You can't have a gaming PC without DRAM, so here are the cheapest DDR4 and DDR5 memory kits I've found in the Prime Day sales

Ah, good old PC memory: can’t live without it, can’t avoid the RAMpocalypse price tags, either. Some tech companies would like you to believe that 8 GB is fine, but you try running the latest, graphics-heavy games with that amount of DRAM. Generally speaking, you want 16 GB, and if you like to use lots of apps while you game, then 32 GB is preferable.

With that in mind, I’ve been scouring through all the Prime Day sales to find the cheapest DDR4 and DDR5 memory kits worth buying.

I’ve got 16 and 32 GB options for both, plus a few others if you’re happy to pay a bit more for a kit with extras, that get the most from your gaming PC. What you won’t find are any 48 GB or larger sets, and that’s because they’re all so expensive right now that it makes little sense to buy one just for gaming.

Don’t believe me? Well, the cheapest 48 GB kit I’ve found is $580 at Newegg, and when it comes to 64 GB, then you’re looking at spending $800 at Newegg, at the very least. So…ah…don’t.

DDR4 memory kits

The only reason why any PC gamer would be considering either of these DDR4 memory kits is if you’re building a cheap entry-level rig at the moment. In that case, sticking with an AMD Ryzen 5000-series processor and AM4 motherboard is the best way to keep the cost right down.

That said, if you’re currently rocking such a CPU in your gaming PC and you want to give it a bit more memory, then swapping a 16 GB kit for a 32 GB one makes sense. You could sell the old set to recoup some of the cost, or keep hold of it just in case the new one ever fails at some point in the near future.

DDR5 memory kits

If your gaming PC houses an AMD Ryzen 7000-, 8000-, or 9000-series processor, or an Intel Core Ultra chip, you have to use DDR5 memory because all of these CPUs lack support for DDR4. Paying almost twice as much money for a 16 GB DDR5-6000 kit as for a 16 GB DDR4-3200 set is painful to see, but there’s nothing we can do about it right now.

Fortunately, both of these memory kits are perfectly decent. They’re not the flashiest or fastest you can buy, but they are the cheapest. That does mean some elements of them might be a tad wonky, e.g. the heatsinks on the Patriot set are a bit flimsy, but it doesn’t affect the cooling.

Other DDR5 memory kits

If you’re okay with spending $350 on a 32 GB DDR5 memory kit (and by that, I just mean you’ve accepted the horrendous price tag because the alternative is just to give up on having a PC…), then paying up to 14% more perhaps isn’t so daunting.

Should that increase be within your means, you can pick up either a super-snappy set for an AMD setup or something that’s still plenty fast enough but has bling for days. Corsair’s Vengeance kit is arguably the prettiest one out of all the memory kits I’ve listed here, but you do have to pay more for the spanglies.