Back in 2023, we were all having the same conversation: was it finally time to move on from DDR4? I asked myself that exact question when I built my own PC that year, and decided to jump onto AM5 with DDR5, convinced that it was the more “future-proof” choice. DDR4 felt like it was aging out, nearing the end of its lifecycle, and sticking with it seemed like delaying the inevitable.
Fast-forward to 2026, and… what actually happened? DDR5 didn’t become the affordable new normal. It has now become brutal on wallets. Meanwhile, DDR4, the platform we all thought we were leaving behind, quietly started climbing back in popularity. RAM prices ballooned, motherboard costs stayed stubbornly high, and suddenly, DDR4 systems began looking not just reasonable, but genuinely…