Seven years after the introduction of its predecessor, DDR5 RAM is arriving later this year to slowly phase out the DDR4 technology found in all the best gaming RAM. Whilst buying memory is not as exciting as choosing the best graphics card to slot inside your PC, the next generation of RAM looks to pack a punch if these DDR5 benchmarks revealed by memory manufacturer Longsys (via MyDrivers) are anything to go by.
Bearing in mind these are internal tests, Longsys pits two 16GB sticks of DDR5 RAM clocked at 4800MHz – the base frequency for DDR5 – against one of its own 32GB DDR4 kits. We don’t know the frequency for the fourth generation modules, but it’s likely to sit around the upper average 3200MHz mark.
In AIDA64 the improvements against the older generation are pretty significant, with read and write speeds increasing by 28% and 27% respectively. However, latency is nearly doubled – from 56.8 to 112.1 nanoseconds. You won’t necessarily notice these improved speeds or the jump in latency in-game, but the incremental improvements over each generation of memory add up in the long term.
You won’t find DDR5 support in the best gaming PC until Intel releases its Alder Lake-S CPUs later this year or AMD moves to its 5nm Zen 4 chips in 2022.
These performance boosts give us an indication of what DDR5 RAM can offer in its most basic form, but 4800MHz isn’t anywhere near the top frequency the standard can reach. With a near-double 8400MHz ceiling and competition coming in from big brands like Corsair, HyperX, and G.Skill, the new generation could see an even greater leap.