin
On purpose to make you rent your compute rather than own it.
High Seas save us
quite literally - that’s what’s going to happen
and even that compute relies on tech not really designed for that kind of scope but there is no point in pushing new tech when the money flow that well. it would backfire real hard.
I think we are “lucky” that it effects all computer like electronics (laptops, PCs, gaming consoles, phones). If it was only PCs, the PC as we know it would die out.
My prediction is that all software will use less ram and less GPU in the coming years. If companies keep on shifting towards higher requirements year after year, people won’t buy it anymore because it will simply not run on a mainstream machine anymore.
Nope. As long as demand exists. And you can’t just make it disappear like that.
This is ON SALE, from MicroCenter today- they’re known for having amazing deals.
THIS IS NOT OKAY
that’s server ram (registered ecc), which costs a lot more than ‘normal’ modules
It is yes, but it was 1/4 the price 1 year ago.
Huh, I wonder what’s been happening the last year that would make RAM chips that are almost exclusively used by businesses to go up in price like that?
I uh- are you saying we should be okay with it? You seem to have a strange perspective on it.
Still WAY to much, let’s be real. It doesn’t even cook breakfast.
The same 64gb I got in 2024 for $171 USD is now roughly $1100.
Jokes on them, I found other hobbies.
Heretic there is nothing beyond the computer
I wish
The trouble is oil prices are going up as well which means that everything else is more expensive. So unless your hobby is sitting alone in a dark room with all the power switched off, you’re losing out as well.
Cooperative storytelling, old boardgames and outdoor social activities - there’s plenty to do without buying new stuff.
What angers me the most is how the tech media is not even entertaing the thought of a possibility that the currently accelerating circular finance bubble is going to implode within the next 3 years. It is boardering disinfirmation.
I think it’s interesting (and probably telling) that this comment section is largely concerned about consumer gaming memory than like, the cumulative cost increases that this creates in a computer-dependent global economy.
What if we stopped putting computers in fridges?
Yeah, that’s ideal, the reason we put computers in fridges is the data collection is part of the value thar offsets a lower cost for the fridge as worker wages have stagnated for fifty years despite increased consumption and cost of living.
It isn’t just that people are dumber than you, there’s a reason these things happen.
I never understood why my dad was always so cheap until now.
You “used” to pay this much for something and now it skyrocketed, so you can’t live with yourself paying that higher price when it has been much cheaper for so long. Maybe he thought prices were going to come down again.
I don’t think the prices of RAM are ever going to come down. At least as long as people keep paying, which they do.
Well, people aren’t really paying. Theoretically, large AI investment groups are paying. I say theoretically because as far as I understand it, they’ve mostly promised to buy the output but I don’t think have actually made good on buying it. The manufactured scarcity is being realized as increased memory costs, but the contracts are still landing even though the biggest contract may not actually be filled in the future (AI bubble). It’s why memory makers are trying to get Apple and co to commit to today’s prices for the next 3 years, because if they do and the big contract falls through, they still get their insane profit margin baked in for a bit and then can stockpile / price fix / sell through to market.
The big wrench here will be if Chinese memory fabs come online. If that big contract (AI) defaults, existing contracts are going to be very much worthless as folks would rather cancel them and fill orders at CXMT. So you may see a lot of consumer memory start filling from those fabs as they take market share while traditional players try to price fix. So the real question is, will cxmt try to capture market or play price fixing with the current cartel? My money is on market share.
My guess is price fixing, maybe slightly undercutting the current giants. Entering the market is only worth it because the prices are high.
Eh, I think they see more power and influence in gaining market share and being the provider of that technology, and then cornering the market. Prices are currently high, but they tend to do a better job of playing the long game.
