Earlier this week, I took a look at DDR5-7200 memory prices, and immediately regretted it. With such runaway memory prices, it’s hardly surprising that sales of have seen a dip as a result—or that some folks are not even opting for last-gen hardware, but extremely old CPUs to make the most of last-last-gen memory.
To be clear, DDR4 memory pricing isn’t much more sensible than DDR5; according to TrendForce’s latest report, “the average spot price of mainstream chips (i.e., DDR4 1Gx8 3200 MT/s) has increased by 9.64% from US$25.407 last week (Jan.7) to US$27.857 this week (Jan.14).” A near 10% price increase in just one week is huge.
So, if you can’t get your hands on the latest and greatest, what does that leave you with? Ye olde DDR3, naturally. Though getting on in years, this hardware is not totally out for the count when it comes to gaming.
To return to those mobo bundles for a sec, Arc Raiders’ minimum system requirements does include the Core i5 6600K CPU, one of those aforementioned 6th Generation Intel chips. You’d still need to source at least 12 GB of RAM in some form, though—and don’t ask me about what number of frames you can expect on a system that only just meets those minimum specs. It probably wouldn’t be too pretty, and you can forget about aim assist at those sorts of frame rates.
Still, if you’re more one for shuffling decks or selecting dialogue options, (and you’d rather not resort to beating the memory crisis by making your own sticks of DDR5), then perhaps it wouldn’t hurt to look back rather than ahead for your next hardware upgrade. Though maybe DDR4 really is better, if you can find it at not too steep a price.
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