I recently bought a PC with an RTX 5070 Ti, but I was on a tight budget and it only came with 16GB of DDR5 memory. Adding another 16GB DDR5 stick would cost about $250. I'm considering either selling my current RAM and moving to 64GB of DDR4, or keeping the DDR5 and upgrading to 32GB. I use the computer for game development and run small AI models for my thesis. Which option makes more sense?
2 Answers
Stick with DDR5 and add another 16GB if your motherboard supports it. For game development and smaller AI workloads, 32GB should be a useful upgrade, while replacing the platform just to get DDR4 would not be worthwhile. Also make sure the new module matches your current kit’s speed and timings, or consider replacing the kit with a matched 32GB set if compatibility is a concern.
You generally can’t just swap DDR5 for DDR4. The memory type is determined by the motherboard, so moving to DDR4 would require a compatible motherboard and likely a different CPU as well. That makes the 64GB DDR4 option much more expensive and complicated, so upgrading your existing DDR5 system is the sensible choice.
I didn’t realize the motherboard and CPU could be tied to the RAM type. Thanks for explaining that.
That makes sense. I’ll check the motherboard and try to match the existing memory before buying anything.