As gaming demands become increasingly higher, the gap between DDR4 and DDR5 memory continues to widen.
In anticipation of the AMD Ryzen 9000 processor, which is set to hit the market by the end of this month, I have been diligently updating all CPU benchmark data, including application efficiency and gaming tests. Last week, I took a look back at the last two generations of CPUs through a final test, just to understand the current situation before the new wave of desktop CPUs hits the market.
Similarly, CPUs like the Ryzen 5800X3D are about 5% to 7% slower than Intel's older flagship 12900K (capable of configuring DDR5 memory). This was confirmed in my last DDR test using a faster GPU and a different set of newer PC game samples.
This has led everyone to start thinking about how beneficial DDR5 memory is for modern PC gaming.
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The 12900K can take advantage of faster DDR5 memory, which may give it a significant memory bandwidth advantage over the 5800X3D in modern games. To find out the answer, I went back and retested the 14900K, 14600K, 12900K, and 12600K, all with DDR4-3600 CL14 memory.
Baldur's Gate 3
Firstly, in Baldur's Gate 3, the 14900K saw a 23% performance increase with DDR5, while the 13600K had a much larger increase of 31%. Interestingly, it can be seen that the 12th generation parts also have similar scaling behavior: the 12900K was 22% faster with DDR5, while the 12600K was 35% faster. At least in this example, it seems that parts with less L3 cache may benefit more from faster memory.The Last of Us Part I
Continue watching "The Last of Us Part I," the study found that the performance improvement is actually the smallest for the 14900K, with only a 15% increase in this example. The 14600K did not see much improvement, with only an 18% increase. The 12900K saw a 22% increase, and the 12600K saw a 19% improvement. Similarly, the 12th generation models also achieved a greater improvement with the help of DDR5, although the increase is very small in this case.
Cyberpunk 2077
Cyberpunk 2077: The results for Phantom Liberty are also quite interesting. With high-frequency DDR5 memory, the 14900K only saw a 16% increase, which is still an impressive improvement, but it is lower than the 21% gain achieved by the 14600K. Both the 12900K and 12600K saw a significant 29% increase when paired with DDR5 memory.
Hogwarts LegacyIn "Hogwarts Legacy," the 14900K achieved a reasonable 15% improvement when paired with DDR5 memory, but the author observed a larger low-end improvement of 35% at 1%. The 14600K's increase was similar, at 18%, while the 12900K's performance improved by 21%, and the 12600K's increase was only 16%.
Assetto Corsa Competizione
Interestingly, despite ACC benefiting significantly from L3 cache performance, system memory seems to be less important. For instance, the 14900K showed the largest increase, but only by 10%. Although DDR5 did enhance performance across the board, the improvement was minimal.
Spider-Man RemasteredThis time, there was no benchmark test for "Spider-Man Remastered" with ray tracing enabled, as in the past. This change resulted in a significant performance advantage for DDR5 over DDR4. However, these data are from the updated CPU tests by the author, and the very high preset without RT enabled leads to less CPU-limited data.
Some interesting results were still found here. Under these test conditions, the 14th generation CPU with DDR5 only increased by 9%, while the 12th generation models saw an increase between 13% and 22%. The 12900K seems to be bandwidth-limited with DDR4 memory, as it is only 5% faster than the 12600K. With faster DDR5 memory, it is 14% faster.
Homeworld 3
Homeworld 3 is a demanding game, especially during intense battles. The 1% Low of the Intel LGA1700 processor is not good, and everyone can see that the difference between DDR4 and DDR5 is minimal. DDR5 can increase the average frame rate by about 10%, which is quite good, but it does not significantly enhance the experience.
A Plague Tale: Requiem
When testing with "A Plague Tale: Requiem," DDR5 performance usually increases by 16-17% compared to DDR4, but the 12900K is an exception. With higher clock frequency DDR5 memory, its performance increased by 22%. It is the only CPU that has a performance increase to the 1% low point, while other parts only have a performance increase of 3-4%.Counter-Strike 2
As the author previously found, "Counter-Strike 2" is not sensitive to memory performance, using DDR4 and DDR5 memory will produce similar results, at least on the 14th generation processors. The 12900K has a slight speed increase of 6% when using DDR5, while the 12600K has a speed increase of 9%.
Starfield
The results of Starfield show a similar performance trend to many games that the author has already studied, with the 12th generation models gaining a greater performance improvement when using DDR5 memory.
When using DDR5, the 14900K has a speed increase of 14%, and the 14600K has a speed increase of 19%, both of which are very reasonable. However, when paired with DDR5, the 12900K and 12600K have a performance increase of 33-34%, which is a huge improvement.
Horizon Forbidden WestThe author observed similar situations in "Horizon Forbidden West." In this instance, both the 12900K and 12600K saw a performance increase of 16% when paired with DDR5 memory, which is a decent improvement.
However, the 12900K showed a larger increase of 28%, while the 12600K had an impressive increase of up to 32%. Once again, the 12th generation models benefited the most from the increased memory bandwidth.
Hitman 3
When tested with Hitman 3, the gains observed were comprehensive, ranging from 22% to 26% depending on the processor. DDR5 was particularly useful here, significantly boosting performance.
Watch Dogs: LegionFinally, take a look at "Watch Dogs: Legion." This is another example where the performance gains are similar regardless of the CPU used, ranging from 28% with the 12th generation model to 31% with the 14th generation CPU.
DDR4 vs. DDR5: Average of 13 Games
The gaming performance of Intel's 14th generation processors has increased by an average of 16%, which is significantly higher than the comparison I made last year with the 14900K using DDR4-4000 versus DDR5-7200. However, that comparison involved 21 games that used faster DDR4 memory, and many games were different or used different testing methods.
Other notable changes during the testing period include Intel's updated power settings. Previously, I conducted tests without any power limitations, but now I use Intel's Extreme configuration profile. Therefore, the average 16% improvement is quite considerable.
The increase for the 12th generation Core parts is even larger, reaching 20-22%. This may be due to the larger L2 and L3 cache capacity of the 13th and 14th generation Raptor Lake parts, which are less sensitive to memory performance.
It is clear that newer games have higher memory requirements, as in my previous tests, the 12900K was only 10% faster when paired with DDR5 memory, similar to what was seen in the 5800X3D review.
As games become more demanding, the gap between DDR4 and DDR5 memory continues to widen. This is to be expected, and in fact, it no longer makes sense to purchase DDR4 except for AMD's aging AM4 platform.Intel is about to phase out its LGA1700 platform. The next-generation Arrow Lake architecture will completely abandon support for DDR4 and fully switch to DDR5, just as AMD has done with the AM5. Therefore, although I can still use the 12th, 13th, and 14th generation CPUs to track the comparison between DDR4 and DDR5 in future games, it is more for scientific purposes rather than relevant purchase information.
Similarly, I can continue to compare the 5800X and 5800X3D in future games, although I expect there will not be much change, as there has not been much change so far.
*Disclaimer: This article is the original creation of the author. The content of the article is the author's personal opinion. Our reposting is only for sharing and discussion, and does not represent our approval or agreement. If there are any objections, please contact the backstage.
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