DDR5 vs DDR4 for Gaming: Is the Upgrade Worth It?

If you're building a new PC in 2026, you're almost certainly using DDR5. AMD's AM5 platform and Intel's LGA1700 platform both support it, and as prices have come down significantly the question has shifted from "can I afford DDR5?" to "does DDR5 actually make games run better than DDR4?". The answer is nuanced.

What's Actually Different

DDR5 offers higher bandwidth (data transfer rates), lower voltage, and on-die ECC. A typical DDR4 kit runs at 3200–3600MHz. Entry-level DDR5 starts at 4800MHz, with mainstream kits hitting 5600–6000MHz. The bandwidth improvement is real - but whether it translates to better gaming depends on the game and the platform.

Gaming Performance: The Real Numbers

In GPU-limited scenarios (which is most gaming at 1440p and 4K), the difference between DDR4 and DDR5 is minimal - typically 1–3% in framerate. The gap becomes more noticeable in CPU-limited scenarios: games like Microsoft Flight Simulator, Civilization, and open-world titles with lots of streaming benefit more from high-bandwidth memory.

At 1080p, where CPU performance matters more, DDR5 at 6000MHz can be 8–12% faster than DDR4 at 3600MHz in the most memory-sensitive titles. At 1440p and 4K, that gap shrinks to 2–5%.

The Price Gap Has Closed

When DDR5 first launched in 2021, it cost 3–4x more than DDR4. By early 2026, a 32GB DDR5-6000 kit costs around £70–80 - barely £30 more than a comparable DDR4 kit. At that price difference, on a new-build AM5 or 14th-gen Intel system, there's essentially no reason to choose DDR4.