Depending on the type of memory that is connected to the motherboard with the Intel 600 series chipset, this informs the Intel Core 12 which of the two IMCs to use to connect to the RAM. However, the controversy between the use of one type of RAM or another comes from the fact that while the DDR5 offers a higher bandwidth it has at the same time a higher latency. Which is important due to the fact that a CPU is usually more sensitive to latency than bandwidth when it comes to performance.
In any case, it should be noted, there are applications that do depend on bandwidth for better performance. Although for the vast majority of you who are reading this, you will surely wonder how the Intel Core 12 perform in DDR4 or DDR5 when playing games.
Intel Core 12 performance in DDR4 and DDR5
Games are the type of application that is usually used most frequently and that use the most resources of the PC where they are running, so they are the best way to test the performance of a hardware, since they are not synthetic benchmarks that They measure specific parts, but are real applications for daily use.
For this, information about the performance of the i9-12900K has been taken making use of different types of DDR4 and DDR5 running various games at Full HD resolution:
- DDR4-3200 with latencies 14-18-118-26 in Gear 1.
- DDR4-3600 with latencies 16-20-20-34 in Gear 1.
- DDR4-4000 with latencies 19-23-23-42 on Gear 2.
- DDR4-4400 with latencies 19-26-26-26 on Gear 2.
- DDR5-6000 with latencies 36-36-36-76 on Gear 2.
We have to take into account that the DDR5 used in the comparison has a somewhat lower latency that can be up to 40-40-40-80, so we are interested in knowing what is the relative performance of using DDR4 instead DDR5 on Intel Core 12.
Do not be fooled by the size of the bars, since the differences are really insignificant, the fact of using DDR4-3200 for example cuts performance by 2%, although where it is most affected is when we talk about DDR4 that forces the memory controller into Gear 2 mode, where the loss of performance can be up to 5%.
Interpretation of the data
Let’s not forget that in Gear 1 mode the memory controller runs at half clock speed, which has the effect of increasing latency. In any case, we would like to have seen the performance of the DDR5-4800 that works under Gear 1 mode, since the DDR5-6000 in the comparison works in Gear 2.
In conclusion: despite the fact that there is a depletion of DDR5, if you opt for the cheapest DDR4 at the moment, you will not notice a difference in performance that is worthy of putting your hands on your head. In addition, many of you are probably not going to want to pay the hidden tax that exists when adopting a new technology such as the new RAM standard.
