RAM Performance Explained: CAS Latency vs Clock Speed (Updated for 2026)
Choosing RAM can be daunting, because this decision has a tangible impact on your performance. How many browser tabs can you keep open? How smooth is your video editing timeline? How fast will your game load? All of this is directly affected by your choice of RAM.
Late 2025 Update: RAM prices have more than doubled this year, due to astronomical demand from AI datacenters. Unfortunately, this pricing pressure isn’t expected to be alleviated until later in 2026 at the earliest. And since memory factories take billions of dollars and years to build, there won’t be much relief coming from the supply side.
If you’re upgrading and can wait, I would recommend waiting.
If you’re building a new PC and need RAM, shop around and hope to find a deal. Perhaps make the old fashioned choice of buying half the RAM you want now, and buying the second half once prices come back down to earth.