“Can’t compete with the global super rich? Lower your standards and be happy!”
The biggest problem with DDR3 is that the last (consumer) boards/CPUs that could use it are really, REALLY old. 5th-gen Intel or AM3 AMD. Which means you’re looking at a full decade old, at the newest. These boards also probably can’t do more than 32GB.
Now, I suppose if you only need 32GB RAM and a CPU that’s pathetic by modern standards, then this is a viable path. But that’s going to be a very small group of people.
I think this is actually most people. Power users and hardcore gamers are a relatively small portion of the PC market.
I would be surprised if this is still true, at least for home use. It seems like the non-gamer, non-power user segment of the PC market just switched over to tablets and smartphones instead. PCs and laptops just aren’t really necessary anymore for “normal” people who just want to check their email, watch YouTube, and surf the web.
I can see that eating into some PC use, but plenty of Millennials I know still prefer laptops or even desktops for casual use.
Non-power users would have no operating system, no Windows 11 support and grandma isn’t going to learn Linux
That’s what the hardware requirement bypass and a techie friend are for.
I manage a whole computer lab full of 3rd to 5th gen Intels with 8GB of RAM that run Windows 11 just fine.
Grandma doesn’t need to “learn” Linux
Most of the older generation compute almost entirely through a web browser. They often struggle with the amount of notifications / solicitations that come up in a a Windows OS, as they can have trouble discerning between what is real and what is a scam - becoming fundamentally distrustful of everything as a result.
Through my repair shop, I’ve transitioned plenty of older generation folks to Linux Mint with minimal friction.
Main area where that can get a bit more complicated is for those who are clinging to an older piece of software they’re unwilling to let go of.
Its been good for my homelab
There are server chips like the E7-8891 v3 which lived in a weird middle ground of supporting both ddr3 and ddr4. On paper, it’s about on par with a ryzen 5 5500 and they’re about $20 on US eBay. I’ve been toying with the idea of buying an aftermarket/used server board to see if it holds up the way it appears to on paper. $20 for a CPU (could even slot 2), $80 for a board, $40 for 32gb of ddr3 in quad chanel. ~$160 for a set of core components doesn’t seem that bad in modern times, especially if you can use quad/oct channel to offset the bandwidth difference between ddr3 and ddr4.
I think finding a cooler and a case would be the hardest part
I mean DDR3 is provably fine. I ran a 16GB DDR3 machine with a goddamn 2500k up until several years ago and pre-2020 games usually ran fine, on playable framerates ( i did have win7, not sure how win10 fares ). Question is: who is this article for? Most tech enhusiasts have probably moved on by now, and even those are a small subset of PC users. “Normies”? Those moved on to phones and tables - it’s why MS Windows has lost 400million machines in 3 years. So who are all these people so left behind that DDR3 is an upgrade but are still currently itching to buy ram? I don’t get it.
Just dusted off my old desktop and set it up as a server.
Glad I still have it. I might buy more DDR3 if I need it. I’m sorry for those who don’t have a CPU/motherboard already to support it.
Ddr3 was kind of the point where the technology stopped incrementing with large jumps.
Not saying ddr3 is as good as ddr4 or 5 but I used ddr3 until 2021 with no issue.
Same but 2024. I missed all of DDR4. Jumped straight from 3 to 5.
I’m fine on DDR4. DDR5 feels to me, something I’ll get into in like 5 - 10 years from now. This is from someone who has sat on DDR2 and DDR3 machines for extended periods of time. If they’re still doing the job I want them to, no complaints.
I’m about to go dumpster diving for ram or some shit, holy fuck the prices are fucked
I never left DDR3. Still never upgraded from an FX-8350.
There’s so many good games made per year now it’s impossible to play them all so buckle up and start playing some older titles. I got into the Witcher 3 6 or 7 years after release and was blown away how I slept on that.
I’m already considering building a maxed out AMD based machine, with DDR3.
The last machine I had with that technology lasted me 12 years. I can vouch for it.
I trust DDR3 to last decades.
DDR5? I’ve had three different sticks, from different brands, on different boards, die on me because of this stupid idea of adding the power delivery circuit in the RAM stick itself. So RAM manufacturers cheap out or don’t pay enough attention and your stick die, meanwhile, motherboard manufacturers have been dealing with multiple sensitive voltage rails for decades and have more than enough experience keeping them working.
I moved to a DDR4/AM4 platform when I assembled my current machine because the AM3 platform was being labelled as end of cycle and the FM segment seemed too niche.
The scales tiped when I discovered many AM4 CPUs carried on chip graphic processing capabilities and being in need of a graphics card it was more affordable for me to just buy an APU than buy a CPU and add a GPU on top.
Not being a gamer and a Linux user, throwing money on a graphics card, that by then were heavily price inflated, made little sense, so I opted by the AM4 platform.
Currently, I’m considering building a machine capable of running Wasteland 2, because that game has been under my eye for years.
I’m finding graphic cards with 4GB of memory on the market with very interesting prices. Used CPUs are cheap, unless I aim for the top tier models, with 6 or more cores. I still have the memory chips from the machine I retired (8GB) and getting an additional 8 is nothing out of reach. I just need to find a motherboard that can take 16GB or more of memory.
If I can assemble a machine capable of running that game, I’m fairly confident the system itself will be more than enough to comply with my daily computing needs and then some.
I had an 8350 machine with 32gb of ram when if was in season and while it never really left me short of power, the intel 4770k and 4790k were better performers. That may not be the case anymore with stuff being more multi-core optimized but at the time, the intel single core performance was so much better than the 8350s which made a bid difference in gaming.
My old rig was an 8350 overclocked to 4.5 on liquid, crossfired 3gb 7950hd’s, and 32gb of matched corsair dominator ddr3 all in a corsair 230t chassis with the bright orange paint and led fans.
When i looked for ddre mobos they were expensive af. Is it possible to use ddr3 in a ddr4 or 5 mobo? Is there an adapter or something?
No
Are you looking at new? Look at used, off eBay or whatever is in your country.
But everything is more expensive right now anyway.
