[SOLVED] Building a pc now. Should i focus on ddr4 or ddr5 ?

[SeverinV]

Hey,
I checked the effectiveness of ddr4 compared to ddr5 and the difference is not a big one.
So I am wondering if it is worth buying the ddr4 system?
For example, 32 GB of ddr4 3600 cl16 is a roughly similar price to ddr5 4800.
Thanks for the info,

 

[DRagor]

For example, 32 GB of ddr4 3600 cl16 is a roughly similar price to ddr5 4800.

And which of those two is faster, what you think?

 

[Bob.B]

Hey,
I checked the effectiveness of ddr4 compared to ddr5 and the difference is not a big one.
So I am wondering if it is worth buying the ddr4 system?
For example, 32 GB of ddr4 3600 cl16 is a roughly similar price to ddr5 4800.
Thanks for the info,

If your talking the same bucks get the ddr5.
Ddr4 is a dead end.

 

[Karadjgne]

DDR4 and DDR5 are similar now. That says nothing about the future. When DDR4 was first dropped, it too a decent amount of time, even as popular as it was to become, for speeds above 2133MHz to mean anything. Wasn't until recently you'd get DDR4 as high as 4400MHz.

It's been the same with every single new DDR release. DDR4 when first released was actually worse than what was possible with DDR3, in every way that mattered.

And then add on top of that covid supply disruptions, silicon shortages etc and DDR5 has been relatively slow out of the gate. Intel and Amd are saying they'll continue DDR4 in the next gen, but in the next 2 years or so, it'll be all DDR5 as it picks up momentum. You'll be looking at ram hitting 8000MHz if gskill has anything to say about it, world record OC is already 8888MHz.

Whether cpus and software will take advantage of those uber high speeds is anyone's guess, but some software already favors higher speed ram.

With DDR5, you can always upgrade to faster, later. With DDR4 you are limited basically to what's available now, doubt too many strides will be made in higher speeds than already exist.

 

[tommmy.f]

If the price and performance really are similar, then DDR5 for future compatibility and upgrades if you ask me.

But, if there's money to be saved for a cheaper budget build, maybe you could get DDR4 (which should be "enough" @ 3600MT/s CL16) and use what you save for a bump up in GPU. €75-100 extra on GPU can often give a significant bump in gaming performance, which can not be said for RAM in most scenarios. So I'd personally would only entertain DDR4 for a budget build.

If you are going for a mid/high/high-end system then DDR5 is probably the way to go.

 

[SeverinV]

DDR4 and DDR5 are similar now. That says nothing about the future. When DDR4 was first dropped, it too a decent amount of time, even as popular as it was to become, for speeds above 2133MHz to mean anything. Wasn't until recently you'd get DDR4 as high as 4400MHz.

It's been the same with every single new DDR release. DDR4 when first released was actually worse than what was possible with DDR3, in every way that mattered.

And then add on top of that covid supply disruptions, silicon shortages etc and DDR5 has been relatively slow out of the gate. Intel and Amd are saying they'll continue DDR4 in the next gen, but in the next 2 years or so, it'll be all DDR5 as it picks up momentum. You'll be looking at ram hitting 8000MHz if gskill has anything to say about it, world record OC is already 8888MHz.

Whether cpus and software will take advantage of those uber high speeds is anyone's guess, but some software already favors higher speed ram.

With DDR5, you can always upgrade to faster, later. With DDR4 you are limited basically to what's available now, doubt too many strides will be made in higher speeds than already exist.

But today's mainboard only supports up to 6000 mhz ram. So if ,in the future, they can achieve over 8000 ram on ddr5, does it mean i have buy a new motherboard for them or can I use the motherboard I used for 6000 mhz ram.

 

[gamerk316]

Don't fall into the trap of waiting for the next big upgrade; most tasks are fairly insensitive to RAM speeds anyways; you aren't going to see a massive jump in performance just by using faster RAM, so just build around DDR5 and don't worry about what clocks will be down the road.

 

[Deleted member 14196]

Right, get the best you can afford right now and just be happy with it for the next 10 years and don’t worry about the future

 

[Karadjgne]

But today's mainboard only supports up to 6000 mhz ram.

No. Today's motherboards, just like tomorrow's or yester-years have unlimited support. Otherwise world records would be balked at whatever the speed is. What you see listed on the 'sales' pagesand support website is all that's been tested in-house, on the QVL etc because that's all that's available to date. Very few will actually go back and change the pages later as faster ram becomes available.

There's very few motherboards that have limited ram speed capability and that's a chipset issue not a port issue.

 

[geofelt]

Today, focus on DDR4.
Performance is similar and prices are better.
DDR5 speeds are impressive, but that also comes with higher latency, effectively negating any really big boost in normal operations.
Buy what you need today, today.

As a practical matter cpu upgrades will be accompanied by a motherboard and ram change, more often than not.

 

[Karadjgne]

As a practical matter cpu upgrades will be accompanied by a motherboard and ram change, more often than not.

Too true. Most often ppl are happy with the original build, can't tell any difference in games etc because there's no reference other than some numbers in a benchmark done by someone else. By the time they aren't happy, it's a couple generations later, and an upgrade then becomes a replacement.

 

[YoIAmDashing]

Today, focus on DDR4.
Performance is similar and prices are better.
DDR5 speeds are impressive, but that also comes with higher latency, effectively negating any really big boost in normal operations.
Buy what you need today, today.

As a practical matter cpu upgrades will be accompanied by a motherboard and ram change, more often than not.

I very much agree with your sentiment. Not to mention, early ram normally ages somewhat poorly. This meaning another upgrade from DDR5 to a higher speed DDR5 kit will likely become apparent.

 

[SeverinV]

Today, focus on DDR4.
Performance is similar and prices are better.
DDR5 speeds are impressive, but that also comes with higher latency, effectively negating any really big boost in normal operations.
Buy what you need today, today.

As a practical matter cpu upgrades will be accompanied by a motherboard and ram change, more often than not.

So which ram speed would you suggest? 3600 or higher?

 

[vMax]

As low latency DDR4 3600 as possible...CL14 if you can find it and it is not overpriced but CL16 will do the job. I also upgraded to 12th Gen Intel and had to make the same choice. Ultimately went DDR4 as I did not want to pay the absurd DDR5 price especially as DDR5 is not quite there yet. Also saved a ton of money as I got to reuse my DDR4 3600 so happy all around.