[Hardware]Best RAM for Gaming: DDR4, DDR5 Kits for 2024

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We've tested the best RAM for gaming and other tasks, including video editing and graphics-heavy applications.


Whether you’re shopping for the best RAM for gaming to upgrade the best gaming PCs but now struggle to tackle today’s games or building a new PC from the ground up, the best RAM kit for your money depends on the platform you pick and the workloads you plan to run. The hard part is evaluating whether faster memory improves your system’s performance. For example, if you’re running an Intel system with one of the best graphics cards, most programs won’t respond meaningfully to faster or slower system memory. On the other hand, some workloads, including some games and software, will scale well with higher data rates. For example, file compression programs love fast memory. AMD’s Zen-powered processors benefit more from higher memory frequencies, which you can read about in detail here. Increased memory speeds on AMD Ryzen- and Threadripper-based platforms often translate to real-world performance improvements. In games, that means higher frame rates at mainstream resolutions like 1080p (1920 x 1080) and smoother performance at higher resolutions. But the number of extra frames you get with faster RAM will vary significantly from game to game. Check out our RAM hierarchy for benchmarks. Lastly, memory speed makes a big difference if you’re gaming with integrated graphics, whether an Intel or AMD processor (you can see how they stack up in our CPU Benchmark Hierarchy). The graphics engine that’s baked into most of the best CPUs for gaming doesn’t generally have its dedicated memory like discrete graphics cards do, so faster RAM also improves performance. However, if you must pay top dollar for the fastest RAM to get playable frame rates, you’re better off buying slower system memory and a discrete graphics card. In short, the best RAM is usually the fastest if you’re gaming without a dedicated graphics card, running an AMD Ryzen system, and, in some isolated scenarios, with Intel chips. But if you don’t care about squeezing the best performance out of your hardware, DDR5-5200 is drop-in compatible with AMD’s Zen 4 processors and DDR5-5600 or DDR4-3200 for Intel 14th Generation Raptor Lake Refresh CPUs.For many users, 16GB continues to be the current sweet spot. Programs continue to get bigger and require more memory over time, whereas 1080p and 4K videos are more common. PC games are also getting more demanding, and websites have become more complex. So, while heavy multitaskers and prosumers may need 32GB to avoid using much slower disk-based virtual memory, 16GB is far more affordable and sufficient for gaming and mainstream productivity tasks. Advertised XMP memory speeds might not be possible on AMD-based motherboards. XMP is an automatic memory overclocking setting designed for Intel systems, but some motherboard makers offer BIOS settings to attempt to use these faster speeds on AMD motherboards. However, these settings aren’t present on all motherboards and don’t always work when they are present. Look for AMD EXPO-certified memory kits if you own a Ryzen 7000 (Zen 4) processor. Dual-rank memory is faster than single-rank memory. Tests show that dual-rank memory kits perform better than single-rank memory kits on AMD and Intel platforms. Always buy a single memory kit for your desired capacity. Don't combine two memory modules or kits from the same vendor and product line. Mixing and matching may not always produce a desirable result, and sometimes, manual tweaking is required to achieve stability. Want the best plug-and-play experience? If you want to avoid minimum to zero manual intervention, choose a memory kit that coincides with the official memory frequency supported by your processor. For example, DDR5-5200 is the baseline for AMD's Zen 4 chips, whereas DDR5-5600 or DDR4-3200 is for Intel's 13th Generation Raptor Lake and 14th Generation Raptor Lake Refresh processors. Do you own a Raptor Lake or Raptor Lake Refresh CPU? Remember that Raptor Lake and Raptor Lake Refresh processors natively support DDR4-3200 on Gear 1. It's down to the silicon lottery if your chip can keep higher data rates on Gear 1. However, DDR5 operates in Gear 2 by default regardless of the frequency.


Topic Source :https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/best-ram,4057.html