DDR4 v DDR5 on Intel 12th Gen Platform
DDR4 v DDR5 on Intel 12th Gen Platform - So why is ddr5 so expensive? I don't know, maybe it's just because it's newer, better technology, which it fundamentally is kind of irrelevant to any of the performance differences that might or might not be there.
This is fundamentally better memory, or maybe it's because of this beast and i'm not exaggerating this - weighs a ton yeah. How cool is that completely irrelevant? And yes, i'm sure you're not going to get this with the kit that you buy off overclockers or wherever you buy it from but yeah.
This is pretty cool and i'm going to add here. Yes, this is not sponsored by course. In any way, this was just something that they sent us with our sample, which i had to give some time, because this is one of the best novelty items that i think i've ever received, really cool. Maybe i will do some chopping with it at some point. What is up guys?
This is luke hill for kitguru and intel has just launched its new 12th gen older lake platform, and it brings with it especially on the z690 platform, a host of new technologies, some of which are really exciting, and i think the key exciting technology that ushers into The 2021 market is ddr5, so this is the first new standard for desktop memory, since ddr4 made an appearance back in 2014.
This is pretty cool and i'm going to add here. Yes, this is not sponsored by course. In any way, this was just something that they sent us with our sample, which i had to give some time, because this is one of the best novelty items that i think i've ever received, really cool. Maybe i will do some chopping with it at some point. What is up guys?
This is luke hill for kitguru and intel has just launched its new 12th gen older lake platform, and it brings with it especially on the z690 platform, a host of new technologies, some of which are really exciting, and i think the key exciting technology that ushers into The 2021 market is ddr5, so this is the first new standard for desktop memory, since ddr4 made an appearance back in 2014.
Yes, it's been that long with promised boosts in frequency versus ddr4, higher density modules, enabling greater capacities and reduced power. Consumption ddr5 looks like a stellar improvement, but with 12th gen alderley chip supporting both ddr4 and ddr5 motherboard dependent.
Of course, we have an ideal opportunity to test the new memory technology versus the incumbent on a like for like basis and that's pretty exciting. Just how good is a brand new premium set of ddr5 memory like this corset, dominator, platinum, rgb, that we have?
How does it fare against a variety of ddr4 offerings and is it worth the sizeable price jump around 280 to 300 plus pounds for a 32 gigabyte kit of ddr5 versus somewhere in the order of 160 to maybe 230 or 240 for a pretty premium kit of Ddr4 memory, if you like what we do here at kiku, make sure you give us a like and subscribe hit the bell icon.
How does it fare against a variety of ddr4 offerings and is it worth the sizeable price jump around 280 to 300 plus pounds for a 32 gigabyte kit of ddr5 versus somewhere in the order of 160 to maybe 230 or 240 for a pretty premium kit of Ddr4 memory, if you like what we do here at kiku, make sure you give us a like and subscribe hit the bell icon.
You can do all that youtube stuff to really support us and make sure you check out the written page on the kicker website. Ddr5 has several notable improvements versus ddr4, namely frequency of course, but as a genius piece of marketing from crucial tells us ddr5, not just faster, better yeah, i'm sure someone got a nice fat bonus paycheck for that, but all seriousness.
Let'S have a look at the clocks as we would expect. One of the cool changes is frequency, so back in the days of 2014, when ddr4 was brand new onto the market, you typically see modules in the order of 2400 megahertz megahertz.
So if you would really fancy you'd probably get 3200, but it was a headache with that old x99 platform. Now, of course, you can get four gigahertz, plus ddr4 modules by overclocking and that's pretty commonplace. Ddr5 actually increases the frequency to about 4 800 megahertz on the nominal side of things and from day one we'll see premium kits, run at 5200, megahertz and higher.
So if you would really fancy you'd probably get 3200, but it was a headache with that old x99 platform. Now, of course, you can get four gigahertz, plus ddr4 modules by overclocking and that's pretty commonplace. Ddr5 actually increases the frequency to about 4 800 megahertz on the nominal side of things and from day one we'll see premium kits, run at 5200, megahertz and higher.
So that's a sizeable gain frequency for ddr5 versus ddr4. That'S a big boost in frequency for ddr5, but it does come with a significant loosening of the timings our 5200 megahertz corsair kit, for example, runs at 36, 38, 38
Yeah that's pretty loose indeed, whereas a comparable, ddr4 memory kit running at you know a decent 3600 megahertz frequency would probably be something like 16 18, 18, maybe 18, 19, 19 or some of the lower end stuff is 18, 22, 22 or if you've got really deep Pockets, you can get an uber kit like we saw from kingston recently at 53, 33 megahertz, and that was actually c20 all be 1.volts. So clearly the timings are a lot tighter on ddr4.
Yeah that's pretty loose indeed, whereas a comparable, ddr4 memory kit running at you know a decent 3600 megahertz frequency would probably be something like 16 18, 18, maybe 18, 19, 19 or some of the lower end stuff is 18, 22, 22 or if you've got really deep Pockets, you can get an uber kit like we saw from kingston recently at 53, 33 megahertz, and that was actually c20 all be 1.volts. So clearly the timings are a lot tighter on ddr4.
Thus far, we've got a big speed boost worst latencies, but we also have to introduce better power management for ddr5. You get a change to voltage, control via a power management, integrated circuit or pmic. This essentially allows the ddr5 module to handle power management and reduces that burden on the motherboard control.
Nominal ddr5 voltage is 1.1 volts versus 1.2 volts for ddr4, but, as we saw with ddr4 common xmp voltages were 135, volts, and sometimes as high as 1.45 volts, whereas nominal xmp voltage for ddr5, is typically going to be 1.25 volts to start with.
Speaking of xmp, ddr5 ushers in xmp 3.0. This enables greater tuning by increasing the number of slots to five. This can mean three profiles for manufacturer settings, as well as two slots for users to save custom profiles. That'S cool, especially as you can save custom profiles with names to something like corsair iq.
If you have a really fancy overclock that you want to keep and then aside from the changes to clocks latencies power management, xmp 3.0, there are some significant under the hood tweaks. The way in which the sub channels are now split is 2 by 32 bit. Instead of 1 by 64 bit, the notch position has changed for ddr5 versus ddr4, and this is good. It prevents an incorrect installation, clearly there's ondy ecc and you get double the banks and double the burst lens versus ddr4.
Basically, there are indeed quite a few changes beyond the headline specification to the under the hood operating for ddr5. Of course, there's plenty of information on these changes from various sources, including the memory manufacturers themselves.
Nominal ddr5 voltage is 1.1 volts versus 1.2 volts for ddr4, but, as we saw with ddr4 common xmp voltages were 135, volts, and sometimes as high as 1.45 volts, whereas nominal xmp voltage for ddr5, is typically going to be 1.25 volts to start with.
Speaking of xmp, ddr5 ushers in xmp 3.0. This enables greater tuning by increasing the number of slots to five. This can mean three profiles for manufacturer settings, as well as two slots for users to save custom profiles. That'S cool, especially as you can save custom profiles with names to something like corsair iq.
If you have a really fancy overclock that you want to keep and then aside from the changes to clocks latencies power management, xmp 3.0, there are some significant under the hood tweaks. The way in which the sub channels are now split is 2 by 32 bit. Instead of 1 by 64 bit, the notch position has changed for ddr5 versus ddr4, and this is good. It prevents an incorrect installation, clearly there's ondy ecc and you get double the banks and double the burst lens versus ddr4.
Basically, there are indeed quite a few changes beyond the headline specification to the under the hood operating for ddr5. Of course, there's plenty of information on these changes from various sources, including the memory manufacturers themselves.
So, instead of butchering and plagiarizing their work, i would encourage you to go and read their websites and wikipedia if you prefer so now that the core look at ddr5 is out of the way, let's jump into the testing configuration for testing, our core hardware is based Around the new intel core i9 12900k processor at stock frequencies, with xmp, enabled a few more details on this process.
Then make sure you check out leo's written review and his video review, which should give you a good overview of the chip for cooling. We'Ve got a 280 millimeter ace attack based liquid cooler, the motherboards are nasa's rg, strix ddr5 and we've got an asus.
Tough gaming based z690 ddr4 frame. Pushing power comes from a gigabyte, rtx 3080 eagle, oc graphics card. We use a corsair mp600 one terabyte pcie, gen, 4 ssd and clean power is delivered from a couple of one kilowatt plus psus, namely the seasonic tx 1000, which is an absolute beast.
Tough gaming based z690 ddr4 frame. Pushing power comes from a gigabyte, rtx 3080 eagle, oc graphics card. We use a corsair mp600 one terabyte pcie, gen, 4 ssd and clean power is delivered from a couple of one kilowatt plus psus, namely the seasonic tx 1000, which is an absolute beast.
As always. If you want more details on the test system and the hardware that we used and the comparison data head over onto the written page on the kid guru website, now focusing on the memory kits that we're testing for ddr5, we have our sole contender here, because even Samples are still quite limited, pre-release to be honest, and this is corset dominator, platinum, rgb.
So this is a 2 by 16 gigabyte. Ddr5 kit run 5200 megahertz frequency with timings of 36 38 38 at 1.25 volts xmp, the memory ics are micron a spec in a single rank, configuration and that's important, because 16 gigabyte dimms for ddr5 are typically going to be single rank because of the higher density ics used under the hood, whereas 16 gigabyte dimms on ddr4 will very Often.
So this is a 2 by 16 gigabyte. Ddr5 kit run 5200 megahertz frequency with timings of 36 38 38 at 1.25 volts xmp, the memory ics are micron a spec in a single rank, configuration and that's important, because 16 gigabyte dimms for ddr5 are typically going to be single rank because of the higher density ics used under the hood, whereas 16 gigabyte dimms on ddr4 will very Often.
Dual rank so depending on your platform, the rankings leave in there could have some benefits or some downsides for ddr4 versus ddr5. As we already know, the amd platform is particularly sensitive and preferential towards dual rank memory, but we'll have to see if this single rank ddr5 can keep pace with dual rank. Ddr4 on the intel platform, that'll be interesting to see.
Of course, these sticks support xmp 3.0 and you get all the usual corsair bells and whistles of a fantastic rgb led system built around compelling, of course, and then a good thermal sensor, because these are premium dominator modules that weigh a ton and look fantastic and pricing.
Of course, these sticks support xmp 3.0 and you get all the usual corsair bells and whistles of a fantastic rgb led system built around compelling, of course, and then a good thermal sensor, because these are premium dominator modules that weigh a ton and look fantastic and pricing.
For this kit looks to be around about 330 pounds on overclockers, so, as we've already said, quite the hefty price premium for ddr5 our ddr5 motherboard is the asus rg strix z690f gaming, using the bios revision dated late august 2021.
As that's the most recent that we could get our hands on the motherboard that we chose to make this like for like test impossible, is the asus tough gaming, z690 plus wi-fi d4 absolute mouthful, what a terrible name, but it looks like a competent motherboard and that D4 signals that it supports ddr4 memory, even though it's a 12th gen lga 1700 z690 platform motherboard.
The bias revision here is actually newer than the strix offering, unfortunately, so that is one thing to bear in mind, so this is dated late october 2021, as we were able to get a newer bias revision from asus, whereas obviously the strix board is a bit older.
So yeah just bear that in mind for our ddr4 comparison test kits, we try to grab a reasonable range of frequencies and timings on the sets, and we also try to look at a varied configuration of dual rank. Some single rank and some full stick single rank.
So yeah just bear that in mind for our ddr4 comparison test kits, we try to grab a reasonable range of frequencies and timings on the sets, and we also try to look at a varied configuration of dual rank. Some single rank and some full stick single rank.
Also so hopefully, this will give us a variety of test data to look at. We have a corsair vengeance, rgb pro sl kit representing a budget 32 gigabyte option. This is 3600 megahertz, 18 22, 22 at 1.5, volts xmp and it uses two by 16 gigabyte dimms. But using single rank micron b di ics, we have a g-skill trident zed royal elite kit representing a premium 32 gigabyte option.
This is 3600 megahertz, 14 14, 14 at 1.45, volts xmp and it's 2 by 16 gigabyte. Dual rank using samsung bdi ics.We'Ve got a mid-range type high speed, offering at 32 gigabytes using clever sticks.
This is 4 000 megahertz, 1925, 25 at 1.4, volts xmp and this uses eight gigabyte single rank modules, but in a full stick configuration using hynix, djr ics, and then we also have a kingston fury renegade kit, representing an uber premium, ludicrous 16 gigabyte set with ddr5 Type speeds but actually being ddr4. This is 53 33 megahertz c20 at 1.6 volts xmp, but our motherboard didn't like that speed, as with most boards that we've tested, so we had to settle for 4, 400 megahertz 19, 23 23, which is still very nice.
This is two by eight gigabytes, using single rank modules and hynix dji ics. It must be noted that, as we saw with the 11th gen chips, the 12th gen intel chips have a gear ratio for their memory controller clock speed. Basically, this allows you to rank down in essence the memory controller on the cpu so that you can run higher dram clocks.
This is two by eight gigabytes, using single rank modules and hynix dji ics. It must be noted that, as we saw with the 11th gen chips, the 12th gen intel chips have a gear ratio for their memory controller clock speed. Basically, this allows you to rank down in essence the memory controller on the cpu so that you can run higher dram clocks.
So we noticed now testing 3600 megahertz you'd run one for one, so the dram clock would obviously be 1800 megahertz and the memory controller clock would be 1800 megahertz in that gear one. But when we were putting in the 4, 000 megahertz and above kits that would change to gear 2, so we get a 2 to 1 ratio so effectively at 4 gigahertz memory, you get a 2 gigahertz dram clock and then your 2 to 1 ratio would give You a 1 gigahertz memory controller clock.
Could this be a significant factor that really does penalize ddr5, or is it going to be a non-issue on the intel platform? Let'S have a look and, as always, if you want more details on the configuration, the specs, the test and etc head over to the keep your website in terms of memory.
Could this be a significant factor that really does penalize ddr5, or is it going to be a non-issue on the intel platform? Let'S have a look and, as always, if you want more details on the configuration, the specs, the test and etc head over to the keep your website in terms of memory.
Bandwidth ddr5 is a massive improvement over even highly clocked and dual ranked ddr4 kits. This comes as zero surprise to basically everybody, but it is good to visualize in chart form just how significant the bandwidth increase versus common spec ddr4 is. Of course, the downside of ddr5 shows up pretty quickly.
Latency timings numbers in the high 30s will never result in a good latency score. Adding the reduced memory, controller frequency and the latency performance for ddr5 is not strong. It will be interesting to see how this is shown in real world tests with 7-zip compression performance.
We see the corsair ddr5 5200 megahertz kit put in an absolutely storming result. The far greater frequency provided by ddr5 translates into higher bandwidth, and this, in turn, is a bigger influence in the compression workload than any latency negativities aside from ddr5.
The next contenders are either dual rank or 4 single rank dimms on ddr4, the decompression workload is less influenced by memory. Bandwidth as such, the margins of performance between each kit are squeezed here. A quick set of dual rank ddr4 with strong timings, is likely to match or surpass the performance of ddr5 5200 mhz modules.
The next contenders are either dual rank or 4 single rank dimms on ddr4, the decompression workload is less influenced by memory. Bandwidth as such, the margins of performance between each kit are squeezed here. A quick set of dual rank ddr4 with strong timings, is likely to match or surpass the performance of ddr5 5200 mhz modules.
Blender'S classroom test shows an identical hierarchy to the 7zip decompression workload. The margins are tight, but the ultra high spec ddr4 kits are able to match or slightly outperform the 5200 megahertz dominated platinum.
Rgb ddr5 differences in cinebench performance are minor, so much so that we would not really call the difference in performance between the top ddr4 and ddr5 sets anything worth pointing out handbrake, clearly likes memory bandwidth and therefore rewards the ddr5 memory with a high score here. The dominator platinum, rgb ddr5, is tangibly quicker than even the ultra high end ddr4 comparisons.
Rgb ddr5 differences in cinebench performance are minor, so much so that we would not really call the difference in performance between the top ddr4 and ddr5 sets anything worth pointing out handbrake, clearly likes memory bandwidth and therefore rewards the ddr5 memory with a high score here. The dominator platinum, rgb ddr5, is tangibly quicker than even the ultra high end ddr4 comparisons.
This extra bandwidth delivered by ddr5, could be useful if you do a lot of heavy video conversion. Work 3d marks cpu profile max threads test puts the ddr5 configuration top of our chart, but the differences in performance between all memory setups are small enough to call them inconsequential. The cpu score from 3dmax times by test, however, is far more favorable to the ddr5 set from corsair.
This time. The ddr5 performance uplift versus fast and dual rank ddr4 kits, is in the order of 5 or higher. That'S particularly useful if you have an interest in benchmarking and obtaining higher scores. F1 2020 does not care much for the heaps of bandwidth offered up by high speed ddr5. There is no major difference between most the ddr4 kits and ddr5, though kingston's premium spec, fury renegade set, does offer a measurable frame rate boost far cry 6 defaults to the performance hierarchy.
We saw in a few other tests. Kingston'S fast ddr4 sits above the g skill set, which in turn matches the corsair ddr5 numbers. Once again, we see a game that doesn't really care all too much for the sizeable bandwidth offered up by fast ddr5 and instead sees the latency as a bit of a downside. The division 2 does seem to change that precedence a little this time. Corsa'S ddr5 takes second place on our chart, only being roughly matched by the high speed and tight latency kingston ddr4 kit.
Shadow of the tomb. Raider is a game that we can always rely on for showing differences in memory. Performance. Corsa'S ddr5 takes second sport on our chart and positions itself, just below some very high-end ddr4 memory in terms of performance, the fps boost versus even g skills, tight 3600 megahertz ddr4 kit is measurable in favor of ddr5 here and watchdog's legion shows similar behavior to shadow Of the tomb raider, but this time ddr5 roughly matches the top spot in our chart.
This time. The ddr5 performance uplift versus fast and dual rank ddr4 kits, is in the order of 5 or higher. That'S particularly useful if you have an interest in benchmarking and obtaining higher scores. F1 2020 does not care much for the heaps of bandwidth offered up by high speed ddr5. There is no major difference between most the ddr4 kits and ddr5, though kingston's premium spec, fury renegade set, does offer a measurable frame rate boost far cry 6 defaults to the performance hierarchy.
We saw in a few other tests. Kingston'S fast ddr4 sits above the g skill set, which in turn matches the corsair ddr5 numbers. Once again, we see a game that doesn't really care all too much for the sizeable bandwidth offered up by fast ddr5 and instead sees the latency as a bit of a downside. The division 2 does seem to change that precedence a little this time. Corsa'S ddr5 takes second place on our chart, only being roughly matched by the high speed and tight latency kingston ddr4 kit.
Shadow of the tomb. Raider is a game that we can always rely on for showing differences in memory. Performance. Corsa'S ddr5 takes second sport on our chart and positions itself, just below some very high-end ddr4 memory in terms of performance, the fps boost versus even g skills, tight 3600 megahertz ddr4 kit is measurable in favor of ddr5 here and watchdog's legion shows similar behavior to shadow Of the tomb raider, but this time ddr5 roughly matches the top spot in our chart.
At a little over 100 fps average, a performance uplift of a few fps by optimum ddr5 is potentially worth it, especially to those with a high refresh rate monitor who want every last frame from their system. So there we have a few decent ddr4 kits and how they compare to a new premium set of ddr5 memory in a like-for-like testing scenario.
I would say at this point: the result is not conclusively in favor of the new memory technology, if, i'm being perfectly honest in general, the new ddr5, 2x16 gigabyte, 5200 megahertz kit does really well in spite of its latency, which is not very good and the penalization From the intel memory controller clock because of that gear ratio with this height memory, frequency real-world performance in tests such as 7-zip or handbrake, are really good shows of strength for ddr5.
Because those tests, love memory, bandwidth and the frequency of ddr5 really does give you that. But in actual games, ddr5 is not really noticeably quicker than a premium set of ddr4, with something like 3600 megahertz frequency that preferential memory controller clock on the intel platform, decent timings and something like samsung bdics.
So yes, a premium set of ddr4, but this is a premium set of ddr5 and in games it's not really noticeably quicker. But, to be perfectly honest, i guess this is to be expected. New memory technologies always take a little bit of time to mature and that's not to say anything, negative really about the corsair dominator modules, which i must say i do like in our premium modules, just just the fact of the matter with a new memory technology.
We all will see it, and one thing i can categorically say at this point is that the introduction of ddr5 to the consumer platform is leap years better than the introduction of ddr4, with the x99 platform was so. I think we have to really give some proper credit to intel there, as well as the memory vendors and, of course, the motherboard partners.
They'Ve done really stellar job to smoothen the experience with ddr5 i'm actually genuinely impressed and surprised. If i'm being perfectly honest, clearly ddr5 is the future and only latency sensitive applications should have you hesitating towards the choice.
If you go in intel 12th, gen and pricing, of course, as we've acknowledged a few times, because ddr5 is just it's really expensive, with our premium corsair dominator 32 gigabyte 5200 megahertz set it's around about 330 pounds on overclockers uk. At the moment.
If you go in intel 12th, gen and pricing, of course, as we've acknowledged a few times, because ddr5 is just it's really expensive, with our premium corsair dominator 32 gigabyte 5200 megahertz set it's around about 330 pounds on overclockers uk. At the moment.
That'S not cheap. If we look at say a 3 600 megahertz ddr4 kit of roughly equivalent specifications, so 3600 megahertz uh c14, some pretty nice timings, uh dominated platinum, rgb, still that's somewhere in the order about 260 pounds, so the premium for ddr5 looks to be somewhere in the order Of maybe 70 pounds or so, which in isolation is quite a decent amount in overall platform and system, build cost is probably easy to be absorbed, but in terms of actual just pure memory cost that's quite a decent chunk. To be honest, then again.
I think it's easy to argue that an extra 70 pounds for a premium versus premium set of memory which does deliver better performance in certain scenarios and then roughly equivalent performance in other scenarios and perhaps slightly lesser performance in scenarios where the Lower clocked ddr4 can keep that gear one mode on the intel platform.
I think it can be argued that 70 pound is perhaps worth the premium at this point in time, because ddr5, as i keep saying, the technology is fundamentally better under the hood. So if we close out, then i would say the ddr5 is an exciting new technology introduced on the consumer, desktop market higher frequencies, better power management, ecc onboard a new, improved, xmp profile.
I think it can be argued that 70 pound is perhaps worth the premium at this point in time, because ddr5, as i keep saying, the technology is fundamentally better under the hood. So if we close out, then i would say the ddr5 is an exciting new technology introduced on the consumer, desktop market higher frequencies, better power management, ecc onboard a new, improved, xmp profile.
These are all good things. Yes, the pricing is high, but if you're buying a new system at this point in time and can afford the cost upgrade to go with ddr5 versus ddr4, i think it makes absolute sense. It'S justifiable and it's probably the logical move with that said.
If you already have a premium set of ddr4 that you're perfectly happy with and you're just switching platforms to z690 and intel 12th gen, there's an argument to be made that buying a ddr4 motherboard like the tough gaming, actually makes sense. If you can keep that premium set of ddr4, i don't know, maybe that's the discussion we'll have to have in the comments section down below.
Let us know what you would do in that scenario. So yeah ddr5 does look to be an improvement over ddr4. In many respects, but it's not a night and day improvement in scenarios such as gaming and some other tests.
Anything bandwidth related really is gon na fly anything latency sensitive, perhaps not so much. I'Ve been look hill for kickr. Thank you for watching this video analysis of ddr5 versus ddr4 on the new intel 12th gen platform. Hopefully we'll do some more testing like this in the near future, to see how things mature with the ddr5 market and some more motherboard and windows, 11, etc, etc.
Anything bandwidth related really is gon na fly anything latency sensitive, perhaps not so much. I'Ve been look hill for kickr. Thank you for watching this video analysis of ddr5 versus ddr4 on the new intel 12th gen platform. Hopefully we'll do some more testing like this in the near future, to see how things mature with the ddr5 market and some more motherboard and windows, 11, etc, etc.