CPU manufacturers have realized that the seemingly endless price increases in RAM are making it difficult for many of us to upgrade our PCs. Your solution? A return to the latest generation DDR4 RAM. Intel and AMD are making new CPUs that will support the older, more affordable type of memory. On Friday, Gigabyte announced that two of its motherboard lines will support “upcoming” processors built into Intel’s LGA 1700 socket. That socket debuted in 2021 with 12th Gen Alder Lake CPUs and supported both DDR4 RAM and the then-new DDR5 RAM. Intel abandoned it for a DDR5-only approach in 2024. But according to Gigabyte, dual-format support is now being revived, and the new LGA 1700 chips are expected to launch in early 2027. Intel did not immediately respond to a request for comment. This setback is due to the LGA 1700’s cross-compatibility with both types of RAM, an advantage over its successor that has recently become much more important. Intel’s strategy may be to offer users the option of a new CPU that does not require them to also switch to new and very expensive DDR5 memory. AMD is doing something similar: In August, Gigabyte also announced a new series of motherboards for the next-generation AM4 platform with DDR4 support to accompany the 10th anniversary re-release of the Ryzen 7 5800X3D CPU. DDR4 began hitting the market in 2014 and has since been replaced by the much faster DDR5. Under normal circumstances, purchasing new hardware to use technology that is more than a decade old would probably be a bad investment. But the RAM shortage is changing the math, as DDR4 RAM appears to feel the impact of price increases much less than DDR5. I recently saw the price disparity firsthand while shopping for new RAM after a DDR4 kit abruptly died on me. Right now, a Corsair Vengeance 32GB DDR5 RAM kit costs $620, while the corresponding DDR4 kit costs $260. While it typically costs more than 32GB of DDR4 RAM in mid-2025, that’s more than double the price of DDR5! Of course, DDR5 has important advantages, such as higher speeds and better power efficiency. But those benefits might not be worth the current price of admission. It could be years before prices drop again, a reality that is starting to sink in with the official return of older sockets and chipsets. But at least it’s a good time to keep your DDR4 RAM.
