The newest evolution in RAM has recently been released to the public. Like any new electronic component release, the prices will stay high for a while but for an initial release, they are more affordable than I would have guessed.
With memory manufacturers like Crucial selling it for a very reasonable price. 16GB 288 Pin DDR5 4800 SDRAM for only $175 and 32GB (2x16GB) DDR5 5200 for $339.00
One major issue is that only a few of Intel’s Alder Lake CPUs can run DDR5 memory but they do have an i5 12600k, i7 12700k, and the i9 12900k costing in order $300, $374, and $617.
You can’t forget the motherboard that is required to run the Alder Lake Chipset and DDR5 memory. They run between $250 to $1000.
Nevertheless, as of today, you could purchase an entire XPS i7 12700k 16GB Desktop System for only $2192.00.
Of course, if you really wanted to make it the top-of-the-line system you can upgrade the processor to the i9, the RAM to 128GB DDR5 SDRAM the video card to the NVidia GeForce RTX 3090 24GB GDDR6X and the HD to 2TBb m.2PCIe NVME SSD (boot) drive plus a 2TB 7200RPM HDD (Storage) for a grand total of only $5122.00.
To be honest, I have seen gamers’ machines without this type of hardware in the $7000-$8000 range so this is not out of the ballpark. Of course, I don’t live within 500 miles of that ballpark but we can dream, right?
Summary
For some reason, the line blurs between getting something I want and getting something I need. I know I want it and my wife says I don’t need it. I also know that in the next few years, I will be able to build this system for $3000 less than the top of the line. I’ll wait but it does not mean you have to.
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We can all dream!!!!
From all the tech reviews I have read it currently makes hardly a jot of difference processing wise to use DDR5 over DDR4 . You won’t notice it. And by the time you can (if ever) you will be wanting to upgrade to the next platform anyway.
Save your money and invest in a better GPU or CPU. Having the shiniest new thing every time one comes out doesn’t necessarily translate into any meaningful improvement !
Reg, really appreciate the comment, to are correct to a point. DDR5’s performance right now over DDR4 is not a significant improvement and certainly not worth the extra bucks. Which supports your comment exactly. In my previous article, I actually made the same case you did stating that buying the best CPU you could afford is to the right way to go, and of course a corresponding GPU, but this point of this article was not about price, or getting the shiniest new thing, it was about the potential improvement DDR5 will make when the CPU architecture can support it. Currently, only Intel has released CPUs that support DDR5 particularly the Alder Lake i9 12900K chips and of course, the motherboard must also support the DDR5. If a computer is based on AMD’s chipset there is no support for DDR5. The extra bandwidth on the DDR5 right now can improve some game speeds up to 20% and with the newly announced i9 13900k, the unlocked speeds with DDR5 are extremely impressive and will also improve the latency difference.
I certainly could not afford it but I can dream. Jim
The Whole Intel Z690 chipset is a disaster. The concept of resource sharing controlled by the processor is what it’s all about and it seems that it doesn’t work on most MoBo’s from about any manufacturer. I just took one back to the store after trying it and found it would barely let me insert a vid card, but NOT my sound card. The MoBo didn’t even recognize the sound card. ASUS claimed they don’t make one single MoBo that does a proper job of resource sharing. Of course, ASUS, once a design leaves the engineer’s desk, doesn’t have one single person that has a clue what a computer is or does.
Charles, thanks for the comment. I am sorry you have had issues and truth be told I have had similar experiences in the past. I always bought the newest “first release” tech items but those days are gone. I have not pulled the plug on the Z690 Motherboards because of the price and my actual need. Prior to retiring I would have already purchased the Z690 Aorus Pro + 12 and feel I would be future-proof to a large degree. My current MoBo is a dual processor Asus with 32GB I built almost 12 years ago and has been very reliable with only the built-in ethernet connector going bad in 10 years.