DDR4 or DDR5 RAM; Which one is more reasonable to buy?

With the entry of DDR5 RAMs into the market, the question arises that if we intend to buy a system, is it reasonable to pay for DDR5 RAM?

RAM memory technology is upgraded every few years; For years, only DDR2 RAMs were on the market, then DDR3 and a few years later we saw DDR4 RAMs on the market. Now, although these RAMs have a very high speed in doing various tasks and can meet the needs of users, DDR5 RAMs have also come to the market, Which are much faster. Despite these RAMs, the question arises that when buying a new system, is it reasonable to go for the DDR5 platform?

DDR5 or DDR4? Which one is more worth buying?

RAM is considered a very important part in a system that actually Its task is to store temporary information so that the system does not have to go to the internal memory to call them. RAMs usually perform well in playing games or heavy tasks if they have a large volume, but there is also an important factor and that is the RAM memory speed.

DDR5 RAMs have a much higher speed than the previous generation. Although it cannot be said that their purchase value is much higher than DDR4 RAMs, in general, if someone has the ability to pay, it is more logical to choose this type of RAM because they are faster in doing various tasks. Of course, we have to say this in a situation where you need to change the motherboard and processor to prepare a new system or upgrade it. That is, if you want to prepare the entire system platform, it is more logical to buy DDR5 RAM.

But what about those users who want to prepare an economic system? These people usually go for Core-i3 processors that cost less than $150. For this group of people, buying a motherboard that can support DDR5 RAM and DDR5 RAM itself may be expensive. But is it worth it or is it better to go for the same DDR4 RAM?

For example, one of the cheapest The market motherboards that can support DDR5 RAMs are $160, while the DDR4 version is sold at $130. This means there is a 23% price difference between them. Now, if you buy the DDR5 version, you have to pay $84 to buy a normal 16 GB DDR5 RAM with a speed of 4800 MHz, while the same RAM type DDR4 with a speed of 2400 MHz and the same capacity costs $45. This means that you can get a system with low-end DDR4 RAM for almost half the price of a high-end DDR5 RAM and at least $50 less for the motherboard.

In general, it can be concluded that if the performance of the system equipped with DDR4 RAM is similar to a system equipped with DDR5 RAM, even with an economical processor such as Core i3-12100, it makes sense to use DDR5 RAM. However, benchmark results always give us a better idea.

Benchmark

There is one explanation before we get into benchmarks that we should mention. The test system uses RTX 3090 Ti graphics, Which should run games at 1080P resolution. This means that the processor suffers the most pressure in this mode, because the aforementioned graphics are designed to run games at a higher resolution, and at this level, it does not provide any special power at all, and the pressure is placed on the processor. The settings are applied in such a way to give the maximum frame rate. This doesn't happen under normal circumstances, but the decision is to see if having DDR5 or DDR4 RAM affects overall system performance when the processor is stressed or underpowered.

In games like Shadow of the Tomb Raider, Cyberpunk 2077, Horizon Zero Dawn and Spider-Man Remastered, users usually focus on getting the best visual experience, and as a result, if there is any pressure, it is always on the graphics, not the processor. CPU-oriented games such as Rainbow Six, Fortnite, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive or any other similar games are where the processor must constantly anticipate new situations and as a result is always under pressure.

Test system

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In this system, the RTX 3090 Ti acts as the graphics processor and the Core i3-12100 acts as the beating heart. . Along with this processor, different DDR4 and DDR5 RAMs are used, Which we will see in the benchmarks. But since the aforementioned processor cannot exceed DDR4-3600 in Gear 1 mode (the mode in Which the speed of the processor controller is equal to the speed of the RAM). This means that with DDR4-4000 RAM, the system goes into Gear 2 mode (where the processor control speed is reduced to half the speed of the RAM).

Benchmarks

The test started with Watch Dogs Legion . In this game, the Core i3-12100 processor with DDR5-4800 RAM performed well at a frame rate of 89 and It was almost able to have the same score as the test system with DDR-4000 RAM. But as it seems, the delay time was very important because the test system with DDR4-3200 RAM was able to get a higher score than both of them and in a word, it works similarly to the test system with DDR5-6400 RAM.

In general, in playing the game, systems with DDR4-3600 CL16 and DDR4-3800 CL18 have the same performance as DDR4-3200 CL14, and this means that in the current test, DDR5-4800 is equal to powerful DDR4 RAM.

In Rainbow Six, DDR5-4800 RAM could not as it should support the system; Especially in 1080p resolution. DDR4 RAM was able to perform almost 7% better in this test.

In Hitman game 3. DDR5 really shined and was able to surpass all DDR4 RAMs with a speed of 4800 MHz; Even DDR4-3200 RAM, Which performed very well in previous tests.

Compared to DDR4-4000 RAM, DDR5-4800 RAM was about 6% faster. Of course, this difference is not very significant, but for the same amount of money, it seems that it makes more sense to buy DDR5 RAM.

In the game Tiny Tina's Wonderlands, Which is a graphics-oriented game, all RAMs performed well; Even DDR4-2400. Of course, above this amount, they were generally at the same level. The main reason that we see such a result is that in this game the processor was not under any special pressure that the performance of the RAM was decisive.

In the game F1 22, Which was expected to stress the processor, except for the system equipped with DDR4-2400, the graphics were stressed in all systems to see the same result again. With DDR5-6400 RAM, although we see much better performance, we don't see much improvement from DDR4 to DDR5.

Running the Spider-Man game, Which if played in 4K resolution, would be extremely graphic-oriented, in 1080P resolution caused a lot of pressure on the processor. As a result, we can see that the performance of DDR5-4800 is almost equal to DDR4-4000 and even DDR4-3200. This is, of course, while DDR5-6400 was able to show 30% faster performance.

Although Tomb Raider is another CPU-oriented game, the Core-i3-12100 is capable enough to provide a frame rate of more than 100 frames. In this test, we can see that DDR5-4800 was able to have the same performance as DDR4-3200 and DDR4-4000, but DDR4-2400 was ranked last by a long distance.

So far, it seems that although buying DDR5 RAM -6400 seems a lot for an economical system, but buying the 4800 model makes more sense considering that it is possible to upgrade to a faster model.

Horizon Zero Dawn has shown that even with mid-range DDR5 RAM, you can have a more enjoyable gaming experience on a system equipped with DDR4 RAM. Although the difference is not very significant, but considering the capacity and price, and that too in Gear 2 mode, DDR5-4800 seems to have done its job well.

The situation is the same in cyberpunk game. In this game, DDR5-4800 was able to perform well and beat all DDR4 kits except DDR4-3600.

ACC game is one of the titles in Which the amount of RAM delay is very important and should be as low as possible. Using less graphics and putting pressure on the processor, we can see that DDR5-4800 with its relatively high delay time could not perform well at all and appeared at the same level as DDR4-2400. In this test, DDR5-6400 was on top as usual and DDR4-3600 showed the best performance compared to others. If this result was the same in all games, it could be said that you should not go for DDR5 RAM.

In The Riftbreaker game DDR5 RAMs performed well. In this game, the performance of DDR5-4800 was almost equal with good RAM DDR4-3200 and DDR4-4000, but DDR4-3600 appeared better by a relatively good margin. Also, DDR5-6400 was ranked first with a 15% difference.

In CS:GO game It is very processor oriented, RAM performance was not very decisive. DDR4-3200 was able to show the best performance and surprisingly even beat DDR5-6400 by a small margin. But the more interesting thing is that DDR4-2400 and DDR5-6400 had only a 9% difference in performance, Which means that RAM did not play an important role in this game.

Average score

Average The score of systems with different RAMs is as follows:

As you can see, the 8GB DDR5-4800 modules were able to match DDR4-4000 and even DDR4-3600 with very low latency, appearing only 5% slower. What is more interesting is that from 2400 to 3200 we saw a 33% increase in frequency but the performance was only 12% different. From 4800 to 6400 we saw a 33% difference but the performance difference was only 10%. This shows that in the future and with the arrival of heavier games, DDR5 seems to be a more logical choice, and if you want to buy a new system, it is better to get a DDR5 8 GB RAM with a normal processor and a relatively good motherboard that you can use both RAM in the future. Upgrade and the processor.

Result

If your goal is that your budget As long as it is possible to save, it is definitely not a logical thing to buy DDR5 RAM because you can meet all your gaming needs with the same DDR4 RAM. But if you are forward-looking, it is suggested to get a good motherboard with average RAM and a normal processor and upgrade the system a little later when the conditions are right. Considering the price of the processor and motherboard, in the end, a system that can support DDR5 RAM may cost you only 5% more.

The advantage of this choice is that with the popularity of DDR5 RAMs Their prices will decrease and then you can buy a more powerful processor and better and faster RAM that will double the power of your system. Of course, if you already have a system with DDR4 RAM and its hardware power is high, we do not recommend going to DDR5 RAM because in this case you have to change the motherboard and the processor as well. Choose these new RAMs only if you intend to prepare a system with new generation processors.

Source: TechSpot