Is memory really the same as 6 years ago?

Mr Jack · 30 Mar 2022 at 15:10

When I built my current system back in late 2015, I built it with DDR4 3200MHz RAM (specifically a Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4 PC4-25600C16 3200MHz Dual Channel Kit), now I'm looking at upgrading my system I'm looking at memory and it seems like whereas everything else has changed this memory is still the standard (albeit with higher clock speeds such as 3600 being more common, and DDR5 still very highly priced and with limited chipset support).

Is that really correct? Can I just take my old memory, bung in it a modern motherboard, and carry on?

Mr Jack · 30 Mar 2022 at 17:27

Tetras said:
Yup, no problem (3200 is actually stock for most systems now), but you'll probably want 32GB sooner or later.

32Gb is definitely a plan but this way I can plug in a second pair and - provided they have the same timings and MHz - it'll just work, right?

Kinda weird how CPUs and GPUs have changed so much but memory has stayed more or less the same.

Mr Jack · 30 Mar 2022 at 18:03

something daft already!! said:
Mine isn't. I keep forgetting things as I get older.

Ha! Me and you both, mate

Mr Jack · 30 Mar 2022 at 18:41

Great. Thanks @Tetras and @dave28

Mr Jack · 3 Apr 2022 at 09:07

Wing-Man said:
no body as asked @Mr Jack what CPU/GPU do you have and what do you use the system for.

I'll be upgrading to a current gen chip, haven't decided between AMD or Intel yet. I'm looking to upgrade mostly for dev purposes, since my compile times are getting silly with my current chip. Gaming FPS will be mostly boosted when I later upgrade the graphics card when, hopefully, prices have dropped a bit. But since I mostly play Indie games anyway, I don't benefit that much from bleeding edge graphics performance.

Interesting that you're reporting such a difference, most reports I've read show a pretty marginal benefit of higher memory clock speed.

Mr Jack · 19 Apr 2022 at 22:21

Interesting video with benchmarks on all this stuff: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FtAFg9Vg3UY

My tl;dr from the video: my old 3200-CL16 memory is good enough for modern CPUs, although 3600-CL16 would be a moderate improvement. You can get more performance from faster hardware but response time really matters, to the point that higher Hz doesn't help much at the high end. It depends a lot if what you're doing with the ram, but the high end stuff is mostly not worth the money.