RAM is now historically inexpensive, mostly due to DDR4 RAM keeping the average price low. Recent DDR5 RAM kits used in the current CPU generations from Intel and AMD tend to be priced higher, made worse by dramatically cheaper DDR4 RAM kits.

But that may soon change. Thanks to the latest Black Friday RAM update (opens in new tab), I found DDR5 RAM kits selling for much less than I had expected.

For example, you can now get a 32GB kit of Corsair's Vengeance DDR5 RAM for $134.99 (opens in new tab). This is a pair of 5,200 MHz (RMS) DIMMs. If you want this to be 5,600 MHz (RMS), just add another $10 (opens in new tab); I recommend the slightly more expensive 5,600 MHz kit, since 5,600 MHz has lower CAS latency.

It wasn't that long ago that nearly equivalent DDR4 kits sold for about the same price. From the data we are seeing, in early 2022, you would have had to spend about $140 to get a 32GB kit of Corsair Vengeance DDR4 rated at 3,600MHz (RMS).

The shift from DDR4 to DDR5 was bound to happen soon. As I said, Intel and AMD have adopted DDR5 with their 12th/13th generation CPUs and Ryzen 7000 series respectively, but Intel still offers both DDR4 and DDR5 options in their chipsets. If these prices are maintained in the new year, we could see DDR5 becoming the de facto choice for building new gaming PCs.

Right now, it's a bit of a toss-up which to choose for your PC build: DDR4 kits are still very cheap, with Teamgroup's Black Friday RAM sale offering 32GB of DDR4 for $69.99 (open in new tab). This is half the price of a comparable DDR5 kit. But this is a particularly low price, which can only mean one thing if DDR4 and DDR5 will meet in the middle ground as production of one declines and the other increases.

On the other hand, DDR5 will probably become cheaper over time and its specifications will gradually improve over time. This means that the high-latency, low-speed kits available today will turn into even faster options in the future, just as DDR4 gradually improved performance.

If you're wondering what you're getting with the move to DDR5, check out the benefits. As you may have noticed, DDR5 kits run at much higher effective clock speeds than DDR4, but have higher CAS latency to compensate. But don't be discouraged by the higher CAS latency. It is all a careful balancing of speed and latency against performance, and even DDR5 kits with high CAS latency are, in the real world, relatively comparable to today's faster DDR4 kits.

To quote Alan Dexter's DDR5 documentation: "To do some quick math, actual CAS latency is measured as (CAS latency x 2,000)/memory speed, which is 10ns for a DDR5-5600 CL28 kit. For reference, this is the same as a DDR4-3200 with a CAS latency of 16.

Nevertheless, always check that the CAS latency is not too high for the clock speed; 30s is a good start, but recently there are kits (open in new tab) available with CAS latencies below 30s. In the first wave of DDR5, kits with a CAS latency of 40 standard, and many kits can be found.

So what else does DDR5 offer? These kits actually regulate the voltage themselves, which sounds like no big deal, but this is how DDR5 aims for speeds that are completely incomprehensible with DDR4 RAM. Likewise, this gives you a little more headroom for your own memory overclocking; DDR5 also supports the new XMP standard, XMP 3. It unlocks some additional memory profiles stored directly on RAM; AMD also has an equivalent technology at AMD EXPO.

But as for DDR5, it must be said that it is not a particularly huge new feature up front for gamers, but just an overall faster package with some clever upgrades. DDR5 is an overall system upgrade, and as such absolutely not something I would recommend installing on your machine today.

However, one day DDR5 RAM will be the only option at a reasonable price.