14900K motherboard (DDR4?)

Devlish · 3 Feb 2024 at 11:02

Hey all

Just a quick question. I have just come into a 14900K for various reasons and need to upgrade my motherboard (running an AMD). I am currently running DDR4 RAM and was wondering what I was looking at here? Basically, is there a compatible motherboard that runs DDR4, is there any point in using a motherboard that runs DDR4 or should I just upgrade to DDR5?

Cheers.

ATIorNvidia · 3 Feb 2024 at 11:18

RAM is fairly cheap so I would sell your DDR4 and get a DDR5 motherboard with such a high end CPU.

mickyflinn · 3 Feb 2024 at 11:18

No major performance diffrence.

Review with 13th gen.

JollyJamma · 3 Feb 2024 at 11:21

Depends on your budget and what you want to do with the machine.

DDR5 is cheap and better than DDR4 but if you just want a cheap upgrade, using your existing RAM is fine.

I, personally, would get DDR5.

Higher capacity modules, faster and sticking with DDR4 is sort of limiting down the road if you want to move to a new rig.

A cheap but good kit will be £110 (ish) and the board will be a little bit more expensive (depends).

Tetras · 3 Feb 2024 at 12:00

Devlish said:
I am currently running DDR4 RAM

How much of it do you have? If you have a lot e.g. 64GB, then it is more worthwhile to keep it, but if you only have 16GB, then I'd dump it.

Generally speaking: for gaming, you notice the benefit of fast RAM when you're CPU bottlenecked, so e.g. low resolution and settings, but there are some productivity apps that like bandwidth too. This gives you an idea what cares and what doesn't.

Devlish · 3 Feb 2024 at 13:28

Much appreciated all, I think that tells me what I need to know.

ATIorNvidia · 3 Feb 2024 at 14:12

As a word of caution if you do you get a DDR4 board (or any budget board for that matter), make sure the VRMs are sufficient if you're planning to run workloads that can max out the CPU. Not hard to hit ~300W on a 14900K but of course you can always manually limit it.

jigger · 3 Feb 2024 at 14:22

For best performance on a 14900k you should upgrade the memory, but honestly If sell to sell the 14900k and upgrade the AM4 system if possible.

MartinPrince · 4 Feb 2024 at 22:32

jigger said:
For best performance on a 14900k you should upgrade the memory, but honestly If sell to sell the 14900k and upgrade the AM4 system if possible.

OP, if you haven't done so already then you should probably ignore this gobbledygook.

And it would be sensible to pay more attention to this...

mickyflinn said:
No major performance diffrence.

Review with 13th gen.

By the time there is any meaningful difference between DDR4 & DDR5 we will be well into new chipset territory so any DDR5 board you buy now will have to be upgraded anyway.

As you've come into the 14900K "free" and if you want to keep the cost down then the best-cheapest DDR4 Raptorlake board I would recommend using with the 14900K is the MSi PRO Z690-A WIFI DDR4. I've put a 14900K in a friends system with this motherboard and it works fine. The only issue is that you'd probably have to go used/B-Grade, though I can see them online going for ~£130 atm.

Failing that then the MSi PRO Z790-A WIFI DDR4 is going new for ~£180 or my favoured but costlier boards in this category the Asus ROG Strix Z690/Z790 A Gaming WiFi D4.

I'd also recommend some top air cooling like Thermalright Peerless Assassin etc or a good AIO like the Arctic Freezer II 280/360.

Best of luck.

jigger · 5 Feb 2024 at 00:18

MartinPrince said:
OP, if you haven't done so already then you should probably ignore this gobbledygook.

And it would be sensible to pay more attention to this...

By the time there is any meaningful difference between DDR4 & DDR5 we will be well into new chipset territory so any DDR5 board you buy now will have to be upgraded anyway.

As you've come into the 14900K "free" and if you want to keep the cost down then the best-cheapest DDR4 Raptorlake board I would recommend using with the 14900K is the MSi PRO Z690-A WIFI DDR4. I've put a 14900K in a friends system with this motherboard and it works fine. The only issue is that you'd probably have to go used/B-Grade, though I can see them online going for ~£130 atm.

Failing that then the MSi PRO Z790-A WIFI DDR4 is going new for ~£180 or my favoured but costlier boards in this category the Asus ROG Strix Z690/Z790 A Gaming WiFi D4.

I'd also recommend some top air cooling like Thermalright Peerless Assassin etc or a good AIO like the Arctic Freezer II 280/360.

Best of luck.

OP this chap is super but hurt and talking around his hat again. For the best performance DDR5 is the way to go to see the best from a 14900K.

srekal34 · 5 Feb 2024 at 07:16

32GB Hynix 6000+ with low CL can now be had for less than £100 so I see no reason sticking with DDR4 frankly. The performance uplift is not big, but its there.
As for the board, I'd recommend MSI z790 Tomahawk - beautiful and well equipped board.

MartinPrince · 9 Feb 2024 at 10:19

jigger said:
OP this chap is super but hurt and talking around his hat again. For the best performance DDR5 is the way to go to see the best from a 14900K.

I see you're projecting again. Everything I wrote can be demonstrated with empirical proof, even down to the "gobbledygook" line.

jigger said:
...but honestly If sell to sell the 14900k and upgrade the AM4 system if possible.

Gobbledygook - wordy and generally unintelligible jargon

Now, because I've watched a lot of Indiana Jones films I am able to decipher your particular gobbledygook and work out that what you probably meant to say was that it is best to sell the 14900K and buy AM5 but yet again you are not answering what the OP is asking.

Why don't you take a leaf out of mickyflinn or Tetras' book and actually answer the question people are asking!

The OP is not even asking if DDR5 is faster than DDR4, which it obviously is. They are mainly asking, as they already have DDR4 is there a big difference to not getting DDR5 with the 14900K and the simple, factual answer proved time and again with actual data and not opinion or bias is, no there isn't a big difference.

So if you already have a good amount of decent speed DDR4 then you can save money and not hugely miss out on any performance deficit in general everyday computer usage/gaming.

Metalface Mark · 9 Feb 2024 at 14:50

If it helps, i recently upgraded my 12900k with a 14900k and decided to stick on DDR4 since ive got some decent low latency 4400 stuff, its working a treat. I went back and forth whether to goto the hassle of upgrading my board and ram for ddr5 and everything i read and saw said i may as well stick with DDR4 at the moment.

jigger · 10 Feb 2024 at 11:50

Metalface Mark said:
If it helps, i recently upgraded my 12900k with a 14900k and decided to stick on DDR4 since ive got some decent low latency 4400 stuff, its working a treat. I went back and forth whether to goto the hassle of upgrading my board and ram for ddr5 and everything i read and saw said i may as well stick with DDR4 at the moment.

Sure if you already have 32gb of 4400 low latency B-die. It’s rather expensive now though and will lose to a relatively cheap set of middle of road DDR5.though.

jigger · 10 Feb 2024 at 11:55

Smartin Martins videos are over a year out of touch. DDR5 motherboard is the way to go.

MartinPrince · 10 Feb 2024 at 12:55

jigger said:
Smartin Martins videos are over a year out of touch. DDR5 motherboard is the way to go.

Do you have any evidence to show that the data demonstrated in the video that mickyflinn first posted or the 2nd video that I posted is no longer accurate? Anything specific like what new hardware is out now that radically differs from what is used in the video and would change the outcome?

If you do then put up or shut up.

The fact that you present no evidence and then have to resort to puerile, ad hominen jibes only further demonstrates how badly you are suffering from the Dunning–Kruger effect.

If you do have any relevant factual data that I can engage with then I will welcome that but at this point it is like reasoning with a 5yr old so I will leave you to it.

jigger · 10 Feb 2024 at 13:35

MartinPrince said:
Do you have any evidence to show that the data demonstrated in the video that mickyflinn first posted or the 2nd video that I posted is no longer accurate? Anything specific like what new hardware is out now that radically differs from what is used in the video and would change the outcome?

If you do then put up or shut up.

The fact that you present no evidence and then have to resort to puerile, ad hominen jibes only further demonstrates how badly you are suffering from the Dunning–Kruger effect.

If you do have any relevant factual data that I can engage with then I will welcome that but at this point it is like reasoning with a 5yr old so I will leave you to it.

What? Other than the videos you linked?

Metalface Mark · 10 Feb 2024 at 16:51

MartinPrince said:
Do you have any evidence to show that the data demonstrated in the video that mickyflinn first posted or the 2nd video that I posted is no longer accurate? Anything specific like what new hardware is out now that radically differs from what is used in the video and would change the outcome?

If you do then put up or shut up.

The fact that you present no evidence and then have to resort to puerile, ad hominen jibes only further demonstrates how badly you are suffering from the Dunning–Kruger effect.

If you do have any relevant factual data that I can engage with then I will welcome that but at this point it is like reasoning with a 5yr old so I will leave you to it.

I personally couldnt find anything recent with ddr4vddr5 for intel stuff when i was looking for myself on whether to swap board and ram as well.