Of course it’s insane. But a Steam Frame “only” has 16 GB unified RAM. That means a price jump from around 70€ to 200€, as in 130€ difference. If the entire device was planned to cost 800€ you are now looking at 930€, which isn’t great, but totally sellable by Valve.

Price has already stabilized and even had some dips. My 2x32 GB 6000 CL30 kit that I bought for 200€ early 2025 spiked to 900€. But now it costs 800€ and in the last weeks it was even possible to get it for 609€ when price dipped.

Don’t forget that the Chinese are entering the DDR5 market, it will take a year or two, but more supply is coming.

When the AI bubble pops (which can still take a while) the memory price will also plummet. The main reason price is up is the memory companies being careful this time around. Last time they built factories and raised supply, only to get burned. Now they are hedging their bets instead of expanding.

Of course they already have stock, the original launch date was Q1 2026 (which ends in 3 weeks). They might not have a ton of devices, but they do have stock. Same way they have been sending out dev kits.

RAM has spiked since November/December, before that it was cheap. I got my 2x32 GB 6000 CL30 RAM for 200€.

Valve has the issue that they could deliver the first batch for “cheap”, but then every unit they produce afterwards suddenly costs a chunk more (like 200-300€). So it’s either a paper launch or they’d have to raise the price above the Index, which won’t lead to good PR.

They must already have stock in their warehouse, so they can just set the right price.

And for the next batch they set the price again.

So I meant less pre-order and more let people order in batches with adjusted price.

Oh come on, they could just open up preorders and trickle them out. Charge a bit more at first to cover the cost while promising to lower the price as RAM gets cheaper.

I want my Frame :(