In a free market where the principles of supply and demand rule, price hikes are expected, but the current hardware situation is becoming absurd. Over the past few months, the cost of key components has skyrocketed to the point where it recalls the pandemic era, when graphics card prices surged.

At the heart of this issue is RAM, once affectionately dubbed 'spinach' for being cheap and ubiquitous. A mere year ago, 16GB of RAM would have cost around 50,000 won, but it has now ballooned to over 200,000 won. This is largely due to the global AI gold rush, which is driving a massive increase in demand for server-grade memory. With manufacturing capacity finite, the AI server market is absorbing the supply, leaving consumer-grade RAM in short supply.

While hardware prices often fluctuate with industry shifts, this kind of rapid surge is unprecedented. Ironically, this has caused a slump in other components; as RAM prices hit the ceiling, many gamers are putting their PC builds on ice. Reports indicate that global motherboard sales have nearly halved as a direct consequence.

Caught in this mess, gamers are changing their habits. Rather than upgrading their PCs, many are gravitating towards the fixed, stable, and optimized world of consoles like the PS5. Indeed, in the domestic market, starting from the Black Friday period last November, a notable shift toward console acquisition has been observed.

Much like the GPU crisis of the past, this 'memory shock' offers no easy exit. With the explosive growth of the AI industry acting as an unpredictable variable, nobody dares to guess when supply will stabilize. We shall have to wait and see when this AI-induced impact finally subsides.