Is DDR3 OK for gaming?
Chloe Ramirez
Updated on March 17, 2026
In short, the difference between Double Data Rate Third generation (DDR3) and Double Data Rate Fourth Generation (DDR4) is energy efficiency and transfer speeds. For gaming purposes, those transfer speeds are all you should really focus on since the energy saved by upgrading 16GB of RAM from DDR3 to DDR4 is minimal.
Is the DDR3 good for gaming?
As Linus points out, when tested in very similar performing CPU and motherboards, but one having DDR3 and the other one having DDR4, there was barely a few frames per seconds difference between the most demanding games, something that would be impossible to notice in games.Can you game on DDR3 RAM?
It wasn't long ago that 8 GB of RAM was considered over-the-top for a PC. Now it seems like you can't run much on a PC with that much RAM. If you want to play a game, you need to kill all the background processes before you can play relatively lag-free.Is DDR3 still good in 2021?
According to the DigiTimes, DDR3 is expected to gain value by 40-50% for the duration of 2021. This jump in value is caused by a number of events, but overall the situation is caused by more demand than supply.Which DDR3 RAM is best for gaming?
With all of that to the side, here are some of the best DDR3 RAMs still worth getting in 2022.
- Corsair Dominator Platinum 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3. Low Latency RAMs. ...
- G. ...
- Patriot Viper III 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3. ...
- Corsair Vengeance Pro Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3. ...
- Kingston HyperX Fury 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3.
DDR4 vs DDR3 - Apples to Apples Comparison
Can I change DDR3 to DDR4?
DDR4 RAM is not backwards compatible with DDR3 motherboards and vice versa. The notch has been moved to prevent accidental insertion of the wrong type of memory. You will not be able to change to DDR-4 .How fast is DDR3 RAM?
DDR3 modules can transfer data at a rate of 800–2133 MT/s using both rising and falling edges of a 400–1066 MHz I/O clock. This is twice DDR2's data transfer rates (400–1066 MT/s using a 200–533 MHz I/O clock) and four times the rate of DDR (200–400 MT/s using a 100–200 MHz I/O clock).Is 8GB DDR3 RAM enough for gaming?
Highest minimum settings at the moment is 6GB and a 64-bit operating system. If you were building a high-end PC I would recommend 16GB to be future proof, but anything that needs more than 8GB of memory is unlikely to run on this processor and graphics card. 8GB should be fine.What is fastest DDR3 RAM?
G. Skill reclaims world's fastest DDR3 memory title at 4.4GHz
- The regular speed of the RAM 'YoungPro' used was 3,000MHz. ...
- As mentioned above, the RAM used for this world record breaking memory overclock was G.