The current distribution between DDR4 and DDR5 memory types reveals that DDR4 remains the dominant memory standard at 54.5%. In contrast, DDR5, despite being the latest memory technology, is still in its early adoption phase at 32.9%. DDR4 has been the de facto standard for almost a decade now, so it will take time for DDR5 to overtake it.
Nonetheless, the noticeable 6% growth in DDR4 and 2.9% decline in DDR5 suggests budget-conscious consumers are sticking with platforms that still embrace DDR4, such as AMD's Zen 3-powered Ryzen 5000 (codenamed Vermeer) or Intel's 13th Generation Raptor Lake processors. CPU-Z's processor charts show a significant increase in Zen 3 chips, including the Ryzen 7 5700X , Ryzen 5 5600 , and Ryzen 5 5500 , with figures up to 42.8%, 36.1%, and 67.3%, respectively.
Although both DDR4 and DDR5 have increased in price, the former remains slightly more affordable. Companies are supporting the effort too, such as AMD rereleasing the Ryzen 7 5800X3D , vendors restarting DDR4 and DDR4 motherboard production , or Intel preparing rewarmed Raptor Lake Next chips for 2027.
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Zhiye Liu News Editor, RAM Reviewer & SSD Technician Zhiye Liu is a news editor, memory reviewer, and SSD tester at Tom’s Hardware. Although he loves everything that’s hardware, he has a soft spot for CPUs, GPUs, and RAM.
Jabberwocky79 I paid around $275 for the 64gb currently inhabiting my system, and I thought that was expensive. Today, the price would be over $1000, and that's even if it could be found at all. So yeah, there's no way I could build today what I built 2 years ago. Reply
Roland Of Gilead Same for me. I got my Corsair Vengeance RGB Pro 3600 CL16, for €60! Now, it's above €350 and close to €400 depending on where you shop. It's disgusting. Reply
usertests Buy early and often. Now I have more RAM than I know what to do with. Reply
hotaru251 i went with 32GB of ddr4 yrs ago as 16 was fine but knew tech improvements would want mroe soon enoguh, but 64 is just too much unless you are using simulation type software for work or soemthing. Reply
80251 I've heard that some flight sims (DCS?) can use up to 96GiB of system RAM. Those Steam hardware survey results are telling. We're what? 5 years into the DDR5 era and it's still not the dominant memory type and we all know why. The lousy thing is that GPU prices seem to have reached the stratosphere. Are GPU prices now worse than they were during the cryptocurrency GPUpocalypse? Reply
usertests 80251 said: Those Steam hardware survey results are telling. We're what? 5 years into the DDR5 era and it's still not the dominant memory type and we all know why. Somebody who has a typical budget gaming system with an i5-12400F and 32 GB DDR4 from 2022 is probably going to be OK using that for 10 years. There was a window when buying DDR5 was a good idea, but that window has closed for now. 80251 said: The lousy thing is that GPU prices seem to have reached the stratosphere. Are GPU prices now worse than they were during the cryptocurrency GPUpocalypse? GPU prices were bad, but they've gone into overdrive following the 5090 disappearing, with the 5080 not far behind. I think the 9070 XT was $800 not even 2 months ago, and now it's hanging around $950-1035 on Newegg. Reply
bill001g Games designers will now learn they can not write garbage code and think technology will save them. You would have thought the coin mining price increases to video cards would have given them a clue. Can they make a profit only from customers who can afford a now $10,000 video card with $2000 worth of memory. With video cards they try to fool customers that their cheaper video card using frame gen is just as good as a 5090. With main memory it not so easy especially with the cost of SSD also increasing. I think a large part of this is going to have to be the game engine code designers. Every in very large game studios only a tiny number of people have the ability to optimise the code. For a lot of game coders the game engine languages are kinda AI version 1. Reply
hotaru251 bill001g said: Games designers will now learn they can not write garbage code and think technology will save them. oh you sweet summer child.. thats why you need Multi frame gen 4x for 60 fps on some 1080p games already. Reply
usertests bill001g said: Games designers will now learn they can not write garbage code and think technology will save them. Nobody ever learns anything. What they'll probably do is target the current Xbox Series S and PS5 generation for years longer than anyone intended, and give a "playable" experience to anybody with 16 GB of RAM and 8 GB of VRAM. Then switch to business as usual in a few years after the dust has settled. Reply
Key considerations
- Investor positioning can change fast
- Volatility remains possible near catalysts
- Macro rates and liquidity can dominate flows
Reference reading
- https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/ram/SPONSORED_LINK_URL
- https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/ram/pcs-with-64gb-of-ram-plummet-18-percent-as-memory-prices-soar-cpu-z-install-base-data-shows-ddr4-making-a-surprise-comeback#main
- https://www.tomshardware.com/membership
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Informational only. No financial advice. Do your own research.