Apple somehow just doubled the amount of storage in the new MacBook Air M5 base model to 512 GB despite the memory crisis

Apple somehow just doubled the amount of storage in the new MacBook Air M5 base model to 512 GB despite the memory crisis | PC Gamer Skip to main content Open menu Close main menu PC Gamer THE GLOBAL AUTHORITY ON PC GAMES US Edition UK US Canada Australia Subscribe Sign in View Profile Sign out Search Search PC Gamer Games Hardware News Reviews Guides Video Forum More PC Gaming Show PC Gamer Clips Software Codes Coupons Movies & TV Magazine Newsletter Affiliate links Meet the team Community guidelines About PC Gamer PC Gamer Magazine SubscriptionWhy subscribe?Subscribe to the world’s #1 PC gaming magTry a single issue or save on a subscriptionIssues delivered straight to your door or device From$1Subscribe now Don’t miss these Memory The company that stopped making memory for gamers just explained how important memory is for gamers. Yeah, really Gaming PCs Holy RAMpocalypse! Here’s an RTX 5070 Ti gaming PC with a load of RAM and SSD storage, all inexplicably at last year’s price Memory It looks like more memory price hikes may soon be on the way, as Samsung and SK Hynix reportedly inform customers of yet another DRAM price increase Gaming PCs Top analyst firm Gartner predicts the ‘sub-$500 entry-level PC segment will disappear by 2028’, along with worldwide PC shipment decline of 10.4% in 2026 Memory Explainer: The RAMpocalypse is making memory, SSDs, and even GPUs much more expensive, and it’s all down to AI Memory Many consumer electronics manufacturers ‘will go bankrupt or exit product lines’ by the end of 2026 due to the AI memory crisis, Phison CEO reportedly says Memory HP warns that memory now makes up around 35% of the cost its PCs, double that of a year ago Gaming Laptops Acer Nitro V15 gaming laptop review Handheld Gaming PCs Valve breaks its silence on Steam Deck OLED scarcity and yes, it’s because of the RAM and storage crisis SSDs Unfortunately, all of that doomsaying last year was correct and SSD prices are surging as a result of the memory crisis Hardware The RAM crisis is just getting started: Micron makes the ‘difficult decision’ to abandon the consumer memory business to focus on supplying AI data centers Memory Micron says it’s not to blame for its high memory prices: ‘There’s just not enough supply to go around’ Memory Relief that the worst is over or just the calm before the hurricane continues? Some reports suggest that DRAM prices have plateaued or even fallen Handheld Gaming PCs Surprise, surprise: The ROG Xbox Ally X just got a AU$200 price hike in Australia Memory The three big players in computer memory are all building new factories but it probably won’t help DRAM prices until 2028, if then PopularNEW: PC Gamer Clips!Resident EvilArc RaidersBest PC gearGame Quizzes Hardware Gaming Laptops Apple somehow just doubled the amount of storage in the new MacBook Air M5 base model to 512 GB despite the memory crisis News By Jeremy Laird published 3 March 2026 Though the base price has gone up $100. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works. 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From first-look trailers, interviews, reviews and explainers, we’ve got you covered. Signup + Once a month SFX Get sneak previews, exclusive competitions and details of special events each month! Signup + An account already exists for this email address, please log in. Subscribe to our newsletter With all indications being that the AI-fuelled memory crisis will get worse before it gets better and will also be upon us until at least 2028, fair to say there’s a legitimate concern whether affordable PCs will be viable at all. We may not even get to ask the question about how much memory or storage to expect. But here comes Apple with a new MacBook Air with double the storage of the previous model.There is a catch. The new MacBook Air M5 base model with 512 GB of storage costs an extra $100 over the outgoing MacBook Air M4 with 256 GB. But then the MSRP of the base MacBook Air was $999 since forever until this M5 model jumped to $1,099. Factor in generally heightened inflation in recent years, and the MacBook Air M5 today with 512 GB is comfortably cheaper in real terms than its equivalent with half the storage from a few years ago.Of course, you’re also getting the new M5 chip and some other upgrades. But in the current context of the memory crisis and the general sense that we’re going to have to do more with less when it comes to PC memory and storage, not to mention most PC makers putting prices up, it’s a pretty remarkable turn of events. Related articles New report claims Samsung, SK Hynix and Sandisk are all planning to double the price of NAND memory chips this year HP warns that memory now makes up around 35% of the cost its PCs, double that of a year ago Framework calls out Dell and Apple for using the RAMpocalypse to ‘gouge customers’ on memory upgrade prices but the reality is more complicated As to how Apple can seemingly buck the trend, well, there are various candidate explanations. Most obviously, Apple is widely regarded as having some of the best margins in the business. So, it can absorb increased component costs more easily than most.Apple also operates on a