1. Introduction
At present, if you’re looking to build a “high cost-performance” gaming desktop, pairing the Core i5-12400F with the GeForce RTX 4060 is an excellent choice, providing sufficient power, high value, and low overall power consumption.
If you already have DDR4 memory, you can simply purchase a Core i5-12400F motherboard-CPU combo, currently priced just over 1,000 RMB, with the GeForce RTX 4060 graphics card priced at just over 2,000 RMB, making the total cost around 3,500 RMB.
However, as many know, the Core i5-12400F and B760 (or B660, H610, etc.) motherboards can support both DDR4 and DDR5 memory, though they cannot be used simultaneously. This may lead some to wonder: What are the performance and overall differences between using a DDR4 and DDR5 memory platform with the Core i5-12400F and GeForce RTX 4060?
—This is a highly valuable question for research, and this article will reveal the answer.
2. Specifications
The Core i5-12400F was released on January 4, 2022, utilizing a 10nm process. It has six large cores, no small cores, and supports a total of 12 threads, with a base clock speed of 2.5 GHz and a maximum clock speed of 4.4 GHz.
It features 7.5MB of L2 cache, 18MB of smart cache, has a TDP of 65W, and a suggested retail price of $184.00 to $194.00. Currently, the open-box version sells for around 600 RMB.
The GeForce RTX 4060 was launched on June 29, 2023, featuring an AD107 GPU based on the Ada Lovelace architecture, manufactured with TSMC’s 5nm process. It includes 3,072 CUDA cores, 96 texture units, 32 raster units, 24 streaming multiprocessors, 96 tensor cores, 24 ray-tracing cores, and 24MB of L2 cache.
Its base clock speed is 1,830 MHz, with a maximum clock speed of 2,460 MHz. It comes with 8GB of GDDR6 memory with a speed of 17 Gbps, a memory bus width of 128 bits, and a memory bandwidth of 272.0 GB/s, delivering FP32 performance of 15.11 TFLOPS and a TDP of 115W. The suggested retail price is $299.
3. Test Platform Configuration
The main configuration is as follows:
Processor: Core i5-12400F.
Motherboards: Asus ROG Strix B660-A Gaming Wifi D4 and Gigabyte Z790 Gaming X AX D5.
Memory: 32GB DDR4 3600MHz and 32GB DDR5 6000MHz.
Other components are identical, including the GeForce RTX 4060 GPU, an ADATA XPG S40G 512GB SSD, and the Windows 10 22H2 operating system.
4. Game Testing
The following section tests seven games, each at 1440P resolution. In the images provided, the left represents the DDR4 platform, and the right represents the DDR5 platform.
First game: Alan Wake 2.
On the DDR4 platform, the average FPS was 36, with a minimum frame rate of 29 FPS, frame time of 28.3ms, CPU usage at 21%, power consumption of 29W, temperature of 50°C, memory usage of 8.9GB, GPU usage of 97%, VRAM usage of 6.2GB, GPU power consumption of 116W, and temperature of 67°C.
On the DDR5 platform, the average FPS remained 36, with a minimum frame rate of 29 FPS, frame time of 26.8ms, CPU usage at 21%, power consumption of 38W, temperature of 54°C, memory usage of 9.0GB, GPU usage of 99%, VRAM usage of 6.4GB, GPU power consumption of 118W, and temperature of 65°C.
For this game, both platforms show nearly identical CPU usage and memory consumption. The DDR5 platform shows 2% higher GPU usage and 0.2GB more VRAM usage.
In terms of average FPS and minimum frame rate, both platforms perform equally, with DDR5 having a slight 1.5ms frame time advantage.
Second game: God of War.
The DDR4 platform achieved an average FPS of 61, a minimum frame rate of 52 FPS, frame time of 16.3ms, CPU usage at 29%, power consumption of 35W, temperature of 52°C, memory usage of 13.2GB, GPU usage of 98%, VRAM usage of 6.7GB, GPU power consumption of 114W, and temperature of 71°C.
The DDR5 platform achieved an average FPS of 62, a minimum frame rate of 54 FPS, frame time of 16.0ms, CPU usage at 27%, power consumption of 40W, temperature of 58°C, memory usage of 14.4GB, GPU usage of 99%, VRAM usage of 6.5GB, GPU power consumption of 114W, and temperature of 70°C.
In this game, DDR5’s CPU usage was 2% lower and memory usage was 1.2GB higher, with similar GPU and VRAM usage.
In terms of average FPS, minimum FPS, and frame time, both platforms perform similarly, resulting in a tie with no significant advantage for DDR5.
Third game: Cyberpunk 2077.
On the DDR4 platform, the average FPS was 50, with a minimum frame rate of 44 FPS, frame time of 18.2ms, CPU usage at 30%, power consumption of 31W, temperature of 51°C, memory usage of 10.8GB, GPU usage of 98%, VRAM usage of 6.6GB, GPU power consumption of 115W, and temperature of 68°C.
On the DDR5 platform, the average FPS was also 50, with a minimum frame rate of 43 FPS, frame time of 17.7ms, CPU usage at 28%, power consumption of 39W, temperature of 52°C, memory usage of 11.0GB, GPU usage of 98%, VRAM usage of 6.7GB, GPU power consumption of 116W, and temperature of 69°C.
For this game, DDR5’s CPU usage was 2% lower, memory usage 0.2GB higher, with similar GPU and VRAM usage.
Both platforms achieved similar average and minimum FPS, with DDR5’s frame time being slightly lower, resulting in another tie.
Fourth game: Spider-Man Remastered.
On the DDR4 platform, the average FPS was 78, minimum FPS was 62, frame time was 12.4ms, CPU usage at 47%, power consumption of 39W, temperature of 53°C, memory usage of 10.8GB, GPU usage of 96%, VRAM usage of 7.3GB, GPU power consumption of 113W, and temperature of 72°C.
On the DDR5 platform, the average FPS was 79, minimum FPS was 63, frame time was 14.0ms, CPU usage at 44%, power consumption of 47W, temperature of 61°C, memory usage of 12.1GB, GPU usage of 98%, VRAM usage of 7.6GB, GPU power consumption of 117W, and temperature of 70°C.
In this game, DDR5 had 3% lower CPU usage, 1.3GB higher memory usage, 2% higher GPU usage, and 0.3GB more VRAM usage.
Both platforms had similar FPS performance, though DDR5 had a 2ms higher frame time, resulting in another tie.
Fifth Game: Ghostwire Tokyo
On the DDR4 platform, the average FPS was 54, with a minimum frame rate of 46 FPS, frame time of 18.2ms, CPU usage at 18%, power consumption of 27W, temperature of 49°C, memory usage of 13.1GB, GPU usage at 99%, VRAM usage of 6.4GB, GPU power consumption of 115W, and temperature of 70°C.
On the DDR5 platform, the average FPS was also 54, with a minimum frame rate of 47 FPS, frame time of 17.5ms, CPU usage at 18%, power consumption of 35W, temperature of 49°C, memory usage of 13.5GB, GPU usage at 99%, VRAM usage of 6.7GB, GPU power consumption of 116W, and temperature of 70°C.
In this game, CPU usage was equal across both platforms. The DDR5 platform had 0.5GB higher memory usage and 0.3GB more VRAM usage. Both platforms performed similarly in terms of average and minimum FPS, with DDR5 showing a frame time advantage of nearly 1ms, making this another tie.
Sixth Game: Black Myth Wukong
On the DDR4 platform, the average FPS was 57, with a minimum frame rate of 51 FPS, frame time of 17.0ms, CPU usage at 21%, power consumption of 28W, temperature of 48°C, memory usage of 11.5GB, GPU usage at 98%, VRAM usage of 4.3GB, GPU power consumption of 115W, and temperature of 70°C.
On the DDR5 platform, the average FPS was also 57, with a minimum frame rate of 52 FPS, frame time of 17.1ms, CPU usage at 19%, power consumption of 36W, temperature of 51°C, memory usage of 11.1GB, GPU usage at 98%, VRAM usage of 4.5GB, GPU power consumption of 117W, and temperature of 70°C.
Here, DDR5 had a 2% lower CPU usage and 0.4GB lower memory usage, while VRAM usage was slightly higher by 0.2GB. Both platforms achieved similar performance metrics in average FPS, minimum FPS, and frame time, resulting in another tie.
Seventh Game: Starfield
On the DDR4 platform, the average FPS was 60, with a minimum frame rate of 49 FPS, frame time of 14.2ms, CPU usage at 61%, power consumption of 47W, temperature of 59°C, memory usage of 12.6GB, GPU usage at 98%, VRAM usage of 5.5GB, GPU power consumption of 111W, and temperature of 69°C.
On the DDR5 platform, the average FPS was 59, with a minimum frame rate of 47 FPS, frame time of 15.0ms, CPU usage at 59%, power consumption of 56W, temperature of 59°C, memory usage of 12.4GB, GPU usage at 98%, VRAM usage of 5.2GB, GPU power consumption of 114W, and temperature of 68°C.
In this game, DDR5 showed a 2% reduction in CPU usage and 0.2GB less memory usage, with slightly lower VRAM usage by 0.3GB. Average FPS and minimum FPS remained virtually identical across both platforms, with DDR5 showing a negligible 0.8ms higher frame time. This game also resulted in a tie.
5. Test Conclusion
In terms of overall gaming performance, the Core i5-12400F paired with the GeForce RTX 4060 shows virtually no difference between DDR4 and DDR5 memory platforms. In some games, DDR5 does achieve slightly lower frame times, but the overall advantage is minimal.
However, this conclusion applies only to this specific configuration. For higher-performing processors or graphics cards, the performance differences between DDR4 and DDR5 memory platforms become more noticeable, as shown in the following images.
Regarding hardware resource usage, there are subtle yet noticeable differences: the DDR5 platform generally exhibits lower CPU usage compared to the DDR4 platform, but with higher power consumption and temperatures.
According to personal experience, this pattern is relatively common. For instance, the images below show performance tests of the Core i5-13600K paired with the GeForce RTX 4090 on DDR4-4000 and DDR5-8000 platforms. On the DDR5-8000 platform, the CPU usage was similar to the DDR4-4000 platform, but overall power consumption was equal or higher, and temperatures were significantly higher. This pattern, while common, does not hold true in every game.
In summary, for those considering building a cost-effective gaming rig with the Core i5-12400F and GeForce RTX 4060, there is no need to worry about choosing between DDR4 and DDR5 platforms, as the gaming performance is virtually the same. The GeForce RTX 4060 also performs well, maintaining power consumption around 115W.
On the other hand, the DDR5 platform leads to higher processor power consumption and temperatures, requiring better cooling. However, if you do not already have DDR4 memory and plan to purchase all-new components, choosing DDR5 memory is recommended for future-proofing, provided the budget allows.
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