The current cost spike is very recent. The average computer's RAM size has roughly quadrupled every four years since around 1988:

1988: 1MB

1992: 4MB

1996: 16MB

2000: 64MB

2004: 256MB

2008: 1GB

2012: 4GB

And then, from around 2014 or so, for the last 12 years, we've been kind of stuck on 8GB for some reason. There wasn't a ram shortage in 2016, so why didn't the average computer come with 16GB? The trend continuing would mean we'd have 64GB average machines by 2020. So what happened?

I'm sure you're right. I don't know why the trend didn't continue. But, still, given the current conditions I don't think it's realistic to expect a budget laptop with 128 GB of RAM rolling off the line right now.

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