Question Upgrade to Z790 DDR5 or keep Z690 DDR4

[rene641]

I have this dilemma. I bought a very cheap non-functional (broken bios) Gigabyte Z790 Aorus Elite AX ver. 1.1. (DDR5)
I managed to fix the bios successfully.
My current PC is an i5-13600K on a Gigabyte Z690 UD DDR4. I can't decide if I should buy some DDR5, keep the Z790 Aorus Elite and sell the rest, or keep what I had before and sell the repaired Aorus Elite board...
What would you do?

 

[COLGeek]

Are you 100% certain that the formerly broken mobo is fully operational?

 

[rene641]

Are you 100% certain that the formerly broken mobo is fully operational?

No. The original owner said that until he messed up the bios, the board was fully functional. I fixed the bios and I assume the board is functional again, I can only confirm when I fit the other components.

 

[COLGeek]

How did you fix it?

 

[rene641]

How did you fix it?

Relatively easy. The original owner said that he was unable to upgrade the bios properly and that he tried to fix it using Gigabyte's Q-Flash Plus feature. The result was that Q-Flash Plus started cycling and never finished, the board did not respond to any buttons. I also asked the original owner what version of the bios he was trying to load when the failure occurred. I bought the board in that condition.
At home I found out that the original owner tried to load the bios for ver. 1.0. and the board is version 1.1. I prepared a USB stick with the correct bios version, inserted it into the USB slot and connected the PSU to the board. Without touching any buttons, Q-Flash Plus started running (LED blinking) and cycled around. I thought to try to measure the CMOS battery voltage, it was only 0.5V. I fitted a new battery and connected the PSU, this time no LED flashed. When I pressed the Q-Flash button, the bios upgrade process ran properly and the Q-Flash terminated.

 

[Why_Me]

I have this dilemma. I bought a very cheap non-functional (broken bios) Gigabyte Z790 Aorus Elite AX ver. 1.1. (DDR5)
I managed to fix the bios successfully.
My current PC is an i5-13600K on a Gigabyte Z690 UD DDR4. I can't decide if I should buy some DDR5, keep the Z790 Aorus Elite and sell the rest, or keep what I had before and sell the repaired Aorus Elite board...
What would you do?

DDR5-6000 CL30 is relatively cheap atm.

 

[rene641]

Yes, it really is, but the question is, how much fps do I get in real life and is it worth disassembling and reassembling the PC because of it?

 

[artk2219]

Realistically, its not much of a performance benefit, especially not if you're gaming at 1440P or 4K, it just depends on if you feel like the extra small amount of performance is worth it to you.

DDR5 vs. DDR4 Gaming Performance

It's time we take a fresh look at DDR4 vs DDR5 memory performance using the Core i9-14900K. We're benchmarking with fast DDR5-7200 and DDR4-4000 memory, noting that...

www.techspot.com

 

[rene641]

I am gaming at 1440P.... But okay, let's give it a chance. I found a briefly used, de facto only unpacked, 32GB Patriot Viper 7400 kit under warranty for $100. I'll buy them and do a PC upgrade, it will be more futureproof. I'm an old guy, maybe this will be my last PC.

 

[artk2219]

I am gaming at 1440P.... But okay, let's give it a chance. I found a briefly used, de facto only unpacked, 32GB Patriot Viper 7400 kit under warranty for $100. I'll buy them and do a PC upgrade, it will be more futureproof. I'm an old guy, maybe this will be my last PC.

Fair enough, if nothing else it will make it easier for you to get more RAM in the future if you need it. Some manufacturers are starting to ramp down DDR4 production, so it will get more expensive and harder to find in the near future.

 

[COLGeek]

Assuming everything works after swapping to the new config, sell the previous motherboard and memory to recoup some of your DDR5 purchase.