Intel or AMD

Velocity7 · October 21, 2023

I don't know what to do, I am planning a build using 5600x but then there is also the i5-12400f which does support DDR5... I don't care about the companies just want the best performance for the price.

Does DDR5 actually matter on Intel rather than to jump on the AM4 platform.

Please give me your thoughts and help me.

Crunchy Dragon · October 21, 2023

Personally, I'm not yet convinced that DDR5 is better enough than DDR4 to fully merit the upgrade at this point in time.

DDR5 is still pretty expensive compared to DDR4, and I've been hearing that some memory controllers just won't work with 4 DIMMs of DDR5 at some higher speeds.

If you want all the possible performance you can get, DDR5 might give you an extremely small edge(probably <5%) if you're just playing games.

If you all care about is the best performance per dollar, I have a really hard time recommending DDR5.

RONOTHAN## · October 21, 2023

19 minutes ago, Crunchy Dragon said:

DDR5 is still pretty expensive compared to DDR4

I mean, not really. Board pricing has equalized so you'd be spending the same amount either way, and you can get a kit of DDR5 for just $20-30 more than a similar capacity kit of DDR4 that will likely last you through the lifespan of DDR5 if you want to upgrade in the future. If you already own a decent kit of DDR4, sure reuse it, but if you're going to be buying a whole new platform anyway, it's a pretty insignificant amount of money for bit of a performance uplift.

19 minutes ago, Crunchy Dragon said:

and I've been hearing that some memory controllers just won't work with 4 DIMMs of DDR5 at some higher speeds.

That was mainly on the early BIOS revisions. It's still a little bit finnicky to get working fully and not really recommended if you aren't comfortable troubleshooting memory issues, but it's fairly likely to work as of now and only a little behind 2x32GB configs for max memory speeds.

As for whether to go 12400F or 5600(X), it really comes down to the platform costs. If you end up going DDR4, they both trade blows and it should really be picked based on whichever is cheaper. If you're going to go DDR5, you can get a B760M PG Riptide for pretty cheap, and that board with the 12400F would allow for overclocking and getting up to a 30-40% performance uplift depending on the situation. If that setup is only ~$50 more than the 5600X and you want to put in the effort to overclock it, it's well worth the extra $50 IMO.