The rising costs of DDR5 RAM are a significant barrier for those considering an upgrade to the AM5 platform, with prices escalating to four to five times what they were a year ago. Currently, a transition to AM5 would require a minimum investment of $1,200, primarily driven by the exorbitant price of RAM rather than the CPU or motherboard. This shift is largely due to increased demand from AI data centers, which has affected the availability and pricing of memory products.
Many users who have been on AMD's AM4 platform, including those with the Ryzen 5000-series CPUs, are finding their systems still perform adequately. For instance, one user highlights that their 5800X3D does not noticeably bottleneck their RTX 4090 when gaming at resolutions like 1440p and 4K. Previous experiences with the Ryzen 9 5900X showed performance limitations, particularly in competitive gaming, but current setups appear to be sufficient for most gaming scenarios.
As a result, many gamers are refraining from investing in the AM5 upgrade, as the real-world performance benefits do not justify the high costs associated with DDR5 memory. The perceived lack of significant performance improvements over existing setups further reinforces the decision to hold off on upgrades for the time being.