In anticipation of Intel's upcoming Alder Lake CPUs, it won't be long before the first consumer DDR5 memory kits hit retail store shelves. These kits will start with DDR5-4800. However, if you want to go one step further with DDR4, you can get even faster kits at a reasonable price.

Specifically, G.Skill's Ripjaws Series V 16GB kit (2x8GB) DDR4-5066 is available at Newegg for $149.99. This is only $20 less than MSRP, not a huge price drop, but we were surprised to see a memory kit in this speed range for under $200.

Sorting through Newegg's collection of DDR4-5000 kits and above, this is at least $50 cheaper. Next cheapest is G.Skill's TridentZ RGB DDR4-5066 16GB kit for $199.99. Even in DDR4-4800 territory (the same speed at which DDR5 starts), the price is nearly identical.

Do you need these speeds on a DDR4 platform? The best RAM for gaming is not necessarily the highest frequency you can buy; higher frequencies than DDR4-3600 will almost always yield less. But if you want to try your hand at enthusiast-level overclocking or splurge on a premium high-frequency kit, you can do it here without raiding your bank account.

Then there is the question of whether it makes sense to buy a DDR4 kit now that DDR5 is looming. It depends on your situation. If you are looking to expand your current platform and need a RAM upgrade, by all means buy it. It is also worth mentioning that Alder Lake supports both DDR4 and DDR5 (just not on the same motherboard). So if you are buying a DDR4 kit, I would recommend buying more speeds than you need at this time.