Worth upgrading from DDR4 to DDR5?

[Nitefly]

Hey there - I have a 5950x paired with a set of F4-3800C14D-32GTZN ram I bought a few years ago:

Trident Z Neo
DDR4-3800 CL14-16-16-36 1.50V
32GB (2x16GB)

^ this was pretty much top shelf at the time, but obviously diminishing returns…!

I’ll be looking to upgrade to a 9000 series CPU whenever those come around and I’ve been looking at new DDR5 ram… the kits generally seem to be pushing 6000-6400hz with CL32 timings… but from my calculations that actual ‘true latency’ of these is actually worse than my current kit.

… would a new kit perform better than the existing ‘fair / good timings’ kit?

Sorry for the noob question, but it seems like an absolute river of garbage googling for this sort of info! As an aside I’d only be enabling XMP… set and forget! Thanks.

 

[5abr3]

It will depend on the workload.

If you are making lots (and I mean lots) of small calls to RAM then yes, but if you make 1 call for gigabytes of data then the extra bandwidth will cut the overall time

 

[Gray2233]

Hey there - I have a 5950x paired with a set of F4-3800C14D-32GTZN ram I bought a few years ago:

Trident Z Neo
DDR4-3800 CL14-16-16-36 1.50V
32GB (2x16GB)

^ this was pretty much top shelf at the time, but obviously diminishing returns…!

I’ll be looking to upgrade to a 9000 series CPU whenever those come around and I’ve been looking at new DDR5 ram… the kits generally seem to be pushing 6000-6400hz with CL32 timings… but from my calculations that actual ‘true latency’ of these is actually worse than my current kit.

… would a new kit perform better than the existing ‘fair / good timings’ kit?

Sorry for the noob question, but it seems like an absolute river of garbage googling for this sort of info! As an aside I’d only be enabling XMP… set and forget! Thanks.

If you're planning on upgrading to a future platform you won't have a choice. DDR4 is not compatible with AM5, you would need DDR5.

RAM speed has it's own benefits Vs latency, it's something we face every time we move to a new generation of memory. The lines tend to blur a little performance wise from late gen X compared to brand new Y.

Depending on what you're doing it becomes more convoluted. Regardless, if you upgrade to AM5 for a 9000 series chip you cannot bring your DDR4 with you.

 

[Nitefly]

Thanks for the replies - much appreciated. Yes, it looks like DDR5 will be essential then.

I’ve read on here that 64gb is now recommended for a gaming PC. With me going the AMD route are there any other quirks that I ought to be on the look out for? Or it just a case of finding the sweet spot and going with that? 2 sticks, 6000hz, 32cl etc?

 

[dave28]

you dont need 64GB RAM for gaming in my opinion

ok so a very few odd games might benefit from it but no way that would be worth the cost when you could spend it on a better CPU or GPU

even in those cases you can change a setting or two to slash the RAM needed by the game, its a really unnecessary luxury to have 64GB i feel

 

[5abr3]

I only went 64GB because DCS will happily eat 40GB, if I wasnt in to my flight sims then I'd happily have gone 32GB and still would.

 

[malachi]

I only went 64GB because RAM was (still is?) cheap. One of those "why not?" situations.

Now can't get my 14900KS to boot with RAM at 6000 but hey...First world problems!

 

[Nitefly]

Thanks all. Yeah the cost difference isn't going to be a factor. If there's no material performance penalty then 64gb seems like a sensible option at face value.

I suppose it will be a case of waiting to see what kits are well rated closer to the time. But I do find the speeds / cas latency / true latency priority to be confusing... there doesn't seem to be any reliable source of info on what's good to buy!

 

[Tetras]

I’ve read on here that 64gb is now recommended for a gaming PC. With me going the AMD route are there any other quirks that I ought to be on the look out for? Or it just a case of finding the sweet spot and going with that? 2 sticks, 6000hz, 32cl etc?

6000 is generally recommended for AMD because going higher than 6200-6400 usually requires different ratios and that has a performance impact that I don't think current kits are fast enough to address (or I guess games just don't benefit enough from the bandwidth).

I’ll be looking to upgrade to a 9000 series CPU whenever those come around and I’ve been looking at new DDR5 ram… the kits generally seem to be pushing 6000-6400hz with CL32 timings…

But if you're buying a 9000 series the above may not be true, since AMD improve the memory controller in each generation and the optimal speed may be significantly higher. The last rumour I saw said that AMD are upping the base memory spec to 6000 from 5200 (for the 7000 series), which to my uninformed thinking suggests the optimal EXPO speed might go from something like 6000 to 7200.

It is possible that when you're ready to buy, there will be plentiful 2x stick 96GB and 128GB kits, which are fairly uncommon right now.

but from my calculations that actual ‘true latency’ of these is actually worse than my current kit.

Buildzoid has some pretty detailed DDR5 videos if you feel like wasting a few hours:

DDR5 vs DDR4

Practical demonstration of dual rank and single rank memory configuration differences DDR4.https://youtu.be/1ZbxMh5xUOgThe differences between X16 X8 and X4 ...

www.youtube.com

 

[ATIorNvidia]

7200C34 kits aren't much more expensive than the 6000/6400 kits and generally better binned, they will all hit 8000+ with a capable CPU IMC.

 

[Purgatory]

Hey there - I have a 5950x paired with a set of F4-3800C14D-32GTZN ram I bought a few years ago:

Trident Z Neo
DDR4-3800 CL14-16-16-36 1.50V
32GB (2x16GB)

^ this was pretty much top shelf at the time, but obviously diminishing returns…!

I’ll be looking to upgrade to a 9000 series CPU whenever those come around and I’ve been looking at new DDR5 ram… the kits generally seem to be pushing 6000-6400hz with CL32 timings… but from my calculations that actual ‘true latency’ of these is actually worse than my current kit.

… would a new kit perform better than the existing ‘fair / good timings’ kit?

Sorry for the noob question, but it seems like an absolute river of garbage googling for this sort of info! As an aside I’d only be enabling XMP… set and forget! Thanks.

 

[rchads89]

Some of that was surprising tbh