DDR5 uses more power, but it's negligible for gaming.

Yes, DDR5 draws more power than DDR4, but the difference is small enough that it won’t change your electric bill or cooling needs.

At idle, a DDR5 stick pulls maybe 2–4W more than a comparable DDR4 stick—roughly 1–2W per module. Under load, that gap widens to around 5–8W per stick. In a gaming PC that’s gulping 300–500W while you’re actually playing, we’re talking about a 1–2% increase in total system draw. You won’t notice it on your power bill, and your CPU cooler won’t care.

The real power hogs are the GPU and CPU. That’s where you should be looking if efficiency matters. For memory bandwidth–heavy tasks like video editing or scientific computing, the extra power might matter a tiny bit more, but for gaming? It’s vapor.

If you’re choosing between DDR4 and DDR5 for a new build, pick based on price and performance—not power.