DDR4 is now a fairly old memory standard. Indeed, it arrived on the consumer market in 2013 with Skylake processors. However, while DDR5 is now well-established, a large proportion of the computer population continues to run on DDR4, and demand remains high. What’s more, prices have begun to rise sharply since Samsung, SK Hynix and Micron announced the end of production, while demand seems to be picking up again. All this is pushing Korean manufacturers to postpone the end of production!
Samsung and SK Hynix delay the end of DDR4 memory production!
In recent days, demand for DDR4 memory has been increasing again, with prices continuing to rise. We can imagine that this situation has convinced DRAM giants SK Hynix and Samsung to continue production. However, the latter had announced that they would be shutting down their production lines in favor of newer, more profitable memory. It has to be said that China is applying strong competitive pressure by offering low-cost chips, which is denting the profitability of the big players. However, if the big players lose interest in this sector, Chinese producers, who don’t have as much production capacity, can’t keep up with demand, and prices rise. Add to this the “panic buying” by companies who still want to take advantage of low prices, and you’ve got a market running amok.
On the one hand, this is good news, since as long as these players are there to support supply, prices should remain affordable. But let’s not delude ourselves: as soon as it won’t be worth their while, production lines will gradually come to a halt. That’s the way the market works: as long as there’s something in it for you, you play along.
