Thursday, September 19th 2024
DDR4 Remains a Popular Memory Standard: TechPowerUp Poll
Back in July, we polled our readers to find out what PC main memory type they are using, with the choices consisting of DDR5, DDR4, and DDR3. Nearly two months into the poll and close to 36,000 responses later, an interesting picture is emerging. DDR4 memory emerged a clear winner, with a simple majority of our readers—58.2% of them—responding that they're using it. The latest DDR5 memory type is a distant second, with close to one-third of the respondents or 32.5% picking it. The old DDR3 memory type attracted an impressive 9.3% of the vote.
There could be many reasons why DDR4 remains the king—the AMD AM4 platform remains current, as AMD continues to release processors for this platform. Intel's LGA1700 platform supports DDR4, and there's a fairly wide selection of DDR4 motherboards for this platform, letting enthusiasts save on memory costs by carrying over their old memory or opting for cheaper memory. DDR5 at 32% isn't too discouraging, considering that the standard has been around just 3 years now, compared to the 9 years of DDR4.
There could be many reasons why DDR4 remains the king—the AMD AM4 platform remains current, as AMD continues to release processors for this platform. Intel's LGA1700 platform supports DDR4, and there's a fairly wide selection of DDR4 motherboards for this platform, letting enthusiasts save on memory costs by carrying over their old memory or opting for cheaper memory. DDR5 at 32% isn't too discouraging, considering that the standard has been around just 3 years now, compared to the 9 years of DDR4.
43 Comments on DDR4 Remains a Popular Memory Standard: TechPowerUp Poll
Personally, I was mildly considering a Ryzen 9700X until the reviews bombed it. I'll probably hold out another year or two with my existing DDR4 setup.
The successor 7800X3D is not thaaat much faster with about 25%. Since I also have to purchace a board and RAM to upgrade, it makes it even less desireable.
I really hoped for a 9800X3D that is again 25% faster compared the to previous gen, but it seems like it won't be like that.
This means Zen6 will be my next CPU, if the 9800X3D also fails to deliver.
As for GPUs, they deliver a big performance uplift gen after gen. Big enough to actually upgrade every gen.
Yes GPUs are more expensive, if you can generally sell your current GPU for about 60-70% of its original value after 2 years, if you didn't buy an very expensive version of that model (like a +300-500$ Asus Strix).
DDR5 will happen, maybe if 9800X3D or 265K compel me to upgrade.
Seriously though, when I see SIGNIFICANT, real world improvements (not just in some synthetic benchmarks) in every aspect of the memory performance, as well as the mobo's & other parts that can take full advantage of said improvements, then & ONLY then will I commit to upgrading, be it to DDR 5, 6 or whatever....
At this point in time, I do NOT see that happening, and it does NOT appear to be forthcoming any time soon :(
I play at 4K, "old" games run fine on my system and with recent games I'm GPU limited, so the logical upgrade is a new GPU. I'm waiting for a RTX 5080.
As a 5800X3D user myself, I'll probably be skipping over AM5 and Intel's next gen because I don't foresee a game within the next few years where I'm going to suffer from sub-60 FPS by the 5800X3D or DDR4.
Unless GPU's improve so much in the next couple of years and show the limitations of older CPU's @1440p and higher I may be stuck on the 5800X3D for the entire lifespan of AM5