RAM Inflation: Buy Sticks, Get an Intel Core 9 for Free

Building a PC has always been a balancing act between performance, price, and timing. But in 2026, that balance has been obliterated. Component costs are climbing at a pace that makes even gas prices look tame, and memory in particular has become the poster child for hardware inflation.

Retailers, scrambling to make these eye-watering prices more palatable, have started experimenting with bundles. One of the most eyebrow-raising examples came from Newegg, which briefly offered a deal so strange it bordered on satire: buy 64GB of G.Skill Ripjaws DDR5 RAM, and they’d throw in a free Intel Core 9 285K processor.

The Price Shock

The RAM kit in question, two 32GB DDR5-6000 DIMMs, was listed at a staggering $885 USD. To put that in perspective, identical specs could be had for around $164 just two years earlier. That’s more than a 500% increase in cost.

Newegg’s “solution” was to sweeten the deal with Intel’s flagship consumer CPU, an 8-core, 16-thread Core 9 285K valued at nearly $600. On paper, that made the bundle look like a bargain. In practice, it was a reminder of just how distorted the market has become: RAM was suddenly more expensive than the processor it was paired with.

Limited-Time Madness

The promotion didn’t last long. Screenshots captured by VideoCardz showed the bundle labeled as a “limited offer,” and indeed, it vanished quickly. Today, the same Newegg listing offers nothing more than a free copy of 3DMark, a benchmarking tool that feels like a cruel downgrade compared to a high-end CPU.

For those who missed out, the deal was less about saving money and more about highlighting the absurdity of current pricing. It was a coping mechanism disguised as a promotion, a way for retailers to soften the blow of charging nearly $900 for memory.

Why RAM Costs So Much

The spike in RAM prices isn’t happening in a vacuum. Industry analysts point to several factors:

• Supply chain bottlenecks in Asia, where most DRAM is manufactured.

• Surging demand from AI workloads, which require massive amounts of high-speed memory.

• Limited competition among major DRAM producers, allowing prices to remain inflated.

For everyday PC builders, these macroeconomic forces translate into sticker shock. What was once a relatively affordable upgrade has become a luxury purchase.

“We Can’t Have Nice Things”

The bundle’s disappearance underscores a familiar truth in tech: good deals don’t last, and sometimes even “slightly less horrible” deals vanish before most people can take advantage. Enthusiasts who managed to snag the RAM-and-CPU combo may feel like they gamed the system, but the broader reality remains grim.

With RAM prices climbing and CPUs being tossed in as freebies, the PC building landscape feels upside down. For now, patience—or a willingness to pay through the nose—seems to be the only path forward.

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