Bad news for older PCs: DDR4 memory is nearing an end

If you have an older PC and are considering a memory upgrade, you might want to do it sooner than later. Prices for DDR4 memory are expected to jump sharply as the major memory vendors phase out their production in favor of DDR5 DRAM instead.

The latter point is the cause for concern. Reports say that Samsung and SK Hynix have sent end-of-life notices to their customers about the end of DDR4 memory for PCs. Now Micron, the last holdout, has reportedly done the same, according to Digitimes via Tom’s Hardware.

While most modern PC platforms use DDR5 memory, DDR4 was typically found in Intel’s older PC platforms (6th- to 10th-generation Core processors, up to Comet Lake) as well as the AMD Ryzen chips that used the AM4 socket (up to the Ryzen 5000 generation). That’s bad news for the latter platform, whose strength was its longevity.

A dwindling supply of DDR4 memory plus tariff concerns means that the normally volatile memory market is panicking. TrendForce, a Taiwan analyst firm with its fingers on the short-term “spot” market and the longer-term “contract” market, reports that DDR4 prices for PCs are expected to jump by 13 to 18 percent in the second quarter. TrendForce is projecting that prices could rise further in the third quarter, too.

We haven’t confirmed with Micron that it’s ending DDR4 production, but given that the company is pushing high-bandwidth memory (HBM) for AI as well as LPDDR5X for smartphones and tablets, it’s not unlikely. Memory is a notoriously low-margin business, and memory vendors generally chase the most profitable opportunities.

That doesn’t mean that DDR4 memory will completely disappear. Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron are considered the “big three” of the memory market, but smaller players could take over. Nanya and Huabang still appear to be committed to DDR4. ChangXin Storage reportedly ramped up DDR4 at the end of last year, but also plans to wind down DDR4 production soon. As a Chinese manufacturer, ChangXin would also be subject to the Trump administration’s tariffs, which would also price its memory products out of reach of its Taiwan-based competition.

DDR5 memory originated as a response to the higher core counts of PC processors. As core counts increased, the amount of available memory bandwidth allocated to each decreased. Unfortunately, DDR5 memory is neither physically nor electrically backwards-compatible, meaning you can’t just buy a DDR5 memory stick and run it in a PC that normally uses DDR4. (You can learn more about PC memory in our explainer.)

TrendForce, citing the Nikkei business publication, says that Micron’s DDR4 chips will wind down in two to three months, giving you a little more time. But if you want to load up on older DDR4 memory to keep that PC you don’t want to replace because of tariff costs, consider making that memory investment soon.