GDDR6 VRAM Spot Prices Reach New Low as $8GB Now Costs Just $18

TL;DR: September 30th 2024 data from DRAMeXchange.com reports GDDR6 8Gb module pricing have cratered to 2.289$ per GB or $18 per 8GB. This is 33% lower than the widely reported spot price of $27 from June 2023.(FULL STORY)As per September 30th 2024 data the website DRAMeXchange.com the price of GDDR6 8Gb memory modules have cratered to a meager 2.289$ per GB translating to $18 for 8GB, which is 33% lower than the previously widely reported spot price of $27.Back in early June 2023 it was widely reported by the tech media that GDDR6 prices had fallen to a low of $27 per 8GB. This was brought on by the huge graphics card/GPU glut following Ethereums Proof of Stake in September 2022 and the subsequent the postmining collapse in GPU sales and excess liquidation of GPUs that had previously been used in Ethereum mining farms.This 33% drop comes despite the readjustment that the market has seen since with GPU prices somewhat "normalizing" in the second half of 2023 indicating that oversaturation and excess last gen new and used GPU supply had been absorbed by the market. Given just how unusual and extreme the market was in late 2022-2023 post Ethereum PoS it's very surprising to see this very low prices not only persist in 2024 but be exceeded by another one thirds reduction in GDDR6 pricing.But it's not surprising that this could happen and is largely consistent with overall downward trends in RAM and storage (SSD and HDD) prices which seem to have picked up steam post 2020. Whether this is mostly advances in fabrication, a post pandemic collapse in demand and a subsequent glut or a combination of both is not something I can determine.This is in stark contrast to Moore's Law for logic chips where $/transistor has become static post 7nm.Previous data from 2022-2023 points to the other end of the spectrum with the insane GPU drought in late 2020 - mid 2022. From February 2022 to January 2023 average GDDR6 8Gb memory module prices dropped from $12.96 - 4.81 and by June 2023 as low as $3.36.With prices of GDDR6 when it launched being said to have been up to 70% higher than GDDR5 and DDR5 being ~2x that of DDR4 when it launched, I just can't see GDDR7 being more than at most $5-6 per GB at launch possibly much lower over time as the technology matures and the memory technology keeps advancing.Let's hope that the advent of cheap 16Gb, 24Gb and later 32Gb GDDR7 memory modules and hopefully sustained very low GDDR6 prices will result in:Next gen GPUs having enough GDDR7 VRAM without costing a fortuneRebranded or continuous shipments of last gen cards sustaining aggressive pricingNext gen budget GPUs with GDDR6 at good prices while having more VRAM(Unusually Wide Price Range)What's worthwhile noting is the wide range (high>low by 2.27x) of Session/weekly pricing with a high of $2.95, low of $1.3 and an average of $2.289 per GDDR6 8Gb memory module. Contrast this is with previous weekly ranges of 1.3-1.6x larger high than low, which could indicate that these lower prices brings more volatility to the GDDR7 memory module market.IDK if this spot price is just noise or part of a persistent trend. If someone has access to historical data then it would be interesting to see their findings reported in the general media.(Disclaimer!!!)This data is only a snapshot. Unfortunately I don't have access to historical data so I'm just reporting this snapshot in spot pricing.In addition, I'm assuming what many in the tech media did back in June 2023, that's the prices 16Gb (RTX 4000 series and RX 8000 series) and 8Gb ICs generally follow each other. via /r/hardware https://ift.tt/uFw8cJ7