Back when we wrote the DDR4 vs DDR5 guide last year, we mentioned some of the scenarios where users could expect better performance by choosing the newer, more expensive memory. However, for a gaming PC using a dedicated discrete graphics card, we recommended going for the much cheaper DDR4 sticks as DDR5 just wasn't faster by enough to justify the significantly higher prices. However, things are changing as the next-gen standard is getting cheaper and games are starting to get more CPU and memory intensive. Such is the case with Marvel's Spider-Man Remastered for PC, an extremely popular title at the moment.
According to Hardware Unboxed's new test which has compared 32 different CPUs from Intel and AMD, the Intel Core i9-12900K on a DDR5-6400 platform is up to 36% faster than one using DDR4-3200 CL14 memory. This happens when running the game at high settings with DirectX Ray tracing (DXR) set to high at the 1080p resolution. While 1080p itself is a completely CPU bound scenario for the involved GeForce RTX 3090 Ti, the extra DXR calculations add additional stress on the processor.
At 1080p very high with no ray tracing, the difference drops significantly down to 17% which shows that ray tracing is really taking up a lot of CPU cycles.
Meanwhile, at 1080p medium, the difference actually lowers a tiny bit more to 16.67% even though this is supposedly more CPU intense than the very high settings. However, it's possible the game may be running into an engine bottleneck here.
The data is interesting since official system requirements don't generally mention memory configurations and the case is same for Spider-Man Remastered too. This is also good news for those awaiting on upcoming Ryzen 7000 or Intel Raptor Lake-S CPUs.
Source and images: Hardware Unboxed (YouTube)
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