Valve describes just how brutal RAM negotiations are in 2026

2026-06-22 21:18 UTC

Valve’s Steam Machine finally has a price: a whopping $1,049 for the 512GB configuration or $1,349 for the 2TB version. And those are without bundled controllers, which drive up the cost more. The prices are so high in part because Valve isn’t subsidizing the hardware, and the company has already indicated that the component crisis forced it to reconsider its initial pricing plans. In an interview with the YouTube channel Gamers Nexus, Valve engineers discussed the reality of sourcing RAM in 2026, with take-it-or-leave-it prices as memory and other components remain in short supply, from only a few vendors like Samsung, Micron, and SK Hynix. […] Valve, of course, isn’t the only company in a bind over memory shortages, as the crunch is forcing many hardware makers to make significant pricing changes. Even Apple CEO Tim Cook is warning of incoming price hikes for iPhones, Macs, and other devices. And the RAM crunch isn’t projected to get better anytime soon.

Replies (7)

@MangoCats@feddit.it 2026-06-23 01:41

My question is: how far back in time do we have to go to get to where RAM and SSD prices were this high (for a given capacity) in the past? Like 2021?

Open ##3482542
@starblursd@lemmy.zip 2026-06-23 03:51

This really bums me out not cuz I was looking to buy one but because I wanted it to shake the market up and make every company do better for the consumer… I feel like this price takes them completely out of the console market and purely into the entry-level PC market where I think it still is a decent specs and price for that market. It’s just not what it was made to be

Open ##3485724
@woelkchen@lemmy.world 2026-06-22 22:02

The point of shitty old processors was to get them cheap. Now that RAM and storage are the biggest factors, they could have gone with newer processors and not be significantly more expensive but significantly more performant.

Open ##3494312
@DupaCycki@lemmy.world 2026-06-23 07:08

If RAM prices are so bad, couldn’t Valve give an option to order a Steam Machine with no RAM? So that people could use RAM they already have or buy some locally for a lower price.

Open ##3501107
@TankovayaDiviziya@lemmy.world 2026-06-23 07:42

After reporting how much the Steam Machine costs, I could tell already. RAM manufacturers are in paradise right now!

Open ##3502847
@nuko147@lemmy.world 2026-06-23 15:46

Its always rough when you are dealing with a cartel…

Open ##3509558
@hirihit640@sh.itjust.works 2026-06-23 12:23

From 12:48 of the video: Gamers Nexus: “Were you able to lock in contracts for memory with the suppliers directly or did you have to jump through a bunch of hoops or…” Rep from Valve: “Look there’s no contract, there’s nothing. Those guys…they are…they give us a price every month, and they say ‘you can buy that many’, and it’s yes or no, and if we say no then they never talk to us again”. Gamers Nexus also links another video they made specifically about the DRAM cartel.

Open ##3518080