DDR4 vs DDR5: Why you don’t need to upgrade your RAM for Intel Alder Lake

DDR4 vs DDR5: Why you don't need to upgrade your RAM for Intel Alder Lake

For now, anyway

The Asus ROG Strix Z690-A Gaming WiFi D4 propped upright next to an Asus ROG Maximus Z690 Hero motherboard.

Intel's latest 12th Gen Alder Lake processors include some of the best gaming CPUs money can buy, and they're not just a big step forward on pure power. They as well add support for some new and up-and-coming technologies that that could form the bedrock for even better operation in the futurity, like PCIe 5.0 and DDR5 RAM. In fact, when buying a new, Alder Lake-compatible motherboard, y'all'll have a choice to make: stick with DDR4 retentiveness, or upgrade to DDR5?

Because the two aren't cross-compatible, yous're stuck whatever you lot choice for as long as you lot use that motherboard – so information technology is an of import decision. As things stand, though, it should also be an easy one, as DDR4 can currently provide equally-skillful or meliorate performance in games while being far more easily attainable. The state of affairs could change in time, but for at present allow's consider why you shouldn't necessarily switch to DDR5 for a new CPU.

Some DDR4 and DDR5 RAM modules, fanned out and held in a hand.

DDR4 vs DDR5: Performance

I originally tested the Intel Core i5-12600K and Intel Core i9-12900K with 16GB of DDR5 RAM, and both were intensely impressive chips; I nevertheless remember the Core i5-12600K in particular is the CPU to purchase for mid-range and loftier-finish PC builds akin. At present that I've finally got concord of a compatible DDR4-based motherboard besides – the Asus ROG Strix Z690-A Gaming WiFi D4 (£310 / $350) – it's fourth dimension to see how the i5 handles games with the older memory.

To recap, the results below were recorded at 1080p using the Core i5-12600K and an Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 Ti. In the DDR4 corner, the ROG Strix Z690-A Gaming WiFi D4 was paired with 16GB of Corsair Ballistix Aristocracy retentivity running at its stock speed of 4000MHz, while my original DDR5 testing used 16GB of Geil Polaris RGB RAM (at stock 4800MHz speed) and an Asus ROG Maximus Z690 Hero motherboard.

A bar chart showing how different games perform with DDR4 and DDR5 RAM.

RAM, of course, has never had every bit much of an touch on gaming speed as CPUs and graphics cards, but we can meet here that the latest generational jump doesn't produce a marked reward at all. In fact it's DDR4 that comes out looking slightly ameliorate, with an actress 7fps in Shadow of the Tomb Raider an extra 5fps in Assassinator's Creed Valhalla, and only a 3fps deficit in Metro Exodus. In all the other tests, DDR4 and DDR5 are basically even.

The only time DDR5 clawed out a significant lead was in Cinebench R20. My DDR5-based rig scored 736 in the single-cadre examination and 6733 in the multicore test, both higher than my DDR4 setup's scores of 703 and 6699 respectively. These aren't huge discrepancies, though, and if you're more concerned with gaming than with photo or video editing, it'south essentially moot anyhow.

The Asus ROG Strix Z690-A Gaming WiFi D4 motherboard with an Intel Core i5-12600K and DDR4 RAM installed.

DDR4 vs DDR5: Frequencies and latencies

This performance parity conspicuously flies in the face of conventional wisdom around PC hardware. Surely newer, shinier matter equals faster, meliorate affair?

At that place are, to be sure, various technical upgrades to DDR5 that make it superior on newspaper to DDR4. You can tell just from the specs of the RAM I used that frequencies – the number of times the RAM cycles each 2d – are going to be faster across the board on DDR5 than they are on DDR4. 4800MHz would be a monstrous, potentially even harmful overclock on DDR4 memory, but on Geil's DDR5 kit it can perform that many cycles safely and directly out of the packaging. And with higher overall bandwidth than what DDR4 can offer, DDR5 should exist well-placed for maximising performance.

DDR5 is more efficient, too. It lowers the operating voltage from DDR4's 1.2v to ane.1v, which doesn't audio like much but drastically reduces the amount of power the memory is using at any given fourth dimension. That's especially useful when matching it up with an Alder Lake flake, as while Intel's CPUs are alluringly powerful, they're quite eager to glug from the PSU tap as well.

Why, and then, can DDR4 proceed up so well in games, fifty-fifty being occasionally faster? As far as I can tell, information technology comes to down to DDR4 RAM having much lower latency than DDR5 – latency being the delay between data existence sent from the RAM to the CPU.

The RAM slots of two motherboards, one supporting DDR4 and one DDR5.

Apologies in advance for the number spillage, but permit's use the Crucial and Geil retentiveness I tested with equally examples. The Crucial Ballistix Aristocracy DDR4 RAM has a lower frequency of 4000MHz, simply a much faster latency CAS Latency (CL) of 18: meaning it only takes 18 cycles for data from the RAM to become available later on it'due south been requested. The Geil DDR5 has a CL of 40, so takes over twice as many cycles to perform the same action. And that's not a shortcoming that's limited to this specific model: pretty much all DDR5 kits that have launched or been announced are rated at either CL40 or CL38, whereas even affordable DDR4 kits might come in at CL18, CL16 or CL15.

The departure is obviously reduced by DDR5 frequencies being higher, so it doesn't take as long to simply run through 40 cycles equally it would on DDR4. But the bodily delay will, in al likelihood, remain longer. If y'all're actually curious, yous can discover out the true latency of RAM in nanoseconds by using a calculator similar this one; my Crucial DDR4, for tape, has a calculated latency of 9ns, while the supposedly faster Geil DDR5 comes in at 16.6ns. Echo that longer delay for every unmarried piece of data that the CPU accesses from the RAM while you're playing a game, and the fact that DDR4 can outpace DDR5 no longer sounds and so surprising.

At that place is hope for DDR5, as DDR4 faced a like latency problem when it first launched – hence, at least in part, why it didn't come across off DDR3 overnight. It'southward reasonable to presume that DDR5 will meliorate but as DDR4 did, and that there will be a time when it tin evangelize all of the speed and efficiency advantages without the drawbacks. Alas, it is not this solar day.

Two sticks of Geil RGB DDR5 RAM installed in a motherboard.

DDR4 vs DDR5: Price and availability

Another skillful reason to stick with DDR4 is the cost, and not merely for the RAM itself. At over £300, the ROG Strix Z690-A Gaming WiFi D4 I used is obviously a very premium piece of kit, only it's also something of an extreme case – Alder Lake-ready, DDR4-based, total-size ATX Z690 motherboards offset at £170, and you can look many more affordable mobo options when 12th Gen chipsets like B660 launch as alternatives to the acme-end Z690.

This could use to DDR5-spec motherboards every bit well, just right now the cheapest ATX model I've seen is a cool £230. My ROG Maximus Z690 Hero, meanwhile, costs £520 / $600 – hundreds more than than the DDR4-based ROG Strix Z690-A Gaming WiFi D4, despite having merely modestly amend PCIe and external I/O specs.

Making directly price comparisons for DDR4 vs DDR5 memory is harder, if largely because and so picayune of the latter is actually available. Ostensibly DDR5 launched a few weeks ago, simply the vast majority of RAM kits are yet listed equally out of stock or "coming before long" at reputable retailers – including the Geil Polaris RGB. I did find this Crucial 16GB DDR5 kit listed at £138, but that as well isn't expected to evangelize for another few weeks. And doesn't have a oestrus spreader. Lame.

The Asus ROG Strix Z690-A Gaming WiFi D4 motherboard on a desk.

Granted, my Ballistix Elite kit appears to exist having availability problems of its own, but you can become a 16GB, stock 4000MHz/CL18 kit for £131 with the Grand.Skill Trident Z. And there's no shortage of much cheaper DDR4 kits also; for instance, you tin currently get 16GB of ever-reliable Corsair Vengeance LPX DDR4 for simply £50.

I suppose you could buy a DDR5 motherboard as an act of futureproofing, holding out for when its latency problems are fixed. But the idea of futureproofing is that you don't demand to make repeated purchases afterward on, and because you'd be forced to use high-latency DDR5 until and so, you'd accept to splash out on yet another retention kit when lower-latency models eventually appear. And by then, your CPU and chipset will no longer be cutting-edge themselves.

For the time beingness, and then, DDR4 is the mode to go. I get that it might seem counterproductive to equip your PC with onetime-standard memory afterward just upgrading to one of the most avant-garde CPUs effectually, just when DDR5 costs more than for no real gaming advantage, it'south the simply sensible option.