It wasn’t that long ago when games started listing 16GB of RAM as being the recommended amount of memory to run them. You could get by with less but for those games really did use that much, the performance would take a bit of a dip.
Well, we’re now moving into the 32GB era, though only for a small number of games and even then, only for specific settings. For example, Returnal is happy with 16GB but the developers recommend 32GB with Epic quality settings and ray tracing. Microsoft Flight Simulator is another one that suggests you pack in the RAM at high settings and the same is true of Forspoken.
I switched from a 2x 8GB DDR4-3000 kit to a dual channel 32GB DDR4-3600 in my own system earlier this year and while I can’t say the difference was incredible, the overall snappiness and stability of my work-and-gaming PC was certainly better.
So if you’re currently using 8GB of RAM and a slow dual channel kit, now might be the perfect time to grab a tasty 32GB kit in the Black Friday sales. Just don’t expect to see any massive discounts, though, as RAM prices have been tightening over the past few months.
Starting with DDR4, there are still hundreds of thousands of PCs out there that can easily support either of the above kits. You can get much faster ones but you’ll pay a lot more money for them and there’s no guarantee that your PC will even boot with them installed.
DDR4-3600 is probably the highest ‘safe’ speed for most machines but if you find things aren’t perfectly stable, once you’ve enabled the XMP profile in the BIOS, you can always tweak the settings manually to a slower rate. Of course, not all PCs let you use XMP or adjust memory timings, and in such cases these RAM kits will just run at the fastest rates your motherboard supports.
From when it first appeared, DDR5 speeds having got increasingly better and more stable, and the latest CPUs from AMD and Intel are generally more than happy to run with modules faster than the stock ratings. That said, a lot will depend on your motherboard, so it’s worth checking the manufacturer’s website to see if they have specific issues with certain types of RAM.
Generally speaking, it’s quite hard to find quality, fast DDR5 32GB kits under $100 with RGB lighting, which is why most of the above and below deals look somewhat plain.
But if you’re currently using a set of DDR5-4800 or 5200 (which is often the case with pre-built machines), not only will these kits give you lots more memory but they’ll also give your system a handy performance boost.
You’re not going to suddenly double the frame rate in games or anything like, but the extra speed and/or tighter RAM timings will just give things that little bit more snap.
RAM prices absolutely tanked last year and they’ve been slowly edging back up over time. The reason for the crash was a combination of manufacturers having too much inventory and the market not placing a heavy demand on DDR5 RAM.
Things have somewhat normalized now so that only means one thing: Memory prices will almost certainly start to go back up again, especially DDR4 as fewer new PCs will need it.
So while none of these deals are really good, in terms of the size of the discount, it’s probably as good as you’re going to see in this year’s Black Friday sales. What more reason do you want to load up PC with lots of silky fast RAM?
