Tech To Be Obsoleted
Apr. 17, 2024Last year, I built a DDR4 system with Intel 13500 processor. And short after I had built it, the DDR5 motherboards became more available & relevant in my country, and the prices of DDR5 RAM also dropped significantly. Now, I am a bit having regret for not going for DDR5 system or not waiting another few months (I had my reasons). But this analogy I found on Reddit helped me to feel better. Paste starts here:
DDR4 is still perfectly relevant. If you were building a completely new build you wouldn’t likely spec it out, but it’s more than enough to play everything now. Here’s an analogy from u/minerlj last year that I think summarizes it well:
DDR4 city has a 3600mhz cl16 train system. its trains go 36 miles an hour, and a train arrives at each station every 16 minutes to pick up/drop off passengers. assuming an arbitrary trip length of 36 miles, the average trip length will be 1 hour, meaning if you arrive at the station just in time to catch a train, the maximum trip length is 1 hour and if you are unlucky and arrive at the station and just miss your train, the maximum trip length will be 1 hour and 16 minutes. The average trip length however is 60+8.5 = 68.5 minutes
The neighboring DDR5 city, has a 6000 mhz cl40 train system. its trains go faster: 60 miles an hour. but a train arrives at each station less often: every 40 minutes to pick up/drop off passengers. Assuming an arbitrary trip length of 36 miles, the average trip length will be 36 minutes if you arrive at the station just in time to catch a train, the maximum trip length is 36 minutes. if you arrive at the station and just miss your train, the maximum trip length will be 36 minutes and 40 minutes, or 76 minutes total (1 hour and 16 minutes total – the exact same max trip time as DDR4 city if you just miss your train in that city). The average trip length however is 36+20.5 = 56.5 minutes
So if you had to choose which city to live in, you would probably choose DDR5 city. on average you’ll get where you need to go 17.5% faster. —- end of analogy
So, here are the things that I think the analogy is missing, The amount of data that we’re talking about it is variable based on what you’re doing, and we’re not talking about is more like milliseconds not minutes. Can you tell the difference between 56ms and 68ms? probably not. So what does it practically mean? Well I found a YT Video that compares some recent games between the two memories. Check it out: https://youtu.be/YESz_XA2kKc?si=AfLmn4FAwiH-LOLp
This comment was also helpful :D
This year Ryzen 7700 is making a quite stir in the market with impressive benchmarks & competitive pricing with Intel 13500, my processor. Would it be last year, or would I build my PC now, maybe I would have been gone with the Ryzen system with a better IGPU (Allah SWT knows if someday I can afford a GPU), cheaper motherboard, unlocked multipliers and almost the same benchmark scores as of Intel, though the Ryzen one offers lesser cores (& lesser supports & values as often claimed by Intel fanboys xD).
Just rant them all to make me feel better. When you see your PC starts becoming obsolete in a year, you know how it feels.
I came across a funny pic online that I wanna share here.
My suggestion for novice PC users who are thinking of building a PC for causal usage is to avoid online PC builder hobbyists. Most PC builders community online are often some too-enthusiastic people out there who are more into keeping the latest-fastest-unnecessarily_overclocked PC in one corner of their room. It’s their HOBBY (not necessity) to squeeze every hz of their processor & other components often completely unnecessarily only to waste their time gaming and commenting on their communities :v So get whatever is decent for your workload and don’t chase for the someday-i-might-need-this-feature or the never-obsolete-PC. No tech is future-proof. It will start becoming obsolete or at least old in terms of technology even before you realize it, but most probably it will keep working and you will not upgrade it until it REALLY sucks – it is when it can’t do what you NEED to do. Most potato users build a PC maybe once a decade unlike these hobbyists so know that you are not on the same ground as the people you are taking advice from.