The RAM crisis is reshaping who gets to build PCs | usagoldmines.com

We all know RAM prices have skyrocketed. We all know why—data center demand. We even know that this won’t end any time soon, barring a collapse of the AI sector. You’ve heard these talking points endlessly in the last couple of months.

Less hammered on: The possible coming developments from this madness. Sure, we’ve already seen direct consequences like Micron’s deep-sixing of its 30-year-old Crucial consumer brand. But as touched on in this week’s discussion with former Anandtech writer and More Than Moore chief analyst Dr. Ian Cutress, the progression of memory technology appears far less linear than before. Literally.

One tantalizing development that came up during our conversation was stacked DDR memory—think of it as somewhat similar in concept to AMD’s approach with its 3D V-Cache processors. Called “Z-Angle” memory, this new architecture is under development by SoftBank subsidiary Saimemory, in partnership with Intel. As Ian describes it, the effort is to “essentially grow DRAM on top of chips,” where DRAM is built layer by layer on top of a CPU wafer, in order to not just compete with HBM in data center applications, but outperform with higher capacity, greater bandwidth, and lower power consumption. But this approach could find its way to consumer products as well—for example, smartphones.

But other, less positive outcomes hover in the air as well. In almost the next breath while discussing Z-Angle memory, Ian mentioned the threat of annihilation for smaller memory makers—those who put memory onto modules. If unable to get enough memory to maintain revenue, they could fold. That would hit us consumers hard, and prolong the rebound on PC building.

TSMC

What’s clear, though, is that pressure continues to mount for greater efficiency in both memory production and memory use in software. In this past decade, consumers benefitted from such intense attention. Now consumers have taken a backseat, and must wait for progress to trickle down to us.

In the meanwhile, we may see beloved pet projects die on the vine…like the upcoming Steam Machine. What seemed like such a hopeful announcement last November now looks more grim, with last week’s reveal of further delays for price information and product release. After having lived through the first Steam Machine’s quiet, prolonged, and arguably tortured fight for existence, I wonder if Valve’s initiative may once again fail. But this time, it would be due to economic factors out of their control.

And this PC-building winter may stretch on further anticipated, too. When asked how long it will last, Ian thought it could extend into late 2028. Movement toward new technology takes years still. Unfortunately for us.

So as Ian himself said to Adam a bit ago, “Just be happy with what you’ve got right now.” And I guess take joy in the fact that while we consumers are shut out from enjoying cutting-edge technology, we can still follow some cool developments from the stands.

In this episode of The Full Nerd

In this episode of The Full Nerd, Adam Patrick Murray, Alaina Yee, Will Smith, and special guest Dr. Ian Cutress (TechTechPotato himself!) dive deep into the nuances of the RAM crisis, Intel and Nvidia’s partnership, and the yields from Intel’s 18A. If you love technical detail, make time for this packed episode—it’s definitely worth your time. What I wrote about above? Just a fraction of the detail we cover while discussing memory.

We also learned that Ian plays games that turn into “spreadsheet simulators,” in his own words. I can’t say I’m surprised by that reveal, only that he seemingly juggles so many.

And we said farewell to Willis this week—the show won’t be the same without you, man.

Alex Esteves / Foundry

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Don’t miss out on our NEW shows too—you can catch episodes of Dual Boot Diaries and The Full Nerd: Extra Edition on our channel, too. PLUS: Adam just teased episode zero for his new joint endeavor with Retro Gaming Corps…

And if you need more hardware talk during the rest of the week, come join our Discord community—it’s full of cool, laid-back nerds.

This week’s bumpy nerd news

I may have had an emotional roller coaster sifting through the news over the past several days. Positives include Noctua’s ongoing consumer-friendly support for its coolers, nifty projects that combine old tech and new for funsies, and science helping to further expand our understanding of older civilizations.

Less fun: Windows 11’s continuing security vulnerabilities. (Really, Notepad is now something I have to worry about?) Plus more graphics cards going up in flames…

Bilibili user 晚睡等于早死

• Yikes: A Chinese gamer’s RTX 5090 went up in literal flames. On video. Even if it’s not real, it’s stressful to watch.

• Arrow Lake in March? Quick, Brad’s not looking. I’m going to slip in a rumor about a possible late March arrival for refreshed Arrow Lake chips.

• Oh poop: Turns out guano can sustain the rise of whole civilizations—or at least, so says a new paper that studied the economic success of the Chincha, a pre-Inca Peruvian kingdom.

• AMD ascending: Team Red continues to grow its foothold in desktop PCs, with a double-digit increase in market share percentage over the past year.

• PCI + NVMe FTW: What happens when you combine 1990s and 2010s era tech? An insane upgrade on the 1990s computing experience. I would have obsessed over speeds this fast back then. (We all would.)

• No, Discord. No: Discord’s new age-verification requirement sucks. That’s all I have to say. (Not really, I dig into why this won’t fully protect kids while now also exposing adults to risk.)

• I would like to uninstall: Please, can we stop putting AI into machines before it’s clear that the results are better than human-only options? I do not ever want sinus surgeries to include an accidental skull puncture.

• First Notepad++, now the OG: Notepad used to be a simple program. Windows 11 made it more complex—which apparently now has left it vulnerable to security attacks.

Noctua

• A company of the people: Noctua just sent out its 500,000th cooler mounting kit upgrade. I can’t speak highly enough of companies that allow you to continue using perfectly serviceable hardware—and helping with the upgrade for free!

• Kickin’ like it’s 1995: Retro Roadshow’s Huxley Dunsay came back to show us a piece of special computing history—the BeBox, a dual-CPU PC with a custom operating system. And yes, it still works!

• Bought G.Skill memory? You might be entitled to a cut of a $2.4 million settlement if you purchased G.Skill RAM kits between January 31, 2018 and January 7, 2026. 

• Not bad: YouTuber Optimum’s torture test of an OLED gaming monitor only showed signs of burn-in after 3,000 hours—500 of which included Overwatch gameplay (and its fixed HUD).

• $10 for 1,300 games: No, that’s not a typo. If you dislike ICE, this game bundle benefiting immigrants in Minnesota is for you. A good portion of the bundle is physical games, but the subset of video games includes Baba Is You, which Brad still raves about.

• I’d make this PC: A perfect combo of sleeper build and SFF, hiding inside the shell of an Xbox One S.

• 10,000 is a lot of hours: Ghost in the Shell director Mamoru Oshii says he’s put over a literal year (about 416 days) into Fallout 4. Without ever doing the main quest. Dang.

I saw a video this week where a porcupine took a stroll at the Oregon Zoo and visited a pair of otters. I have no idea why or what happened, and I hope the video is real, because you know what? I needed that.

Catch you all next week–

Alaina

This newsletter is dedicated to the memory of Gordon Mah Ung, founder and host of The Full Nerd, and executive editor of hardware at PCWorld.