Ran out of time when I did the first post to prove the 25% price increase for DDR3. Unfortunately I was wrong, the spot price of DDR3 has gone up 65% this year not 25%, so its even worst than I thought. As of the 08 Jan 13, a 4Gb DDR3-1600 chip (it takes 8 chips to make a 4GB DIMM) cost $2.296.(http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/memory/display/20130108224731_Pricing_of_DRAM_Continues_Slow_Growth_4GB_DDR3_Module_Now_Costs_15_75.html)
Now however, that same IC costs $3.811 (http://www.dramexchange.com/), an increase of 66%. As a result, 8GB of DDR3 will cost MS around $61, bang on the cost quoted in the tear-down report. And thats for DDR3-1600, the Xb1 is using DDR3-2166 which is more expensive again.
Now saying all that, I'm not suggesting GDDR5 won't suffer a similar fate, but GDDR5 does have a bit more life left in it than DDR3, which the industry will start to transition away from starting next year and ramp up in 2015. However though memory cube will erode GDDR5's place at the top end, it is likely to still be a factor in the low-mid range.
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