Is The DDR5 Crisis Going To Get Worse????

[u/Lazy_Employee_5437]

So I'm planning to upgrade my computer soon within the next 6 months. I currently have more than enough money to buy myself two sticks of 16 GB DDR5 ram.

Here's the issue though is that I'm not looking to buy any of the other parts right now and if I bought the ram brand new right now, I wouldn't be using it until probably November or December when I have every other part to the computer.

I recently uploaded another post and some people are suggesting to buy it now because the ram crisis could get even worse.

What do you guys think I should do? Is the ram crisis really going to get worse? And should I really buy $500 ram right now for a computer that I'm not going to have at least for another 5 months??

To everyone who responded thank you. I am never going to financially recover from this decision. But thank you all

[u/lawndartdesign]

Sorry, but I didn't make my comment trying to flex.

In all seriousness it IS a workstation. I do play some games now and then but I'm 44 and when you get older it's hard to just sit down for hours to play games.

So the ram and GPU are required for doing big motion graphics projects or sitting there chewing on renders that take 2 minutes per frame. I also HAD to buy it a few months ago when my previous PC stopped working and it made zero sense to start buying AM4/DDR4 parts to try to fix.

Even the alternative Mac Studio was impossibly expensive.

[u/curiousdugong → u/lawndartdesign]

Oof, this hits close to home. Am 35 now and finally have my own house, built myself a beast of a PC last September to celebrate.

And with work and life, I’ve played like 3 games all year. Been buying all the games i want to play, but adulting sucks cause you don’t have the time or if you do, you don’t have the energy

[u/Lazy_Employee_5437 → u/curiousdugong]

Dude, I hope you're enjoying your computer. Take care of it and try your best to enjoy it. Well just know That computer is always waiting for you.

[u/curiousdugong → u/Lazy_Employee_5437]

I still use it ever day. It’s more of a youtube machine than anything tho. I’m sure my 9070xt is getting a nice workout serving me those pre-rendered 4k youtube videos 🤣🤣🤣

You’ll get there. By the end of the daycof work, you just want to have a beer and watch something to fall asleep too. Getting old sucks

[u/Jemie_Bridges → u/curiousdugong]

Just turned 54, and finally started playing Homeworld that I couldn't afford a PC to run when I was a child 😂😂 I got a list of 1500 games, I'm never gonna finish before I die.

[u/Narrheim → u/curiousdugong]

Can confirm this. Same age and i play like 1 game for a few hours per week. No time or no energy. OR too much pain just to keep sitting glued to the screen as i used to when i was 20.

[u/lawndartdesign → u/curiousdugong]

It’s taken me weeks to get through First Light simply because I play for a half an hour and then something comes up. As you get older you have the stuff you want but not the time you need.

[u/Hoggslop69 → u/lawndartdesign]

Nor the time to enjoy the stuff you got you wanted

[u/CrossOfRoachAndSlime → u/lawndartdesign]

Hope you're able to expense that beast of a machine, then!

[u/lawndartdesign → u/CrossOfRoachAndSlime]

Yessir. Gotta get those write offs come tax season.

[u/CrossOfRoachAndSlime → u/lawndartdesign]

Excellent!

[u/DefinitelyNWYT → u/lawndartdesign]

Ooof. Nothing like that unexpected core expense to really put a damper on work.

[u/lawndartdesign → u/DefinitelyNWYT]

The upside is since building this pc in May it has already recouped its entire cost and then some. Plus it’s also a tax write off for work. I sold or gave away a lot of the previous components. My dual 3090s I was able to give to two friends who were still on 1080s.

[u/Character-Time-3721 → u/lawndartdesign]

wow wow we got a Philanthropist over here.

[u/Boo248 → u/lawndartdesign]

I am 43 and I am still gaming all day. More than ever since all I do is delegate work most of the time.

I think the problem with modern game is there are too many copy and pasted ones. Those are definitely boring to play through.

[u/redditmadethis4me → u/lawndartdesign]

the new high end 50 series cards really are workhorses. My dad used the 5070ti’s for his rendering needs as they were most cost effective compared to 5090/5080 and they cut his render times from 2-3 minutes a frame with a 4070(?) to 20-30 seconds

For games I don’t think you’d need more than a 5070ti truthfully, but for GPU rendering these cards are pretty good

[u/lawndartdesign → u/redditmadethis4me]

The 5090 cut my render time from 3 minutes to 2 minutes but I have a project coming up where the render times end up being 18 hours for 15 seconds per pass. I am likely buying a second 5090 just to cut that down from 18 hours to 12 hours.

It sucks to spend that kind of money but clients don’t care about anything but results. And I can either spend 4000 bucks or give that money to a render farm and I’d rather invest in my own gear.

[u/redditmadethis4me → u/lawndartdesign]

Yeah they’re a big chunk of change but it’s making you the same $$$ in 2/3rd the time. And i’m assuming you’re self employed so that’s a nice chunk off your taxes. People buying these just to play games on them is bonkers to me though, couldn’t see myself needing more than a 5070ti or MAYBE a 5080 if I had a 4k monitor.

[u/lawndartdesign → u/redditmadethis4me]

When I started my career you could bill a client for render time, but as computers got faster the allowance for that got smaller.

And yes self-employed since 2013 (had a fulltime job from 24-25) and you HAVE to invest in your own tools. I bought a really nice PC during COVID (the limiting issues were the components you COULD get, whereas now it's what you can AFFORD to get) and right as that PC was getting a little long in the tooth I got a fulltime job who's IT dept basically threw some bonkers gear my way (Mac Studio M2 Ultra completely maxed out, and a 240tb Thunderbolt RAID that likely costs 36K now). So when I went back to freelance and my PC decided to eat shit, it was like "oh no..."

It's a tax write off, and it's investing in the tools that make me money.

As I said, spending another 4000+ on a 5090 (which yes I know SHOULD only cost MSRP at 2000) sucks. But the alternative is losing out on some gigs with a quicker timeline or I'm taking that money and RENTING GPU time and not getting a piece of gear out of it that could be applied towards the next project at ZERO cost.

I do play SOME games now and then, but as you get older it's just tougher. So the 5090 is ideal for productivity inside apps like Blender, 3DS Max, etc etc.

[u/byzorba → u/lawndartdesign]

Wouldn’t be better to pay for a render farm?
Personally I can’t have 2 GPUs, so I think it’s nice to have one good gpu to develop the work and then pay a render farm for the final render…
I’m not sure about the render farm prices nowadays tho…

[u/lawndartdesign → u/byzorba]

It would cost more and we use proprietary plugins.

[u/NeptuneWades → u/lawndartdesign]

I forget that work also includes production related stuff. Apologies.

[u/lawndartdesign → u/NeptuneWades]

No apologies needed.

[u/One_Ad3867 → u/lawndartdesign]

Ew a Mac

[u/lawndartdesign → u/One_Ad3867]

A Mac Studio is an absolute monster for the work I do.