Stick with DDR4 for a budget gaming build in 2025.

Yes, DDR4 is still the better price-to-performance choice for a budget gaming build in 2025.

DDR5 has come down in price, but it’s still about 20-30% more expensive per gigabyte for maybe 5-10% real-world gaming improvement. On a strict budget, every dollar matters. That extra $30-50 can bump you up a tier on the GPU, which will do way more for your frame rates than faster RAM ever will.

Pair DDR4 with a 13th-gen Intel or a Ryzen 5000 series, and you’re golden. Those platforms are mature, cheap, and still run modern games fine. DDR5 only makes sense if you’re already spending over $1000 on the core components. For a $600-800 build, DDR4 is the obvious choice.

Put that extra cash into a better graphics card.