Unfortunately, not really. RAM made as HBM or put in weird data center modules is stuck in that form factor, and when the bubble does pop, there is loads of pent up demand for memory makers to fill with new production.
It’s not like crypto where they used consumer stuff.
Never underestimate a nerd and a need to compute. Those modules will have someone building adapters and interfaces to use that shit. As soon as someone runs doom on one its game on.
HBM is only usable with chips co-designed for it, packaged on an interposer with microscopic traces. An enthusiast is not doing anything useful with it unless they own a few TSMC assembly plants.
The CPU modules can be tricky, too.
Now, some enthusiasts are already hacking. Go to the Level 1 Tech forums, and you’ll find a group trying to reverse engineer AMD Instinct GPUs designed for server motherboards, dealing with locked firmware, soldering stuff, you name it.
…But you probably won’t like the end goal of the hacking: using them to run LLMs and other GPGPU stuff locally. They aren’t usable for gaming.
Good point, still there will be a massive amount of production capacity, and not enough customers to fill that capacity, so the prices will drop fast, as competition grows to utilize as much capacity as possible, because it’s extremely expensive to shut down factories, or run factories at below capacity.
Unfortunately, memory production capacity changes vary slowly.
In spite of the drama, memory production hasn’t increased all that much, which is why there is such a RAM crisis. Maybe it will grow some before the bubble pops, but Micron, SK Hynix, and Samsung aren’t stupid:
They are getting companies to sign long term (5+ year) pricing contracts. In other words, they clearly know the bubble could pop. They are already hedging their bets, and they aren’t going to put themselves in the position of massive overexpansion.
Unfortunately, not really. RAM made as HBM or put in weird data center modules is stuck in that form factor, and when the bubble does pop, there is loads of pent up demand for memory makers to fill with new production.
It’s not like crypto where they used consumer stuff.
Never underestimate a nerd and a need to compute. Those modules will have someone building adapters and interfaces to use that shit. As soon as someone runs doom on one its game on.
HBM is only usable with chips co-designed for it, packaged on an interposer with microscopic traces. An enthusiast is not doing anything useful with it unless they own a few TSMC assembly plants.
The CPU modules can be tricky, too.
Now, some enthusiasts are already hacking. Go to the Level 1 Tech forums, and you’ll find a group trying to reverse engineer AMD Instinct GPUs designed for server motherboards, dealing with locked firmware, soldering stuff, you name it.
…But you probably won’t like the end goal of the hacking: using them to run LLMs and other GPGPU stuff locally. They aren’t usable for gaming.
Good point, still there will be a massive amount of production capacity, and not enough customers to fill that capacity, so the prices will drop fast, as competition grows to utilize as much capacity as possible, because it’s extremely expensive to shut down factories, or run factories at below capacity.
Unfortunately, memory production capacity changes vary slowly.
In spite of the drama, memory production hasn’t increased all that much, which is why there is such a RAM crisis. Maybe it will grow some before the bubble pops, but Micron, SK Hynix, and Samsung aren’t stupid:
https://en.sedaily.com/finance/2026/10/01/microns-long-term-chip-deals-jump-63-percent-as-ai-memory
They are getting companies to sign long term (5+ year) pricing contracts. In other words, they clearly know the bubble could pop. They are already hedging their bets, and they aren’t going to put themselves in the position of massive overexpansion.