I'm building an upgrade in Brazil and I'm stuck between AM4 and AM5. Please consider actual Brazilian pricing, since DDR5 is currently extremely expensive here. My current system is an R5 4600G, A520M-E, 16GB DDR4, and an RX 6600. I mainly use Photoshop, Clip Studio Paint, Blender, and ZBrush, along with gaming.
My AM5 option is an R7 7700, B650M motherboard, 32GB DDR5, a new power supply and case, while keeping the RX 6600 for now. That build would cost about R$6,723. The DDR5 kit alone costs R$3,153.
My second option is an AM4 build with an R7 5700X, B550M motherboard, 32GB DDR4, an RX 9060 XT 16GB, and a new power supply and case. That would cost around R$7,923.
The cheaper option is to use the same AM4 platform with my current RX 6600, bringing the total to about R$4,471, then upgrade the GPU later.
AM5 offers a newer upgrade path, but the DDR5 premium is enormous here. Since I use the GPU for Blender rendering and also care about gaming performance, would it make more sense to stay with DDR4 and spend the savings on a graphics card, or is AM5 worth the extra cost?
3 Answers
Staying with DDR4 for a few more years is completely reasonable at these prices. Your graphics card will usually have a larger effect on gaming and GPU-based Blender rendering than moving from DDR4 to DDR5. You could also consider a stronger AM4 processor, such as a Ryzen 5600X or another higher-end Ryzen 5000 chip, and use the savings to reach 32GB of RAM or improve the GPU.
If the RX 6600 is still handling your games comfortably, there’s no urgent reason to replace it. The AM4 build with your existing GPU is the most economical route, and you can upgrade the graphics card later when prices are better. On the other hand, if you want more VRAM and faster GPU rendering now, the 16GB card makes the AM4-plus-new-GPU option more attractive.
For Photoshop, Clip Studio Paint, and ZBrush, having more RAM matters more than the difference between DDR4 and DDR5. You could also consider an i5-14600K with a DDR4-compatible motherboard. It should perform very well in these applications, and you could reuse your current memory while adding two more 8GB sticks for 32GB. For Blender, a cheaper 12GB graphics card could also be worth considering instead of spending so much on the newest GPU.
That option is starting to make a lot of sense. Reusing my DDR4 would let me put the money saved from DDR5 toward the GPU or another part of the build.
The RX 6600 is still fine for gaming, but the faster card would also help with Blender rendering. I’m mainly deciding whether that benefit is worth spending the extra money immediately or whether I should upgrade the GPU later.