Memory is usually the reason a PC quote looks higher than you expected.
A 32GB DDR5 kit that sold for around RM 700 in early 2025 was going for RM 2,000 or more by March 2026. It has not come back down.
The cause is not the ringgit, and it is not local markup. Memory makers would rather sell to AI datacentres than to us.
What does RAM actually cost now?
More than most people expect.
The figures below were reported by The Star in March 2026, from retailers in Petaling Jaya. We re-checked them against Malaysian listings in August, and they have held or crept higher.
- 32GB DDR5, desktop. About RM 700 in early 2025, at least RM 2,000 by March 2026. August listings sit near RM 2,200.
- 16GB DDR4, laptop. RM 200 to RM 400 before. A minimum of RM 800 now.
- 16GB DDR5, laptop. RM 900 to RM 1,000.
- A single 8GB upgrade stick. Around RM 200 before, at least RM 400 now.
It shows up in finished machines too.
One buyer quoted in that report had budgeted RM 2,000 to RM 3,000 for a laptop with 16GB of DDR5. Most options now start at RM 4,000.
Why did it happen?
AI bought the supply.
Samsung, SK Hynix and Micron all make the same thing in the same fabs. Over the last two years they have shifted capacity toward high-bandwidth memory and server DRAM, because AI datacentres pay far more per wafer than consumers do.
The chips going into an AI accelerator and the chips going into your gaming PC compete for the same production lines.
Consumers lose that argument.
Is it nearly over?
Not on current forecasts.
TrendForce, which tracks memory contract pricing, expects server DRAM contract prices to rise a further 13 to 18 percent quarter on quarter in Q3 2026.
It expects prices to keep climbing each quarter from the second half of 2026 into the second half of 2027.
Who is actually absorbing the increase?
Not the largest buyers.
Big cloud providers sign long-term agreements that cap what they pay. TrendForce notes those agreements shift the pressure onto buyers who do not have them.
That is everyone else. Retail shops, small system builders, and you.
So the increase you see at a counter in Low Yat is not the average increase. It is what is left after the biggest buyers have protected themselves.
Is it the ringgit?
No. This is the part most people get wrong.
The ringgit has been strong throughout. It gained close to 9 percent against the US dollar in 2025 and broke below the 4.0 mark in January 2026, its strongest level in five years. In mid-August 2026 it traded around RM 4.05 to RM 4.09 to the dollar.
Memory is bought in dollars. A stronger ringgit should have made imported RAM cheaper here.
Prices roughly tripled anyway.
That means the underlying dollar increase was steeper than the ringgit figures suggest. A weak currency would have made this worse. It was never the explanation.
Buy the memory now, or add it later?
Now, if you know you will need it.
Adding RAM used to be the cheapest upgrade in a PC, and the easiest thing to defer. It is neither at the moment.
If you know you want 32GB, specifying it once costs less than buying 16GB today and another 16GB next year at a price nobody can predict.
How do you check what is in a prebuilt?
Ask for the capacity and the speed, in writing.
Two machines at the same price can differ by a full memory tier. It is the easiest place for a builder to absorb cost without touching the headline spec, because the GPU is what buyers compare.
Ask on any quote, including ours.
Is 16GB still enough?
For gaming, usually yes.
The GPU still decides most of your frame rate, and 16GB remains workable for current titles.
Where it stops being enough is everything else. Video editing, virtual machines, thirty browser tabs, or running AI models locally.
Those are capacity problems rather than speed problems. That is the case where paying today's price is worth it.
Should you wait for prices to fall?
No.
Every quarterly projection points the same direction. The rate of increase is slowing, not reversing.
Supply is expected to stay tight into 2027, because the fabs that would relieve it are not scheduled to come online before late 2027 at the earliest.
Waiting has a real cost and no clear payoff.
What we would tell you
Specify the memory once, and specify it properly.
Put the money into the GPU tier that matches your monitor. Take the RAM capacity that matches your actual workload. Do not plan a build around an upgrade you intend to make later.
If you want to see what that looks like at a given budget, the gaming PC price guide breaks down what each tier buys, and the full custom gaming PC range lists the exact parts in every build.
If you would rather just describe what you do with the machine, send it over WhatsApp and you will get a spec back with the reasoning attached.
Prices and forecasts verified August 2026. Memory pricing is moving quickly at the moment, so treat the figures above as a snapshot rather than a quote.
