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2024’S Fastest and Most Economical RGB RAM for Gamers - Top Picks Revealed

Whether you’re shopping for the best RAM for gaming to upgrade a PC that’s struggling with today’s games orbuilding a new PC from the ground up, the best RAM kit for your money depends on the platform you pick and the workloads you plan to run.

The hard part is evaluating whether faster memory improves your system’s performance. For example, if you’re running an Intel system with one of thebest graphics cards , most programs won’t respond meaningfully to faster or slower system memory. On the other hand, some workloads, including some games and software, will scale well with higher data rates. For example, file compression programs love fast memory.

AMD’s Zen-powered processors benefit more from higher memory frequencies, which you can read about indetail here . Increased memory speeds on AMD Ryzen- and Threadripper-based platforms often translate to real-world performance improvements. In games, that means higher frame rates at mainstream resolutions like 1080p (1920 x 1080) and smoother performance at higher resolutions. But the number of extra frames you get with faster RAM will vary significantly from game to game. Check out ourRAM hierarchy forbenchmarks .

Lastly, memory speed makes a big difference if you’re gaming with integrated graphics, whether an Intel or AMD processor (you can see how they stack up in ourCPU Benchmark Hierarchy). The graphics engine that’s baked into most of thebest CPUs for gaming doesn’t generally have its dedicated memory like discrete graphics cards do, so faster RAM also improves performance. However, if you must pay top dollar for the fastest RAM to get playable frame rates, you’re better off buying slower system memory and a discrete graphics card.

In short, the best RAM is usually the fastest if you’re gaming without a dedicated graphics card, running an AMD Ryzen system, and, in some isolated scenarios, with Intel chips. But if you don’t care about squeezing the best performance out of your hardware, DDR5-5200 is drop-in compatible with AMD’sZen 4 processors and DDR5-5600 or DDR4-3200 for Intel 14th GenerationRaptor Lake Refresh CPUs.

Quick RAM Shopping Tips

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16GB continues to be the current sweet spot for many users. Programs are getting bigger and require more memory, whereas 1080p and 4K videos are becoming more common. PC games are also getting more demanding, and websites are more complex. So, while heavy multitaskers and prosumers may need 32GB to avoid using much slower disk-based virtual memory, 16GB is far more affordable and sufficient for gaming and mainstream productivity tasks.
Advertised XMP memory speeds might not be possible on AMD-based motherboards. XMP is an automatic memory overclocking setting designed for Intel systems, but some motherboard makers offer BIOS settings to attempt to use these faster speeds on AMD motherboards. However, these settings aren’t present on all motherboards and don’t always work when they are present. Look for memory kits with the AMD EXPO certification if you own a Ryzen 7000 (Zen 4) processor.
Dual-rank memory is faster than single-rank memory. Whether DDR4 or DDR5, tests show that dual-rank memory kits perform better than single-rank memory kits on AMD and Intel platforms.
Always buy a single memory kit for the capacity that you want. Don’t combine different memory modules or kits from the same vendor and product line. Mixing and matching may not always work flawlessly, and sometimes, manual tweaking is required to achieve stability.
Want the best plug-and-play experience? If you want to avoid minimum to zero manual intervention, choose a memory kit that coincides with the official memory frequency supported by your processor. For example, DDR5-5200 is the baseline for AMD’sZen 4 chips, whereas DDR5-5600 or DDR4-3200 is for Intel’s 13th GenerationRaptor Lake and 14th GenerationRaptor Lake Refresh processors.
Do you own a Raptor Lake or Raptor Lake Refresh CPU? Remember that Raptor Lake and Raptor Lake Refresh processors natively support DDR4-3200 on Gear 1. It’s down to the silicon lottery if your chip can keep higher data rates on Gear 1. However, DDR5 operates in Gear 2 by default regardless of the frequency.

Best RAM For Gaming You Can Buy Today

Best Performance 32GB DDR5 Kit: G.Skill Trident Z5 Neo RGB DDR5-6000 (Image credit: G.Skill)

1. G.Skill Trident Z5 Neo RGB DDR5-6000 (2 x 16GB)

Best Performance 32GB DDR5 Kit

Our expert review:

Specifications

Model: F5-6000J3038F16GX2-TZ5NR

Capacity: 32GB (2 x 16GB)

Data Rate: DDR5-6000 (EXPO)

Timings: 30-38-38-96 (2T)

Voltage: 1.35V

Warranty: Lifetime

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Reasons to buy

Superb performance

Cheaper than the competition

AMD EXPO certified

Reasons to avoid

Early adopter price

It’s hard to find reasons not to like the Trident Z5 Neo RGB DDR5-6000 C30. The memory kit works immaculately out of the box and offers solid performance. That alone is enough to win the majority of buyers over. Looks, as usual, are subjective, but you can’t dispute the Trident Z5 Neo RGB’s premium exterior. Like its competition, G.Skill uses SK hynix M-die ICS for the memory kit, so some tweaking headroom remains in memory modules.

DDR5 pricing still fluctuates, but current DDR5-6000 C30 memory kits start at $97.97. When you consider that, suddenly, the Trident Z5 Neo RGB DDR5-6000 C30’s $117.99 price tag doesn’t look that awful. The Trident Z5 Neo RGB DDR5-6000 C30 has proven to be a formidable memory kit for AMD and Intel platforms. There will ultimately be faster memory kits down the road, but in the meantime, the Trident Z5 Neo RGB DDR5-6000 C30 is as good as it gets.

Read:G.Skill Trident Z5 RGB DDR5-6000 C30 review

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Best 32GB DDR5 Kit: G.Skill Trident Z5 RGB DDR5-6000 (Image credit: G.Skill)