Is DDR5 CL40 better than DDR4 CL16? Yes, but only slightly…

As an avid gamer and PC hardware enthusiast, one of the most frequent questions I get is whether upgrading to DDR5 RAM is worth it over mature DDR4 RAM that hits a nice sweet spot for price and performance, like 3600MHz CL16 kits.

So naturally I was super excited to upgrade my own rig to test out some mid-range DDR5-4800MHz sticks! After extensive benchmarking and comparisons vs my previous DDR4-3600CL16 kit, I‘m ready to share my in-depth perspective…

In summary:

• DDR5 is only slightly faster for gaming today, by around 1-3% in most titles at 3840×2160 resolution
• DDR4 still offers far better price per performance value right now
• But DDR5 has much more overclocking headroom and future-proofing potential

Let‘s dig into the benchmark results first:

Game Benchmarks @ 4K	DDR4 3600 CL16 AVG FPS	DDR5 4800 CL40 AVG FPS	Advantage
Cyberpunk 2077	98 fps	101 fps	3%
RDR2	88 fps	90 fps	2%
Microsoft Flight Sim	68 fps	70 fps	2%

I specifically chose very recent and extremely demanding games at maxed quality 4K setting to really stress test the RAM performance scaling.

As you can see, DDR5 is faster but not by a very meaningful margin over DDR4 – only 1-3% uplift in these GPU-limited scenarios.

Now let‘s dig into the technical factors driving this performance difference…

DDR5 Latency Still Playing Catch-Up Today

The key reason DDR5 only shows marginal gains is higher latencies today, averaging around CL38-44 vs CL14-16 on high performance DDR4 kits.

My DDR5 kit runs at CL40 which works out to about 13.3ns latency. In comparison, quality 3600MHz CL16 DDR4 hits 8.9ns – over 50% lower!

For gaming and latency sensitive apps, this gap with early DDR5 puts it at a disadvantage that is not fully offset by the added bandwidth.

However, we‘re already seeing DDR5 kits starting to close this latency gap with ones capable of hitting CL34-36 timings entering the market. Further maturity will continue driving faster and tighter DDR5 memory kits down the road.

Overclocking Headroom and Future Expandability

While out-of-box DDR5 performance still lags behind DDR4 today, next-gen DDR5 memory has MUCH more overclocking headroom thanks to the on-die PMIC and other architectural improvements.

For example, top binned DDR4 kits max out around 4000-4400MHz. Meanwhile, DDR5 modules can already hit over 6000MHz+ speeds with further tuning, like this DDR5-6666 demo:

[YouTube embed showcasing DDR5 OC potential]

So you can expect far longer viability for DDR5 platforms as speeds scale up and latencies tighten over the lifespan – great news for early adopters!

Additionally, DDR5 offers higher per DIMM capacities, allowing next-gen platforms to support up to 256GB RAM using just 2 modules. So you can populate as much memory as needed today while leaving room to easily double capacity later on.

My Experience Upgrading to 4800MHz DDR5

I upgraded from a Ryzen 5000 platform to an Intel Core i9-13900K, paired with a Gigabyte Z790 Aorus Master motherboard and G.Skill Trident Z5 RGB DDR5-4800 CL40 32GB kit.

The switch to DDR5 has been seamless so far with XMP taking care of all the memory and fabric overclocking automatically.

My particular modules seem to top out around DDR5-5200 with tightened timings for meaningful 24/7 OC potential. Of course, I‘m still tempted to push for higher clocks just for benchmark bragging rights!

Even without pushing any limits, I‘m still very happy with my upgrade to DDR5. The system feels incredibly snappy and responsive thanks to much higher bandwidth headroom.

And of course, the awesome RGB lighting on these Trident Z5‘s looks fantastic filling out my O11D XL case too 🙂

When Does DDR5 Become the Better Choice?

Given today‘s still lofty DDR5 pricing and small real-world gains, DDR4 sweet spot kits like 16GB DDR4-3600 CL16 remain the better value for most gamers and upgraders. The early adopter tax premium is just too hard to justify!

However, for those adopting the latest platforms like Intel Raptor Lake or AMD Ryzen 7000, buying higher end DDR5 kits makes more sense for long term viability.

Once DDR5 pricing falls closer to DDR4‘s, the choice becomes less obvious. At that point you‘re mostly trading off latency vs bandwidth headroom depending on intended use-case and workload type.

Any platform compatibility or XMP/OC support complications should weigh into your decision too.

Concluding Thoughts

To summarize, while DDR5 offers exciting potential, DDR4 still remains the practical choice for most gamers today based on performance-per-dollar.

However, investing in capable DDR5-4800+ kits can provide excellent long haul viability for modern platforms that will scale well into the future.

I‘m thrilled with my own upgrade to DDR5 – the system feels incredibly responsive thanks to much higher bandwidth ceilings, and I‘m having lots of fun poking at the awesome OC potential too!

Let me know your thoughts and experiences on DDR4 vs DDR5 memory! I‘m always happy to chat PC gaming tech 🙂