I'm trying to decide whether to invest in DDR5 RAM or stick with DDR4. Unfortunately, DDR5 is almost double the cost for the same 32 GB capacity. I'm curious about the actual performance benefits. Are they significant enough to justify the higher price? I'm also in the process of selecting a motherboard, so I want to make an informed choice.
4 Answers
A recent video from Hardware Unboxed highlighted that depending on the game, you could see a performance uplift of 20-30% or even more when switching to DDR5. But keep in mind, it can also depend on what platform you choose since some may only support DDR5.
Just so you know, you can't really just mix-and-match the two. If you want to use DDR5, you'll need to change your whole setup since DDR5 RAM won't fit in any DDR4 slots, and vice versa.
Honestly, switching just for DDR5 isn't really worth it. Sure, it might offer a slight advantage, but I found that on my Core i9-12900k, which supports both, going with DDR4 felt like a safer bet. In my experience, you're probably looking at only about a 10% performance boost on average, which doesn't justify the cost of a new motherboard and RAM.
To put it simply, while DDR5 is definitely an upgrade, it doesn’t blow DDR4 out of the water. If you don’t have specific needs that only DDR5 can satisfy, you might be fine with DDR4. It really comes down to your budget and what you're planning to do with your PC.
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