DDR5 is wasted on older games.

No.

Pre-2020 games were designed for DDR4 and don’t come close to saturating its bandwidth. You’re paying a premium for a new motherboard, CPU, and RAM kit to gain zero real-world fps in the games you actually play. Some early DDR5 kits even have worse latency than good DDR4, which can hurt performance in older titles.

If you’re staying on the same platform (say, upgrading within an Intel 12th/13th/14th gen or AM4), stick with DDR4. The money saved is better spent on a faster GPU or an SSD you don’t already have. If you’re building a whole new PC and the price difference between a DDR4 and DDR5 motherboard is small (under $20-30) and you might play newer stuff later, sure, future-proof a bit. But for old games only? Not worth it.

Your older games won’t thank you. Your wallet will.