Samsung and SK Hynix Delay DDR4 Memory Phase-out Amidst Unexpected Demand

[btarunr]

Late last month, we reported an unexpected surge in DDR4 DRAM chip spot-pricing, just as leading memory chipmakers in Taiwan and South Korea announced plans to phase out the standard, leaving behind residual inventories to deal with leftover demand. It turns out that the nearly 1 decade-long market presence of the DDR4 standard, beginning with the 2013 6th Gen Intel Core "Skylake" processor, and continuing on until 14th Gen Core "Raptor Lake Refresh," along with AMD Ryzen Socket AM4 along the way, meant that there are simply too many devices out there with DDR4 memory and users looking for upgrades.

Digitimes now reports that South Korean memory chipmakers such as SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics, have put on hold their phase-out plans for DDR4 chips, and may continue supply until they see spot pricing sufficiently falling behind that of DDR5. At the same time, the two will be walking a tight rope with supply to ensure they don't end up with bloated inventories.



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[Six_Times]

How can they consider the demand "unexpected" when nearly every time phase out occurs, demand sees a final spurt before it dies out? Its been like that since the dawn of the PC.

 

[docnorth]

Maybe it's not that surprising, still some new DDR4 budget builds mostly on AM4 (I guess Alder- and Raptor-Lake builds use more and more DDR5) and, as the article mentions, many memory upgrades. Less than 2 weeks ago I added a 4gb DDR3 module on an old refurbished PC, with excellent results. [This G. Skill F3-10600CL9S-4GBNT seems to work with everything.]

Btw @btarunr it is probably a typo, 2015 not 2013, one decade as you wrote.

 

[fec32a4de]

Maybe it's not that surprising, still some new DDR4 budget builds mostly on AM4 (I guess Alder- and Raptor-Lake builds use more and more DDR5) and, as the article mentions, many memory upgrades. Less than 2 weeks ago I added a 4gb DDR3 module on an old refurbished PC, with excellent results. [This G. Skill F3-10600CL9S-4GBNT seems to work with everything.]

Btw @btarunr it is probably a typo, 2015 not 2013, one decade as you wrote.

short-sightedness on companies side. Yes people are upgrading, using new standards, etc.

But like you said, there is still demand for DDR3. Moreso for DDR4. I bought some off brand SK DDR3 modules an old PC just over 2 weeks ago.

And a 32GB DDR4-3800 kit for a friend who is doing a few upgrades

 

[Mrgravia]

I built a 5700g based mini pc just this year for a family member, so long as AM4 is still a viable platform for casual users DDR4 will be a thing.