DDR5 RAM pricing appears to be spiralling out of control even more — it's 5.5x pricier than before the memory crisis, and 2027 could get worse

DDR5 RAM has hit a new pricing high in the German market It's now 544% up on the price it was before the RAM crisis began This inflation backs up predictions of the memory shortage worsening, and Dell has just hiked the price of one of its popular laptops, too If you wanted a telling example of how bad the cost of RAM is getting , the latest report on DDR5 pricing makes it crystal clear – and it reaches us as Dell moves to hike the price of its affordable XPS 13 laptop (in a roundabout way).

I'll come back to the ins-and-outs of what's happening with Dell, but first the DDR5 price jump, which has happened over in Germany.

3D Center keeps tabs on the monthly pricing of DDR5 memory in the German retail market – some 20 products are covered in this largest market in Europe – and as Wccftech flagged , the report for September shows this RAM is now 544% up on the price it was in July 2025 (the baseline level before the crisis began).

This is a big leap from 486% where the DDR5 price index sat in August, and since June, when it was at 419% having remained flat for much of the year .

This obviously represents a depressingly hefty additional toll on the wallets of PC buyers or those upgrading their memory.

Meanwhile, as Mashable noticed , Dell has effectively upped the price of its XPS 13 laptop in the US, without actually increasing the baseline cost – instead of doing that, the laptop maker has introduced a new entry-level model with less storage.

So, previously the XPS 13 started from $699 in the US for the model with 8GB of RAM and 512GB of storage.

What Dell has done is brought in a new model with 256GB of storage at that $699 level, so while technically the cheapest XPS 13 is still at that price, you're getting a lower spec for the money.

The old baseline model with 8GB RAM and a 512GB SSD is now $799, so it's been hiked by $100 – a pretty nasty bump in cost that moves this notebook into a distinctly less affordable price bracket.

If you want the XPS 13 with 16GB of system memory (and 512GB of storage), that's also gone up $100 so it's now at $999.

Do note that these are student-targeted laptops, and students get a $100 discount on the XPS 13, so you will pay less in that case.

However, while $599 (with $100 off) remains a tempting price in this climate, 256GB storage is cutting it thin.

Analysis: as predicted, 2026 is turning much nastier with RAM (Image credit: Shutterstock) The DDR5 price spike is truly worrying in my opinion, simply because it's an acceleration of an already worsening picture.

Yes, it's only one retail market and a snapshot of the overall landscape as such, but the same pattern is seen elsewhere.