Who makes RAM?

[Corky34]

Maybe it's just me but i didn't read what DanceswithUnix posted as apologising for them, i read it as saying that supply of memory isn't something that can be switched on or off at the drop of a hat. It's not an opinion i entirely share as it's probably more complex than that but it didn't read as apologising for them.

There's a certain amount of tap turning that can happen if there's spare capacity at a fab, if it's not operating at 100%, but if all your fabs are operating at near to 100% it takes lots of money and time to bring more production online and if demand drops of you're left with a white elephant, it would be interesting to know how close to 100% memory fabrication plants in general are, is there slack in the system.

[peterb]

Maybe it's just me but i didn't read what DanceswithUnix posted as apologising for them, i read it as saying that supply of memory isn't something that can be switched on or off at the drop of a hat. It's not an opinion i entirely share as it's probably more complex than that but it didn't read as apologising for them.

Indeed - and the investment required to start up a fabrication plant is so high for a start up that just making memory woud be prohibitively expensive - which is why supply is concentrated on a few manufacturers, who manufacture a range of products.

[DanceswithUnix]

Maybe it's just me but i didn't read what DanceswithUnix posted as apologising for them, i read it as saying that supply of memory isn't something that can be switched on or off at the drop of a hat. It's not an opinion i entirely share as it's probably more complex than that but it didn't read as apologising for them.

There's a certain amount of tap turning that can happen if there's spare capacity at a fab, if it's not operating at 100%, but if all your fabs are operating at near to 100% it takes lots of money and time to bring more production online and if demand drops of you're left with a white elephant, it would be interesting to know how close to 100% memory fabrication plants in general are, is there slack in the system.

I think you got it, but once you build a new fab costing billions you aren't going to leave it idle so I think we can bet they are all running at 100%

Is there a tap? As I said, Samsung seem to be able to switch lines between dram and flash which makes sense as they are both high density charge storing devices just one has a capacitor and the other an insulated gate so it holds charge for years not milliseconds. Beyond that, no, a logic fab is not a memory fab, supposedly the reason Intel got out of DRAM in the 80's.

There are fabs in China coming online this year, so that should get the prices back where we consumers want them, assuming they are knocking out DDR4/GDDR5.

Edit: I am basing my "fabs run at 100%" assertion on the way that in the past memory prices have dropped until one of the manufacturers goes bankrupt. Like Qimonda in 2009, just 4 years after they were accused (as part off Infineon) of price fixing.

[maverick77_uk]

Hi all,

Thanks for your answers - yes RAM prices are ridiculous at the moment. Around September last year, I was asked to build a budget computer for a nephew - for school work, but also for basic gaming (he wanted to play War Thunder!). AMD and APUs made the most sense given the budget (£200 all in including monitor, but already had Windows, so for hardware only). I looked at AM4 and the 9**** APU series, as these seemed ideal, in particular the A8 9600. I could get the APU, motherboard and everything else fine within budget, have the ability to upgrade the APU to Raven Ridge APU, or full Ryzen as required etc., except I'd have to buy DDR4 RAM, and the price of that completely blew the budget.

I ended up basing it on a FM2+ A6 7400k APU with DDR3, as I could get some second hand DDR3 within budget (and a second hand monitor).

It all panned out - it runs War Thunder great and does everything needed, but VERY annoying that it could have been so much better, with loads of upgradability for the future IF RAM was a sensible price....Oh well!

Cheers!

[Pob255]

Edit: I am basing my "fabs run at 100%" assertion on the way that in the past memory prices have dropped until one of the manufacturers goes bankrupt. Like Qimonda in 2009, just 4 years after they were accused (as part off Infineon) of price fixing.

Yes I remember that, back when wholesale chip prices actually dropped below manufacturing cost.
At the time there where a few Taiwanese ram manufactures, they sort of conglomerated to survive and then got bought partially up by Micron who recently fully bought them out.

So Infineon and Nanya are both subsidiaries of Micron now