On the occasion of the report on DDR5 memories, it would first be appropriate to clarify a bit when they will actually go on the market. With regard to the recent discussion under one of our reports, on October 14 we sent an email inquiry to two large Czech retailers, Alza and CZC. Leaving aside the usual introduction and conclusion of the email, its core was a request for information: “when do you roughly plan to include DDR5 RAM in the menu”. We did not receive a reply from Alza at the time of writing, CZC replied immediately (omitting formalities): “We estimate the start of sales at the beginning of November in connection with the launch of new Intel CPUs.” October, with reviews and hardware shipments expected on November 4.
The answer to the question “When will they start selling?” Will logically be followed by the question, “How much will they cost?”. The answer to this is already available, mainly thanks to the statement of MSI:
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New memory technologies have always brought a surcharge of 30-40% compared to the previous generation. This time, however, DDR5 contains extra components that have increased the price even more significantly. As a result, we expect a 50-60% surcharge on release over DDR4. It usually takes about 2 years for prices to fall to the level of the previous generation, and we expect that even with DDR5 modules it will not be different. — Sara Lin, MSI |
For the time being, we have to take this information as a rough guide, because Ms. Lin was not more specific in how fast DDR5 will be available at the time of release, and therefore which DDR5 modules she compares with which DDR4. Nevertheless, it can be sensed that despite the significant increase in the transfer rate of DDR5 compared to DDR4, the overall data transfer / price ratio may not be more advantageous for DDR5.
In terms of processor performance, I therefore dare to say that the overall price / performance ratio will be significantly more advantageous for a platform with DDR4. On the other hand, for more powerful integrated graphics, the price / graphics performance ratio may be more advantageous for a platform with DDR5, because if higher performance is needed, adequately performing stand-alone graphics (at current prices) would mean a much higher price increase for the platform than faster memory alone. Even assuming that we would get a graphics card of such performance at all (such considerations also apply strictly to the desktop, in notebooks the situation is of course different and the ability to increase the performance of integrated graphics with faster memory is more user-friendly than achieving a given performance with a standalone GPU. increases power consumption and reduces battery life). Perhaps we will be wiser in a month, maybe two, when prices settle down a bit and the supply / demand ratio determines the direction in which price tags will eventually move.
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