The trend towards artificial intelligence is currently reflected not least in the price of RAM. Enormous quantities of DRAM chips are needed for the required data centers, which is driving prices to explode.
A 32 GB RAM kit currently costs upward of $360. Analysts assume that memory prices could increase by up to 110 percent in the first quarter of the year. At the end of last year, rumors emerged that Nvidia could discontinue the production of certain graphics cards in order to use the memory chips for other purposes. It hasn’t come to that yet, but cards with large memory capacities have become considerably more expensive.
PS6 not before 2028?
Now gamers are being startled by the next piece of bad news: the memory shortage is also affecting the next generation of game consoles. According to Bloomberg, the next PlayStation will not be released until at least 2028. The manufacturer is even considering a 2029 release. The current PS5 will have been available for almost nine years by then.
For gamers, this would mean ever-greater cutbacks on new titles, because the aging chipset in Sony’s console can not keep up indefinitely. You already have to live with limitations on the original PS5: the hardware requirements of ray tracing mean frame rates drop to 30 frames per second in many games.
The next Xbox is also delayed
However, Sony is not alone with its problems. Other manufacturers are also being held back by limited memory. This is particularly true for Valve. The company behind the successful Steam platform wanted to increase pressure on Microsoft and Sony with its Steam Machine, but it has recently also had to slow down. The console, known as the Steam Machine, is no longer scheduled for release in the first quarter; it is now scheduled for the second.
Nevertheless, the Steam Machine will likely remain the most powerful console on the market in the years to come. The next-generation Xbox is not expected to experience significant delays. But it won’t be available before 2027 either. Only then will the AMD processor developed for the Microsoft console be available.
For PlayStation fans, the lean period would still be long. Sony’s console business is thus coming under increasing pressure.
