When was the last time you heard talk of DDR2? We’re pretty far-removed from that, seeing as we’re supposed to currently be in the age of DDR5. But with the memory shortage crisis, the resulting price hikes have gone beyond affecting the modern RAM, and have started to also affect legacy ones. Taiwanese market watcher TrendForce has said that DDR2 prices will rise by between 55% and 60% within the second quarter of 2026, with another 35% to 40% increase in the next quarter.
To be clear though, the shortage hasn’t hit DDR2 directly just yet. But as you can imagine, as the current standards are in short supply or are priced exorbitantly, hardware makers are moving towards older standards. Since DDR5 and DDR4 are being directly affected by the shortage, these companies have gone towards using DDR3 and DDR2 instead. Granted, these probably won’t be common consumer electronics like phones, consoles or laptops using these older memory modules.
Per the report as cited by The Register, Taiwan-based Winbond and Elite Semiconductor Microelectronics Technology (ESMT) still produces DDR2 memory. That being said, the former is noted to be winding down production of DDR2 in favour of more high-margin products, including DDR3, DDR4 and LPDDR4. The latter, on the other hand, has plans to maximise DDR2 production to offset the supply gap caused by Winbond’s shift, and enhance profitability.
The memory shortage is already expected to last well into 2030 despite the top memory makers ramping up production and bringing new plants online. That being said, these memory makers have also shifted their focus to making more enterprise-grade memory rather than the consumer-grade ones. Chances are we will see more surprising developments such as this between now and then. While they will be funny, they will also be reminders of the depressing times we live in.
(Source: TrendForce via The Register)
