Editing Openai/6956b4b2-0c24-8012-ac81-f0ad62b8cc3e (section)

=== Assistant: Good question — and this one’s more nuanced 👍 ===
Good question — and this one’s more nuanced 👍
Short answer: AI is not causing a DDR5 RAM shortage for consumers, but it does affect the market indirectly.

===== - Some AI servers use DDR5 (mainly CPU-side memory). =====
* Hyperscalers (Google, Microsoft, Amazon, OpenAI partners) buy large volumes of DDR5.
* That can influence pricing trends, especially early in a DDR generation.

===== - AI workloads strongly prefer HBM, not DDR5. =====
* AI demand does not compete directly with consumer DDR5 in a way that starves PCs.
* Your PC’s DDR5 is not being “taken” or limited by AI usage.

===== - GPUs need massive bandwidth → HBM (1–3 TB/s). =====
* DDR5 is far slower (tens of GB/s per channel).
* So for training/inference: - HBM = critical - DDR5 = secondary / support memory

That’s why:
* HBM has had real shortages
* DDR5 has not (and prices have actually dropped at times)

===== - DDR5 and HBM: - Use different packaging - Have different yield problems - Are sold under different contracts =====
* DDR5 production is high-volume and flexible.
* If AI suddenly needed more DDR5, fabs can ramp it far faster than HBM.

===== Not AI: =====
* New standards rollout
* Overproduction cycles
* OEM inventory swings
* Laptop/PC demand changes

===== - AI barely dents DDR5 availability =====
* HBM ≠ DDR5
* Consumer RAM issues are local system limits, not global AI demand

If you want, I can break this down with numbers (bandwidth, capacities, fab output) or explain why Macs use unified memory instead of DDR5 DIMMs.