With the recent arrival of DDR5, is it worth upgrading from your current Machine? DDR5 opens the door to improved performance capabilities, however, early production pains and industry shipping delays have led to shortages and higher pricing. Is it truly worth investing in new hardware?
Benefits And Features Of The New DDR5
One of the new RAM sticks’ most significant selling points is the higher bandwidth. A computer’s memory bandwidth is becoming increasingly important, as modern CPUs commonly reach high core counts. DDR5 marks a radical change in voltage regulation too. The PC’s motherboard is no longer responsible for the voltage regulator as the memory modules have a power management IC. At the moment DDR5 is only compatible with Intel’s new 12th Gen “Alder Lake” processors, which will likely change allowing other processors to become compatible in the near future.
The Differences Between DDR4 And DDR5
You have likely heard of or seen a MHz value in relation to your RAM’s specification. MHz, short for megahertz, is a measurement used to measure clock speed. DDR4 usually has anywhere between 2400MHz-3200MHz before overclocking. DDR5 improves on the DDR4 with operable ranges from 4,800MHz to 8,400MHz. Another noticeable difference between the two is the increased die density. Each DDR4 die is a 16GB capacity, DDR5 quadruples that capacity to 64GB. This will allow a single module of DDR5 RAM to achieve 2TB. The DDR5 also runs at a lower voltage, this is not a huge change but the drop from the standard 1.2V present in DDR4 to 1.1V in DDR5 will be much more evident in smaller PCs and devices.
DDR5 Compatibility
As mentioned briefly above, DDR5 is currently compatible with Intel’s 12th Gen “Alder Lake” processors. These include the Intel Core i5-12600K, Intel Core i7-12700K, Intel Core i9-12900K and their KF counterparts. These CPUs support both DDR4 and DDR5 RAM. Which you will need will be defined by the motherboard being used.
The Overview Of DDR5
Investing in the newest RAM model makes sense if you have the budget to do so, DDR5 truly has the potential to blow DDR4 out of the water. But is it worth the high price tag at the moment? Read our other articles on Industry Supply Shortages, to gain a better understanding of the issues at the moment.
In the future, DDR5 will be capable of offering a major performance benefit over DDR4. However at present, the performance gains are minor at best, the cost increase is monumental and Stock is incredibly hard to come by. I would only recommend DDR5 if you will be looking to be able to upgrade this system with new RAM in the future.
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