Crucial RAM 16GB Kit (2x8GB) DDR5 4800MHz CL40 Desktop Memory CT2K8G48C40U5

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Performance in Hitman 3 gains next to nothing when using DDR5, we see only a very minor increase at 1080p, with basically nothing at 1440p and 4K.

Kingston FURY™ Beast DDR5memory brings the latest cutting-edge technology for next-gen gaming platforms. Taking speed, capacity and reliability even further, DDR5 arrives with an arsenal of enhanced features, like on-die ECC (ODECC) for improved stability at extreme speeds, dual 32-bit subchannels for increased efficiency and an on-module power management integrated circuit (PMIC) to provide juice where it’s needed most. So why do this at all? It’s mostly being done because you can’t really quadruple the density of the chip without additional safety layers. Today, you’ll mostly only find ECC used in servers and workstations, because it’s done for mission critical reasons. The on-die ECC in DDR5 is just something had to be done to make the high speed and high density a possibility. Consider the current transition from PCIe 3.0 to PCIe 4.0. A lot of early PCIe 4.0 components require massive heatsinks and fans on the motherboards to keep things cool. DDR5 isn't likely to have the same issues, of course, but it goes to show that new technology transitions usually have a few issues at the start.Counter Strike Global Offensive is a heavily CPU limited game, and here we see feeding the processor more bandwidth doesn't help improve performance at 1080p and 1440p, though we're only talking about a minor single-digit difference. But it appears as though lower latency memory is more important for this title.

Fortnite also saw some benefit to using DDR5 memory, though for the most part the margins were less impressive. We did see a 12% boost to the 1% lows at 1080p, with a 6% improvement for the average frame rate and this was reduced to 5% at 1440p and then nothing at 4K. In total we spent a few weeks testing 41 games and we'll take a look at the side-by-side comparison across all those games in a second. But if we look at an average graph, calculated using the geomean, we see that on average DDR5 memory offered just a 3% boost at 1080p, 2% at 1440p and then one percent at 4K.

Clearly DDR5 isn't worth it right now, but we already knew that. Pricing aside, DDR5 has little to offer over DDR4 in today's games with an Alder Lake processor for the most part. That being the case, budget conscious shoppers should only consider DDR5 at a 10%, or maybe a 20% price premium at most, when going for a flagship part like the Core i9-12900K. Micron DDR5 server DRAM nearly doubles the performance of DDR4. Unlike DDR4, DDR5 is optimized to increase server and workstation performance by 85% or more. First introduced in 2014, DDR4 can no longer keep up with the demands of the data center. With more instances of actively running virtual machines on a single platform, DDR5 technology relieves the bandwidth-per-core memory crunch and increases the performance and responsiveness of virtualized applications. For testing Microsoft Flight Simulator I'm using the latest DirectX 12 version and here we're only seeing mild gains in the range of low single-digit percentages, so nothing to get excited about. Based on pricing alone (and the fact that availability is near non-existent), DDR5 makes little sense for most. Here we see that the higher bandwidth DDR5 memory has boosted performance at 1080p by 15% and the same is also seen at 1440p when looking at the 1% lows. Even at 4K we're seeing a small 6% boost to 1% lows with the newer memory.

Even the average frame rate was boosted by 10% and 13% at 1080p. The margins are neutralized at the GPU-limited 4K resolution, but still some impressive gains at 1080p and 1440p in this title. Testing PUGB shows a small improvement to the 1% lows with DDR5, about 5 - 7% so nothing to write home about. Meanwhile, the average frame rate remained much the same, so either memory technology will allow you to squeeze the most out of an Alder Lake CPU in this game.It also depends on how you see your investment in RAM too. Paying a premium for DDR5 in 2021 or early 2022 means you can use that RAM when building a new system in 2026 (where you’d have to toss the DDR4). But typically it’s better just to upgrade to a new memory standard a few years after it drops, when the RAM will be larger, faster and cheaper. Will next-gen CPUs be faster with DDR4 or DDR5? For more information and an overview of the differences, see our side-by-side assessment of DDR5 vs. DDR4. Is DDR5 better than DDR4 in data centers?

A game that doesn't benefit from the use of DDR5 memory is Battlefield 2042. Although this data is based on our easier to execute bot match, the 128 player modes don't see any improvement with the higher bandwidth DDR5 memory either. So this one is a bust for the ultra expensive DDR5 memory.The second tab in the chart above aggregates selected benchmarks that represent real-world applications, such as the App Startup subtest from PCMark 10, the Premiere Pro result from UL Procyon, all the apps from our timed workloads chart, and F1 2021. The combined figures are an average of those results. Thanks to its huge lead in 7-Zip file compression, the DDR5-4800 wins over DDR4-4000 by 1.5% overall. We also experimented with removing the timed benchmarks from this data set (not charted here), and in that scenario, the DDR4-4000 kit would have led by 1.3% without that additional data. Based on those figures, DDR5 does very little to aid the Core i9-12900K across a wide range of today's games. If we recalculate using the memory tested here, the Trident Z RGB, DDR4-3600 CL14 and DDR5-6000 CL36 we find a similar margin using the Core i9-12900K and Aorus Elite AX, basically DDR5 ends up costing 20% more. They all told us DDR5 availability would be poor, and pricing would be extreme, and they were right... For a little while at least, DDR5 is best left to early adopters who are prepared for any unexpected behaviors and see it as the price you pay for playing with the latest tech.