I'm in the process of building a new PC, but I have a tight budget and I'm trying to make the most of it. I'm considering using 16GB of RAM from my old build, which runs at 2400MHz. Meanwhile, getting new 3200MHz RAM will cost me around $125. I'm planning to pair my system with a new RTX 5070 and an i5 14400F processor mainly for gaming, aiming for 60FPS at 2K resolution in modern titles like RDR2, Cyberpunk 2077, and The Last of Us 1 & 2. How much of a bottleneck do you think sticking with the old RAM would create? I have other upgrades to consider as well, like a new monitor and peripherals, which is why I'm hesitant to spend too much on RAM right now.
2 Answers
You probably won't see as big of a bottleneck as you’re worried about. Upgrading the GPU and CPU will give you a nice performance boost regardless, so I'd go ahead with that, and check how it performs first. If the RAM becomes an issue later on, you can always upgrade then.
There will be a performance hit, but likely just in the single digits percentage-wise. Even if you could afford the upgrade, it might not be worth it right now. Just keep in mind that with powerful components like the RTX 5070, you might hit bottlenecks elsewhere before RAM becomes the main issue. Here's a link to some tests that show how RAM speed affects performance if you're interested: [YouTube Video](https://youtu.be/aD-4ScpDSo8?si=MH5MDreH4vPv_deV&t=650).
Thanks for the info! When you say single digits, are we talking about percentage points?
Sounds good! I'm eager to see how it performs myself. I read somewhere that depending on the game, the bottleneck could lose you around 8-20% FPS. Do you think it could be that bad?