A kit such as the Team Xtreem is pretty much optimal. That's great news for anyone eyeing up AMD's Ryzen 5000-series CPUs, which favor a memory clock around the 3,600MHz mark-thus ensuring the Infinity Fabric clock is kept at a 1:1 ratio with your memory and your chip ticking over happily with minimal latency penalties. We think it’s a no-brainer, especially as this kit isn't that expensive. You could even argue that 3,600MHz is the baseline for Ryzen 5000 and Intel 12th Gen systems, for decent performance without any significant price premium, with 4,000MHz and above the new high-end. Just a couple of years ago, a decent DDR4-3200 kit was regarded as high-end, but as time ticks on, 3,200MHz is now the baseline for a decent gaming system. Less if you're lucky.ĭDR4 memory really is maturing nicely into old age. However, a DRAM price crash and an increasing process maturity in DDR4 production mean kits such as this can often be had for around $100. Not all that long ago, a kit as well-rounded on both price and performance would've been a distant dream. Want to optimize your PC and get the most out of your RAM once you've got it? Our handy RAM speed for gaming deep-dive should be the first thing you read. Look out for CL16/CL18 or better, as these kits offer the responsiveness we want for gaming. We've tested a bunch of DDR4 RAM kits and picked out the best ones for gaming considering all the above factors, which you can find below. When it comes to CAS latency, lower is better. The other important stat to consider is CAS latency. This should give your CPU enough bandwidth cushion to handle gaming and work-related tasks. When it comes to speed, you want to look for DDR4 RAM that runs around 3,600MHz/3,200MHz for modern CPUs. You will also want to prioritise dual-channel kits (kits with two sticks of RAM) to ensure you're getting the most out of your system. Over 32GB is considered overkill because most games won't make any use of it, but if you're big on editing or work with massive files, 32GB can be a worthy investment. You can get 16GB for relatively cheap, and it's a good investment over 8GB of the stuff. It's a good time to pick up any DDR4 kit, actually.

It runs with a super low latency and is available for a great price nowadays.

If you're looking to upgrade an older system, however, you should check out the best DDR4 RAM in our estimations, TeamGroup's Xtreem ARGB DDR4-3600 16GB kit. We have tested and chosen the best DDR5 RAM if you're looking to build a new PC with one of AMD's or Intel's latest processors.

Gaming memory cards