Re-examining the DDR4 gaming gap with Intel’s LGA 1700 CPUs in mid-2026 — performance drops of 14% on average, and up to 25% in some games

Tom’s Hardware tested DDR4 vs. DDR5 gaming on Intel LGA 1700 CPUs across 15 games at 1080p.

DDR4 consistently trailed DDR5, with average performance losses around 14% and some game gaps reaching 25%.

The penalty grew on newer chips such as the Core i9-14900K, Core i7-14700K, and Core i5-14600K.

The findings suggest DDR4 can save money on LGA 1700, but it may leave meaningful gaming performance behind.