Which Intel and AMD CPUs Support DDR5? (2022)
Which CPUs Support DDR5?
Intel’s 12th and 13th generation Core processors, code-named «Alder Lake» and «Raptor Lake,» support DDR5.
AMD introduced support for DDR5 with their Ryzen 7000-series processors in Q4 2022.
Check out my Recommended Intel and Recommended AMD DDR5 CPUs and motherboards below.
Best Intel DDR5 CPU
Intel Core i9-13900K
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Best AMD DDR5 CPU
AMD Ryzen 9 7950X
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Desktop and Workstation CPUs
Intel introduced support for DDR5 with their 12th generation Core processors in November 2021 and continue to support it in their 13th generation Core processors. These processors support both DDR4 and DDR5, although you’ll need to use a motherboard that supports the particular DDR type.
AMD introduced support for DDR5 with their Ryzen 7000-series processors in Q4 2022.
- Find AMD 7000-series processors on Amazon (affiliate link).
- Find Intel Raptor Lake (13th Gen) processors on Amazon (affiliate link).
- Find Intel Alder Lake (12th Gen) processors on Amazon (affiliate link).
| Processor Branding | Processor Models Supporting DDR5 |
|---|---|
| AMD Ryzen 9 | Ryzen 9 7950X, 7900X |
| AMD Ryzen 7 | Ryzen 7 7700X |
| AMD Ryzen 5 | Ryzen 5 7600X |
| Intel Core i9 | Core i9 13900K, 13900KF, 12900KS, 12900K, 12900KF, 12900F, 12900, 12900T |
| Intel Core i7 | Core i7 13700K, 13700KF, 12700K, 12700KF, 12700F, 12700, 12700T |
| Intel Core i5 | Core i5 13600K, 13600KF, 12600K, 12600KF, 12600, 12600T, 12500, 12500T, 12400F, 12400, 12400T |
| Intel Core i3 | Core i3 12300, 12300T, 12100, 12100F, 12100T |
| Intel Pentium Gold | Pentium Gold G7400, G7400T |
Benefits of DDR5
DDR5 provides twice the bandwidth and density of DDR4 while reducing power consumption.
Higher bandwidth translates to faster processing for memory-intensive applications such as games, video and image editors, 3D tools, and browsers.
Additionally, all DDR5 memory will have on-die ECC, which provides error detection and correction before sending data to a CPU. DDR5 ECC is expected to improve reliability and reduce defect rates.
Featured DDR5
Corsair DOMINATOR PLATINUM RGB DDR5 32GB (2x16GB) 5600MHz RAM
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Featured DDR4
Corsair Vengeance LPX DDR4
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Is DDR5 Worth the Upgrade?
DDR5 is the path forward in the long run, but current conditions may limit its benefits. Let’s dig into the various considerations.
Cost and Availability
Currently, DDR5 is more expensive than DDR4. Stock is often limited for DDR5 but is becoming more available.
CPU and Motherboard Upgrade
Intel’s 12th and 13th generation Core CPU supports both DDR4 and DDR5.
However, DDR5 isn’t backward compatible with DDR4; motherboards only support one or the other. This motherboard limitation means you’ll need to choose whether you want to get the lower-cost DDR4 memory or get DDR5 with the ability to upgrade it in the future.
Ryzen 7000 series CPUs only support DDR5 memory, while older Ryzen CPUs only support DDR4 memory.
Timings
DDR5 may experience slower timings at initial release but should be much better than DDR4 as the technology matures. However, keep in mind that the timings scale inversely with the clock rate (frequency).
The timing values are in units of clock cycles, but more cycles are happening per second with DDR5. For example, DDR3-2133 CL10 has nearly the same latency as DDR5-8400 CL40. So don’t let the CL40 timings of DDR5 scare you away; the number just looks bigger!
Bandwidth
Even if the latency is roughly the same between DDR4 and DDR5 currently, the amount of data that DDR5 can transfer per second is much higher.
This increased bandwidth will often lead to an overall improvement in performance.
CPU Support
Intel 12th and 13th Gen Core CPUs and Ryzen 7000 series CPUs currently support DDR5 memory. If you want to use an older Intel or AMD CPU, you’ll be limited to DDR4.
Future Upgradability
If you get a DDR4 motherboard, you won’t be able to use it with DDR5. Motherboards typically only support DDR4 or DDR5, but not both.
Best Intel 13th Gen High-Performance CPU and Motherboard
- Our recommended Intel 13th gen high-performance enthusiast CPU:
Intel Core i9-13900K
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- Up to 5.8 GHz max-turbo stock speed: perfect for games, video editing, and high-intensity tasks.
- 24 cores (8 Performance + 16 Efficiency): This combination makes it a great all-around system that can handle any task you throw at it.
- Virtualization features make it great for running virtual machines.
- Check the latest price of the Intel Core i9-13900K on Amazon (affiliate link).
- For the Intel Core i9-13900K CPU, you’ll need a motherboard with overclocking support to overclock the CPU. Motherboards with the Z790 chipset typically support CPU overclocking. Otherwise, you can use a motherboard with Intel’s other 600-series desktop chipsets (e.g., Z690, H670, B660, H610).
- Our recommended motherboard to pair with the i9-13900K:
ASUS ROG Maximus Z790 Hero
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- PCIe 5.0 support
- It supports up to 128GB of DDR5 memory (DDR5 provides the fastest memory speeds)!
- 2.5 Gbps Ethernet port is faster than any home Internet speed available with tons of room to spare for file transfers.
- Wi-Fi 6E makes it easy to reach the fastest speeds and future-proof your Wi-Fi system.
- Bluetooth 5.3 is great for streaming music to Bluetooth headphones.
- Five x4 NVMe M.2 slots, which is fantastic! One of these supports PCIe 5.0 speeds, and the rest run at PCIe 4.0 speeds.
- USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 offers 20 Gbps USB speeds!
- Check the latest price of the ASUS ROG Maximus Z790 Hero on Amazon (affiliate link).
Best Runner-Up Intel 13th Gen CPU and Motherboard
- Our recommended Intel 13th gen high-performance enthusiast CPU:
Intel Core i7-13700K
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- Up to 5.4 GHz max-turbo stock speed: perfect for games, video editing, and high-intensity tasks.
- 16 cores (8 Performance + 8 Efficiency): This combination makes it a great all-around system that can handle almost any task.
- Virtualization features make it great for running virtual machines.
- Check the latest price of the Intel Core i7-13700K on Amazon (affiliate link).
- For the Intel Core i7-13700K CPU, you’ll need a motherboard with overclocking support to overclock the CPU. Motherboards with the Z790 chipset typically support CPU overclocking. Otherwise, you can use a motherboard with Intel’s other 600-series desktop chipsets (e.g., Z690, H670, B660, H610).
- Our recommended motherboard to pair with the i7-13700K:
ASUS Prime Z790-P WiFi
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- PCIe 5.0 support
- It supports up to 128GB of DDR5 memory (DDR5 provides the fastest memory speeds)!
- 2.5 Gbps Ethernet port is faster than any home Internet speed available with tons of room to spare for file transfers.
- Wi-Fi 6 makes it easy to reach the fastest speeds and future-proof your Wi-Fi system.
- Bluetooth 5.2 is great for streaming music to Bluetooth headphones.
- Three x4 NVMe M.2 slots, which is fantastic! These slots all support PCIe 4.0 speeds.
- USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 offers 20 Gbps USB speeds!
- Check the latest price of the ASUS Prime Z790-P WiFi on Amazon (affiliate link).
Best Intel 12th Gen High-Performance CPU and Motherboard
- Our recommended Intel 12th gen high-performance enthusiast CPU:
Intel Core i9-12900K Processor 16 Cores (8P+8E) up to 5.2 GHz
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- Up to 5.2 GHz: perfect for games, video editing, and high-intensity tasks.
- 16 cores (8 Performance + 8 Efficiency): Quite a few cores considering the frequency! This combination makes it a great all-around system that can handle almost any task.
- Virtualization features make it great for running virtual machines.
- Check the latest price of the Intel Core i9-12900K on Amazon (affiliate link).
- For the Intel Core i9-12900K CPU, you’ll need a motherboard with overclocking support to overclock the CPU. Motherboards with the Z690 chipset typically support CPU overclocking. Otherwise, you can use a motherboard with Intel’s other 600-series desktop chipsets (e.g., H670, B660, H610).
- Our recommended motherboard to pair with the i9-12900K:
GIGABYTE Z690 AORUS Master
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- PCIe 5.0 support
- It supports up to 128GB of DDR5 memory (DDR5 provides the fastest memory speeds)!
- 10 Gbps Ethernet port is faster than any home Internet speed available with tons of room to spare for file transfers.
- Wi-Fi 6E makes it easy to reach the fastest speeds and future-proof your Wi-Fi system.
- Bluetooth 5.2 is great for streaming music to Bluetooth headphones.
- Four x4 NVMe M.2 slots, which is fantastic! Three of these run at PCIe 4.0 speeds, and one at PCIe 3.0 speeds.
- USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 offers 20 Gbps USB speeds!
- Check the latest price of the GIGABYTE Z690 AORUS Master on Amazon (affiliate link).
Best Intel 12th Gen Value CPU and Motherboard
- Our recommended Intel 12th gen value CPU:
Intel Core i5-12600K
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- Less than half the price of the i9-12900K, but still excellent performance at up to 4.9 GHz.
- 10 cores (6 Performance + 4 Efficiency): This core count makes it suitable for everyday multi-threading tasks, such as having tons of browser windows open.
- Virtualization features make it great for running virtual machines.
- Check the latest price of the Intel Core i5-12600K on Amazon (affiliate link).
- For the Intel Core i5-12600K CPU, you’ll need a motherboard with overclocking support to overclock the CPU. Motherboards with the Z690 chipset typically support CPU overclocking. Otherwise, you can use a motherboard with Intel’s other 600-series desktop chipsets (e.g., H670, B660, H610).
- Our recommended motherboard to pair with the i5-12600K:
GIGABYTE Z690 AORUS PRO
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- PCIe 5.0 support
- It supports up to 128GB of DDR5 memory!
- Three NVMe M.2 slots, which is excellent! These all run at PCIe 4.0 speeds.
- 2.5 Gb Ethernet port is faster than most home Internet speeds with room to spare for file transfers.
- USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 offers 20 Gbps USB speeds!
- Check the latest price of the GIGABYTE Z690 AORUS PRO on Amazon (affiliate link).
Best Feature CPU and Motherboard
- Our recommended feature-rich PCIe 5.0 CPU:
AMD Ryzen 9 7950X
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- This CPU has 16 cores, a 4.5 GHz base frequency, and 5.7 GHz max boost frequency.
- DDR5 memory support
- AM5 socket type
- Check the latest price of the AMD Ryzen 9 7950X on Amazon (affiliate link).
- Our recommended feature-rich motherboard to pair with this CPU:
ASUS ROG Strix X670E-E Gaming
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- PCIe 5.0 support
- X670E chipset
- One 2.5Gb Ethernet port
- Four NVMe M.2 slots and Four SATA 6Gb/s ports
- Wi-Fi 6E provides fast connections to a Wi-Fi router.
- Bluetooth 5.
2 support - USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 offers 20 Gbps USB speeds and 12 USB 3.2 Gen 2 ports
- Check the latest price of the ASUS ROG Strix X670E-E Gaming Motherboard on Amazon (affiliate link).
Runner-Up CPU and Motherboard
- Our recommended runner-up PCIe 5.0 CPU:
AMD Ryzen 7 7700X
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- This CPU has 8 cores, a 4.5 GHz base frequency, and 5.4 GHz max boost frequency.
- DDR5 memory support
- AM5 socket type
- Check the latest price of the AMD Ryzen 7 7700X on Amazon (affiliate link).
- Our recommended runner-up motherboard to pair with this CPU:
GIGABYTE X670E AORUS Master Motherboard
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- PCIe 5.0 support
- X670E chipset
- One 2.
5Gb Ethernet port - Four NVMe M.2 slots and Six SATA 6Gb/s ports
- Bluetooth 5.3 support
- USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 offers 20 Gbps USB speeds
- Check the latest price of the GIGABYTE X670E AORUS Master Motherboard on Amazon (affiliate link).
Intel’s 12th and 13th generation Core CPU use an LGA 1700 socket.
The LGA 1700 socket will require a CPU cooler that supports the new socket size. Some manufacturers are releasing upgrade kits for LGA 1200 heatsinks to support the new size.
Best AIO Liquid Cooler: Enermax Liqmax III 360
- This Enermax liquid cooler has an excellent cooling capability with a 360-watt TDP (Thermal Design Power).
- Supports a variety of CPU sockets, including Intel LGA 2066, 2011-3, 2011, 1700, 1200, 1366, 1156, 1155, 1151, 1150 and AMD AM4, AM3+, AM3, AM2+, AM2, FM2+, FM2, FM1.
- Quiet operation at 14-27 dBA.
- You can get the LGA 1700 Enermax Mounting Kit for LIQMAX III on Amazon (affiliate link) or request a free LGA 1700 mounting kit via the LGA 1700 Mounting Kit Request Form.
- Make sure your computer case dimensions support this, as it will take up a decent amount of space!
Enermax Liqmax III 360
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Best Dual-Fan Air CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-D15
- Dual 140 mm fans provide 220-watt TDP (183 NSPR) of cooling capability.
- Supports a variety of CPU sockets, including Intel LGA 1700, 1200, 1156, 1155, 1151, 1150, 2011, 2066 and AMD AM4, AM3, AM3+, AM2, AM2+, FM2, FM2+.
- Quiet operation at 24.6 dBA.
Noctua NH-D15, Premium CPU Cooler
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Runner-Up — Dual-Fan Air CPU Cooler: Thermaltake TOUGHAIR 510
- This CPU cooler doesn’t have any fancy LED lights, but the dual 120 mm fans do a great job of cooling LGA 1700 CPUs.
- Suppose you think this cooler will take up too much space. In that case, Thermaltake has a few single-fan TOUGHAIR variants which use different orientations.
- This CPU cooler has a 2000 RPM max speed for optimal cooling.
- 180-watt TDP (Thermal Design Power).
Thermaltake TOUGHAIR 510
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AMD Ryzen 7000 series CPUs use an AM5 socket.
Best All-in-One Liquid Cooler
- Check the latest price of the CORSAIR iCUE h250i ELITE LCD on Amazon (affiliate link).
- This cooler is designed to fit Intel and AMD sockets, including the following models: Intel LGA 1700, 1200, 1150, 1151, 1155, 1156, 1366, 2011, 2066 and AMD AM5, AM4, sTRX4, sTR4 (Intel LGA 1700 is supported with CW-8960091 or CW-8960093 kits).
- 350-watt TDP (Thermal Design Power).
- It provides powerful low-noise cooling and RGB lighting with a customizable LCD display which can display your CPU temperature or other graphics.
- It has 120mm CORSAIR ML RGB ELITE magnetic levitation fans for great CPU cooling performance.
- Make sure your computer case dimensions support this, as it will take up a decent amount of space!
CORSAIR iCUE h250i ELITE LCD Liquid CPU Cooler
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Runner-Up All-in-One Liquid Cooler
- Check the latest price of the Thermaltake TOUGHLIQUID 360 ARGB Sync on Amazon (affiliate link).
- TOUGHLIQUID Series is designed to fit Intel and AMD sockets, including the following models: Intel LGA 1700, 1200, 1150, 1151, 1155, 1156, 1366, 2011, 2011-v3, 2066 and AMD AM5, AM4, AM3+, AM3, AM2+, AM2, FM2, FM1.
- We estimate that this supports roughly a 250-watt TDP (Thermal Design Power).
- This Liquid cooler supports 5V RGB compatible motherboards.
- Equipped with TOUGHFAN 12 2000RPM and supports ARGB lighting on the waterblock.
- Make sure your computer case dimensions support this, as it will take up a decent amount of space.
There is a smaller version available, if needed.
Thermaltake TOUGHLIQUID Liquid CPU Cooler
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Best Dual-Fan Air CPU Cooler
- Check the latest price of the Noctua NH-D15 on Amazon (affiliate link).
- Dual 140 mm fans provide 220-watt TDP (183 NSPR) of cooling capability.
- Supports a variety of CPU sockets, including Intel LGA 1700, 1200, 1156, 1155, 1151, 1150, 2011, 2066 and AMD AM5, AM4, AM3, AM3+, AM2, AM2+, FM2, FM2+.
- Quiet operation at 24.6 dBA.
Noctua NH-D15, Premium CPU Cooler
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Other Considerations When Building a PC
Want to brush up on other new technologies to consider when building a computer? Check out these articles:
- Cases:
- How to Choose the Best PC Case
- CPUs:
- The Best CPUs for Gaming
- Which Intel and AMD CPUs Support PCIe 5.
0? - Which Intel and AMD CPUs Support PCIe 4.0?
- LGA 1700 CPU List
- LGA 1200 CPU List
- Look up an Intel or AMD CPU on TechReviewer for related recommendations:
- CPU Coolers:
- What is the Best Type of CPU cooler for a Gaming PC?
- How to Choose a CPU Cooler for Your PC
- Best LGA 1700 CPU Cooler for Intel’s 12th Gen Core Processors
- Best AM4 CPU Cooler for AMD Processors
- Storage:
- Can an SSD Improve PC Gaming Performance? and Does an SSD Increase FPS for PC Gaming?
- Storage Type Comparison: M.2, U.2, NVMe, SATA, SSDs, HDDs
- Memory:
- How to Choose the Best RAM for Your PC
- How Much RAM Do You Need for Gaming? and Is 32 GB of RAM Worth It for Gaming?
- DDR4 vs. DDR5? Which You Should Buy
- Is DDR5 Worth It? The Benefits of DDR5 and What Is DDR5?
- Which Intel and AMD CPUs Support DDR5?
- PCI-Express:
- Is PCIe 5.
0 Worth It?
- Is PCIe 5.
- Motherboards:
- Which Motherboards Support PCIe 5.0?
- Which Motherboards Support PCIe 4.0?
- Which Motherboard Should You Buy for Intel’s 13th Gen CPUs?
- Which Motherboard Should You Buy for Intel’s 12th Gen CPUs?
- Graphics Cards:
- Which Graphics Cards Support PCIe 4.0?
- Power Supplies:
- How to Choose the Best Power Supply for a Gaming PC
- How to Choose a PC Power Supply
- Keyboards:
- Best Mechanical Keyboard for Gaming
- Monitors:
- How to Choose a Gaming Monitor
Have a suggestion or correction for this article? Send us an email at:
You can also contact the author at:
Intel Raptor Lake CPUs May Support DDR5-5200 RAM Natively
Kingston DDR5
(Image credit: Shutterstock)
A datasheet containing the full specifications of an industrial Thin Mini-ITX LGA1700 motherboard has surfaced as an interesting nugget of information about upcoming 13th gen Intel Raptor Lake-S (RPL-S) systems.
The Mitac Ph22ADI features an H610 or Q670 chipset, built for 12th Gen Intel Alder Lake (ADL-S) Core i9, i7, i5, and i3 processors up to 65W, and supports DDR5 RAM. Mitac highlights that if you build an Alder Lake system, you should choose DDR5-4800 RAM to populate the twin 262-pin SO-DIMM slots on this motherboard. However, the Mitac datasheet implies that Raptor Lake will support DDR5-5200 modules by default. Therefore, please add some salt to this early information as this Intel partner leak or slip-up could be an error.
Intel’s 13th Gen Core processors supporting DDR5-5200 would be a small but welcome advance by default. It simply means that any tier of Raptor Lake system should be able to plug in DDR5-5200 modules and go without any further configuration step(s) and any explicit ‘overclocking’ support from the motherboard.
In our Intel Alder Lake RAM guide, considering DDR4 and DDR5 and the wide range of different latency values and speeds available, we weren’t impressed by the potential performance boost in choosing DDR5 over DDR4 or the performance scaling of DDR5 RAM.
Given this context, moving from the default of DDR5-4800 to DDR5-5200 is a minor upgrade. However, averaging our suite of performance tests on Alder Lake comparing DDR5-4800 and DDR5-5200 with equal timings, we saw a 1% performance benefit.
(Image credit: Mitac)
As well as the default support for faster memory, Raptor Lake CPUs on Intel 700-series chipsets could boost the maximum number of PCIe Gen3 and Gen4 lanes available. This is what might tempt you to upgrade to both a new processor and a new motherboard with Raptor Lake arrives.
There has been some talk about made for Intel 700-series chipset motherboards being DDR5 only. Indeed, AMD has already taken this route with its initial wave of Ryzen 7000 ‘Raphael’ processors and AM5 socket motherboards.
We will have more facts about Raptor Lake processors, performance, memory support, and the new 700-series chipsets (e.g. Intel B760, H770 and Z790 motherboards) nearer launch, expected in Q4 this year.
Almost a year ago, Intel inadvertently confirmed that its 600-series chipsets would be suitable for two generations of processors – Raptor Lake, followed by Raptor Lake (12th and 13th Gen Core processors).
We have taken this as a given ever since, and we expect that people owning Intel 600-series chipset motherboards today will be able to upgrade to Raptor Lake CPUs with at most a BIOS update being required.
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Mark Tyson is a Freelance News Writer at Tom’s Hardware US. He enjoys covering the full breadth of PC tech; from business and semiconductor design to products approaching the edge of reason.
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Components
Testing DDR5 Memory with Intel’s Alder Lake
Series
As promised, we’re back on the topic of DDR5 memory. We are ready to give more information to all those interested, as well as compare the new memory with DDR4.
In addition to testing DDR4 and DDR5 kits with the same processor, we will also compare several different DDR5 kits with each other.
MSI Z690 Boards for 12th Generation Intel Core Processors: DDR4 and DDR5 Versions
As you already know, the latest Intel Alder Lake processors will work with both DDR4 and DDR5 memory. Therefore, during the period of transition from old to new type of memory, MSI will offer Z69 series motherboards0 in two versions.
DDR4 modules cannot be used with motherboards that support DDR5. Conversely, DDR5 modules are not compatible with DDR4 boards.
The AIDA64 benchmark will help you find out how well new processors work with new memory, and what happens if you prefer the Alder Lake platform with DDR4 memory. Along the way, we learn a few other interesting facts.
What is AIDA64?
AIDA64 is a popular application for monitoring, diagnosing and testing computer components, available on various platforms. It is often used to check the performance of RAM: latency and speed of reading, writing and copying data.
— Read speed is the speed at which the processor can read data already in RAM.
— Write speed is the speed at which the processor can write data to RAM.
— Copy speed is the speed at which the processor can copy data from one location in RAM to another.
— Latency indicates how fast (in nanoseconds) the memory can be accessed.
All these parameters affect the speed and responsiveness of the computer as a whole, and testing will help us understand exactly what to expect from the new hardware.
List of memory modules
For our testing, we took memory modules based on the following chips:
DDR4
— Samsung 3200 C15
— Samsung 3600 C15
— Samsung 3800 C15
— Samsung 4000 C15
— Samsung 4266 C15
— Hynix 4600 C20000 — Hynix 4800
— HYNIX 5000 C20 — Hynix 5000 — Hynix 5000 C201
DDR5
— Hynix 4800 C40
— Hynix 5000 C40
— Hynix 5200 C40
— Hynix 5400 C40
— Hynix 5600 C40
— Hynix 5800 C40
— Hynix 6000 C40
stages of their development.
In addition, results may vary depending on the processor used, memory settings, power supply voltage and some other factors, so they should be considered only as a rough estimate.
Intel Core i9 11900K Z590 Platform DDR4 (2 x 8 GB) vs. Intel Core i9 12900K Z690 Platform DDR4 (2 x 8 GB)
In the first round of our tests, we will compare 11th and 12th generation Intel processors: Core i9 11900K and Core i9 12900K. Both work with DDR4 memory. The tests were carried out with identical hardware components on both systems.
Results: The 12th Gen Intel Core processor outperforms in the read, write, and copy tests, but loses in the latency test.
Intel Core i9 12900K Z690 Platform DDR4 (2 x 8 GB) vs. Intel Core i9 12900K Z690 Platform DDR5 (2 x 8 GB)
Here we compare different memory (DDR4 and DDR5) using the same 12th gen Intel Core i9 12900K processor. The configuration of the memory modules is the same — 2 modules of 8 gigabytes.
Results: Even low-end DDR5 memory is able to match mainstream DDR4 modules when using a 2 x 8 GB configuration. On the other hand, super-fast DDR4 memory (4266+ MHz) is still ahead of even the best DDR5 modules currently available.
As far as DDR5 latency is concerned, it is generally much worse even in comparison with the slowest DDR4 modules.
DDR5: 2 x 8 GB vs 2 x 16 GB
Now let’s see what happens if the number (two) and type (DDR5) of modules are the same, but the density of the modules differs by half.
Results: Thanks to the improvements implemented in DDR5, we see significant performance gains when using high-density DDR5 modules (16 GB each). Will it help to overtake DDR4 modules? Let’s see!
Intel Core i9 12900K Z690 Platform DDR4 (2 x 8 GB) vs. Intel Core i9 12900K Z690 Platform DDR5 (2 x 16 GB)
In our last test, we will compare the speed of DDR5 and DDR4 memory kits.
This time, the only difference will be the difference in module density: on the DDR5 platform we use a 2 x 16 GB configuration, and on the DDR4 platform we use a 2 x 8 GB configuration.
Now the test results look very different, don’t they? Even the lowest-end DDR5 memory is on par with the best DDR4 when reading, writing and copying data.
In terms of latency, the best DDR5 kits are now on par with high end DDR4 kits like the 3800+CL15. However, aggressively tuned DDR4 modules (3600+CL15 in our case) still have a big latency advantage even over the best DDR5 kits currently on the market.
Getting ready for a new generation of computer systems
MSI’s New 600 Series Motherboards for 12th Generation Intel Core Processors (Alder Lake) have been showcased at our online Next Playground event. You can get detailed information about them on a separate page at https://ru.msi.com/Landing/intel-600-motherboard
What is the difference between DDR5 and DDR4 RAM?
In July 2020, with a delay of several years, the official DDR5 specification was released.
In October of the same year, Hynix introduced the world’s first next-generation RAM. A year later, in November 2021, Intel launched the 12th generation Alder Lake processors based on the LGA1700 platform, supporting both the new DDR5 memory and the old DDR4 memory (but requiring different motherboards). In the first half of 2022, AMD will introduce its first processors with DDR5 support — on socket AM5.
Despite the release of a new generation of RAM, DDR4 will remain relevant for a long time to come. DDR5 memory modules at the start of sales will be much more expensive and less productive than after a couple of years. As of November 2021, DDR5 performance is not so far ahead of DDR4 that it is worth overpaying for it.
DDR5 motherboard compatibility
Support for DDR5 memory requires an appropriate motherboard. As of November 2021, only boards based on the Intel Z69 chipset0 support DDR5. This means that you won’t be able to install new memory in an old board with DDR4 slots, and vice versa — you won’t be able to put DDR4 RAM in a DDR5 slot.
To verify this, take a look at the image below — you can see that you will not be able to insert RAM into the wrong slot. The notches are in different places, despite the fact that both memory standards have 288 contacts.
DDR5 and DDR4 differences
| DDR5 | DDR4 | DDR3 | |
| Max. transfer rate | 6.4 Gbps | 3.2 Gbps | 1.6 Gbps |
| Max. memory module size | 128 GB | 32 GB | 8 GB |
| Max. The density of one nucleus | 64 Gbit | 16 Gbit | 4 Gbit |
| channels | 2 | 1 | 1 |
| 0003
The density of a single DDR5 memory chip has increased four times compared to DDR4: from 16 GB to 64 GB. This allowed the to accordingly increase the maximum volume of a single module to 128 GB, which is also four times more than DDR4 — 32 GB. DDR5 is more energy efficient than and runs at 1.1 V, while DDR4 ran at 1.2 V. Power management in DDR5 is not carried out in the motherboard, as in previous generations of memory, but on the module itself. Together, this gives reduced power consumption, which will be relevant for portable devices and servers. Another important difference: DDR5 has two data channels of 32 bits each (or 40 bits with ECC check), unlike DDR4 with one 64-bit channel. The packet length for each channel will be 16 bytes (BL16), instead of 8 bytes (BL8) for DDR4. In one operation, each channel transmits 64 bytes of data. As a result, DDR5 performs two 64-byte operations at the same speed, while DDR4 only one. As a result, the effective bandwidth of DDR5 doubled compared to DDR4. Should I buy DDR5 now? Only 12th Gen Intel Core processors and Z690 motherboards currently support DDR5 RAM. 
|
At the start of sales, the amount of memory is smaller, but will gradually increase. 