My PC is about five years old and still runs well, so I'm not in a rush to upgrade. It currently has a Ryzen 7 5800X, an MSI B450 Tomahawk Max II motherboard, and 32GB of DDR4 memory. I accidentally bought two 16GB DDR5 sticks without realizing that my current motherboard and CPU platform can't use DDR5. Should I return or sell the memory, or would it make sense to replace the motherboard and CPU and move to an AM5 system?
3 Answers
It depends heavily on your workload. For most gaming at 1440p or higher, the graphics card is usually the limiting component, so DDR5 may not make a noticeable difference. A move to AM5 makes more sense for high-refresh-rate 1080p gaming, demanding CPU-heavy games, or applications that actually need more processor performance.
You could stay on AM4 and sell the DDR5, then use the money toward a Ryzen 7 5800X3D if you can find one at a reasonable price. It won’t massively increase average frame rates in every game, but it can improve minimums and frame-time consistency. You may need a BIOS update first, so check compatibility and follow the update instructions carefully.
Since you already own 32GB of DDR5, you’ve bought one of the more expensive parts of an AM5 build. If you want a major upgrade and can afford the rest, pair it with a suitable AM5 motherboard and CPU, then sell the 5800X and B450 board to recover some cost. The benefit is a newer platform with future CPU upgrade options, but it will still cost much more than simply keeping your current setup.
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