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2021-12-20, 10:21 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Aug 2009
Getting a new desktop: is it worth holding out for DDR5 compatibility?
I am planning on replacing my desktop-replacement-laptop with an actual desktop. The question is, should I wait another half a year to get a motherboard/CPU that is compatible with DDR5 memory, or is the difference between DDR4 and DDR5 irrelevant to my use case?
I intend to run Linux Mint Cinnamon. The apps I expect to run, in approximate order of how demanding they are on hardware, are:
1)Sagemath: mostly manipulating topological and graph-theory objects.
2)iTunes running in a Windows virtual machine: Much to my frustration, some musicsians only release their albums through iTunes/Apple Music and not other stores like Bandcamp. And even though iTunes sells DRM-free audio files that can be played using any media playing app, the only way to purchase or download music from the Apple Music store is with the iTunes desktop app. I will not actually be using iTunes to play music (I use VLC for that), just to purchase it.
Side note: does anyone know if having secure boot disabled on the host system prevents Windows 11 from being installed in a VM?
3) OBS Studio, which I will use to record video meetings. I do not record myself playing games.
4)Indie games from Steam and Itch. No games with heavy graphics requirements.
5)Typical office tasks (web browsing, editing text files including compiling LaTeX, video meetings).
6)Open source games from the Mint/Ubuntu/Debian repository.
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2021-12-21, 02:14 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Feb 2007
- Location
- Manchester, UK
- Gender
Re: Getting a new desktop: is it worth holding out for DDR5 compatibility?
Well, you *could* get DDR5 right now, if you wanted to--the Intel Alder Lake CPUs support it? However, being an early adopter is always an expensive game, and with the possible exception of Sagemath which I'm not familiar with, I don't think anything you're planning to run on this machine would actually benefit much from the additional memory bandwidth DDR5 offers.
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2021-12-21, 03:07 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Mar 2012
- Location
- UK
- Gender
Re: Getting a new desktop: is it worth holding out for DDR5 compatibility?
The other factor is that with home computers there is always something *new* just coming out (for a given definition of new).
This is one of the reasons why a good piece of PC buying advice is "work out what you want to spend, buy the best PC you can find for that money, then don't look at another computer magazine or advert for at least six months."
The other question is "what do you need the super new fast memory for?" From what you say of your tasks your main number crunching will be done by the video card...
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2021-12-21, 12:58 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Nov 2007
- Location
- Indianapolis
- Gender
Re: Getting a new desktop: is it worth holding out for DDR5 compatibility?
Sagemath might appreciate the faster RAM, if it's not doing primarily GPU processing instead. None of the rest of that is going to notice any difference, assuming you have adequate RAM for everything to claim the memory space it needs to start with.
The other factor is that with home computers there is always something *new* just coming out (for a given definition of new).Last edited by tyckspoon; 2021-12-21 at 01:00 PM.
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2021-12-21, 06:42 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Aug 2011
Re: Getting a new desktop: is it worth holding out for DDR5 compatibility?
If you can get DDR5 compatibility without breaking the bank, you'd might as well. But top end DDR4 will work just fine for any software currently available for virtually all use cases, and will be much cheaper, so even if you're DDR5 compatible you're better off buying DDR4 now and upgrading in a fre years.
Originally Posted by crayzzOriginally Posted by jere7my
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2021-12-21, 07:33 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jun 2013
- Location
- Bristol, UK
Re: Getting a new desktop: is it worth holding out for DDR5 compatibility?
The end of what Son? The story? There is no end. There's just the point where the storytellers stop talking.
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2021-12-21, 08:07 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Aug 2011
Re: Getting a new desktop: is it worth holding out for DDR5 compatibility?
Originally Posted by crayzzOriginally Posted by jere7my