Memory prices have gone up so much that many people must think it’s way too expensive, but recently netizens abroad dug up something interesting—memory prices in 1995 were actually terrifying. Back then, installing 1GB of memory in a computer would cost you $64,000, or over NT$2 million. If you factor in inflation, that’s roughly equivalent to $140,000 today, or more than NT$4 million.
In 1995, 1GB of memory cost $64,000: a press release from 31 years ago dug up by netizens abroad
According to a report from Tom’s HardwareRecently, a netizen named Remarkable-Onion3726 shared a press release he uncovered on the PCMasterRace subreddit. It was posted by a memory manufacturer called Advantage Memory Corporation, dated June 20, 1995, announcing that their new DIMM memory modules had begun shipping.
At that point, Apple had just released the Power Macintosh 9500, a workstation-class machine, the day before (June 19). It was also Apple’s first Macintosh to ditch SIMMs in favor of 168-pin DIMMs, squarely in the middle of a memory-spec generational transition.
Most importantly, the prices listed in the press release: 8MB sells for $399, and 64MB sells for $3,900. That works out to about $50 to $61 per MB.
The higher-capacity 128MB modules weren’t directly priced in the press release; others extrapolated from adjacent price points, estimating each at roughly $7,800 to $8,000. The Power Macintosh 9500 has a total of 12 memory slots, and filling eight slots with 128MB modules gives 1,024MB (1GB). At $8,000 per module, the total memory would cost $64,000—enough at the time to buy a house in a less expensive part of the United States.
Tom’s Hardware also mentioned that, adjusted for inflation, this amount would be $140,000 today.
A press release from 1995 – you could get one gigabyte of RAM for $62,400
byu/Remarkable-Onion3726 inpcmasterrace
Here’s another interesting detail: Apple’s official documentation at the time said, “128MB DIMMs can be used, but we haven’t tested them.” In other words, if you wanted to use 128MB DIMMs to upgrade this computer to 1GB, it would not only cost an estimated over $60,000, but you’d also be taking on the risk of a memory configuration that hadn’t been officially tested back then.
Of course, memory technology wasn’t that mature back then, and no consumer in that era would have filled up 1GB—that was aimed at enterprise users. From what I understand, the mainstream consumer configuration in 1995 was 16MB, priced at around $800, which translates to roughly $1,750 in today’s money. It was actually pretty expensive, too (laughs).
As for when the current memory price surge chaos will end—even the supply side isn’t too optimistic. Samsung and SK hynix have both indicated that the shortage could extend beyond 2027, with some even suggesting it might hold out until 2030. Most analysts believe the earliest we’ll see meaningful improvement is when new capacity comes online in late 2027 or 2028. In short, there’s still a long wait ahead.
Source: KOCPC Chinese