We just covered this a few days ago; it seems that because DDR4 and DDR5 ‘sMemoryThe price increase is too steep,This has led Chinese DIY users to start switching to DDR3 motherboards…market sales have surged two to three times in a short period of time. Many people are surely wondering: these days, can computers equipped with DDR3 memory run AAA titles or newGamesWill it really run smoothly? Recently, there have been reports from abroad that… YouTube Conducted hands-on testing on the channel.
A few days ago, an overseas hardware YouTube channel with over 550,000 subscribers shared a video showing the results of building a computer using DDR3 memory and benchmarking it with eight games.
Overseas PC gamers have built DDR3 gaming PCs that, in real-world testing, can still run *Cyberpunk 2077* at an average of 60 FPS.
The international channel RandomGaminginHD frequently shares performance benchmarks for graphics cards, CPUs, and complete PCs. Their latest video, “I Built an i7 4790K Gaming PC in 2026. It Actually Surprised Me,” showcases the gaming performance of a DDR3-based computer.
The hardware specifications of the computer he is using are:
- i7 4790K (a consumer-grade flagship model released in 2014)
- ASUS Z97 Motherboard
- 32GB DDR3 1866MHz RAM
- RTX 2060 Super 8GB Graphics Card
- Thermalright AK120 Cooler
- 750W Power Supply
I chose the RTX 2060 Super graphics card because, when paired with this CPU, there’s basically no need for a higher-end card—you’ll just hit a CPU bottleneck.
RandomGaminginHD also mentioned that the 32GB DDR3 was purchased from AliExpress for a very low price of just 30 pounds (approximately 1,200 New Taiwan dollars), which is only one-fourth or one-fifth the price of 8GB DDR5.
First, here are the benchmark results for *Baldur’s Gate 3*. With settings at 1080p High Quality + DLAA, it delivers a smooth 57.9 FPS, making gameplay completely seamless. However, as you can clearly see from the real-time data on the left, the CPU is the bottleneck, and the GPU isn’t being fully utilized:
*Battlefield 6* performs quite well; running at 1080p with medium graphics settings and DLAA enabled, it delivers up to 69.7 FPS. However, CPU usage mostly hovers between 99% and 100%, hitting a bottleneck, while GPU usage ranges from 60% to 80%:
“Cyberpunk 2077” also delivered an average of 59.8 FPS at 1080p with High Preset, High Textures, and Medium Crowd settings:
“Fortnite” is a bit of an exception. Although the test results were quite good—averaging 115.2 FPS—the CPU usage remained at 100% the entire time, and gameplay was quite unstable; at times, it felt choppy:
Below are the test results for 8 games:
| Games | Average FPS | FPS（1% Low） | Picture Quality Settings and Resolution |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baldur’s Gate 3 | 57.9 | 31.7 | High Definition, 1080p, DLAA |
| Battlefield 6 | 69.7 | 46.2 | Medium quality, 1080p, DLAA |
| Counter-Strike 2 | 117.9 | 50.4 | High Quality, 1080p, 4× MSAA |
| Cyberpunk 2077 | 59.8 | 35.4 | High preset, high texture quality, medium crowd density, 1080p |
| Fortnite | 115.2 | 41 | Medium quality, 1080p, TAA |
| GTA V Enhanced Edition | 69.6 | 50 | Ultra-High Quality + Ray Tracing, 1080p, DLAA |
| The Kingdom of Heaven Descends: Redemption 2 | 72.2 | 43.4 | High Definition, 1080p, SMAA 2TX |
| Red Dead Redemption 2 | 72.3 | 51.7 | Ultra-high texture quality, medium for everything else, 1080p, TAA (Medium) |
As you can see, even though this computer’s CPU is several years old and it only has DDR3 RAM, as long as it’s paired with a decent graphics card, it can still deliver quite good gaming performance.
RandomGaminginHD also added that he was “surprised” by the performance of this old i7-4790K processor from 2014, and despite being over 10 years old, the overall experience in most of the games tested was “not bad” and even left him satisfied. If gamers happen to have this kind of older hardware on hand, or are waiting for DDR4/DDR5 memory prices to drop, it’s a perfectly viable solution for the interim.
However, you have to accept that in modern games, drops in FPS and performance caps are unavoidable.
Source: KOCPC Chinese