{"id":877000,"date":"2026-10-10T02:46:09","date_gmt":"2026-10-10T02:46:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/877000\/"},"modified":"2026-10-10T02:46:09","modified_gmt":"2026-10-10T02:46:09","slug":"decade-old-ram-is-making-a-comeback","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/877000\/","title":{"rendered":"Decade-old RAM is making a comeback"},"content":{"rendered":"

CPU makers have noticed that the seemingly unending RAM price hikes<\/a> are making it tough for a lot of us to upgrade our PCs. Their solution? A return to last-gen DDR4 RAM. Intel and AMD are making new CPUs that\u2019ll support the older, more affordable type of memory.<\/p>\n

On Friday, Gigabyte announced<\/a> that two of its motherboard lines will support \u201cupcoming\u201d processors built on Intel\u2019s LGA 1700 socket. That socket debuted in 2021 with the 12th gen Alder Lake CPUs<\/a> and supported both DDR4 RAM and the then-new DDR5 RAM. Intel dropped it for a DDR5-only approach in 2024. But according to Gigabyte, the dual format support is now being revived, with new LGA 1700 chips \u201cexpected to launch in early 2027.\u201d<\/p>\n

Intel did not immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n

This backtrack stems from LGA 1700\u2019s cross-compatibility with both kinds of RAM \u2014 an advantage over its successor that\u2019s recently become much more important. Intel\u2019s strategy may be to offer users the choice of a new CPU that doesn\u2019t require them to switch to new, and very expensive, DDR5 memory, too. AMD is doing something similar: in August, Gigabyte also announced<\/a> a new series of motherboards for AMD\u2019s last-gen, DDR4-compatible AM4 platform to go along with the 10th-anniversary relaunch of the Ryzen 7 5800X3D<\/a> CPU.<\/p>\n

DDR4 started hitting the market in 2014 and has since been succeeded by the much faster DDR5. Under normal circumstances, buying new hardware to use technology that\u2019s over a decade old would probably be a bad investment. But the RAM shortage is changing the math, with DDR4 RAM seemingly feeling the sting of price hikes much less than DDR5.<\/p>\n

I recently saw the price disparity first-hand while shopping around for new RAM after a DDR4 kit abruptly died on me. Right now, a DDR5 32GB Corsair Vengeance RAM<\/a> kit costs $620, while the corresponding DDR4 kit<\/a> costs $260. Even though it\u2019s more than 32GB of DDR4 RAM typically cost back in mid-2025<\/a>, that\u2019s more than double the price for DDR5! Of course, DDR5 has significant advantages, like higher speeds and better power efficiency. But those perks might not be worth the current price of admission.<\/p>\n

It could be years<\/a> before prices drop again, a reality that\u2019s starting to really sink in with the official return of older sockets and chipsets. But at least it\u2019s a good time to hang onto your DDR4 RAM.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CPU makers have noticed that the seemingly unending RAM price hikes are making it tough for a lot…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":877001,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[6143,559,4115,3,1300,172,74],"class_list":["post-877000","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-technology","tag-amd","tag-gaming","tag-intel","tag-news","tag-pc-gaming","tag-tech","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/877000","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=877000"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/877000\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/877001"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=877000"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=877000"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=877000"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}