MSI kills off Intel's 12th and 13th generation DDR4 motherboards to make room for DDR5
MSI is said to have retired the 12th and 13th generation Intel DDR4 motherboards to replace them with DDR5
. In 2021, when Intel releases its 12th generation Alder Lake-S desktop processors, the company has offered a selection of DDR4 and DDR5 as the new standard 5th generation DDR memory. quite expensive. Therefore, when the motherboard version DDR4 will work with the DDR4 kit and the DDR5 variant will work with the DDR5. 
In an article, we have explained the differences, advantages and disadvantages of going both ways. One of the advantages of DDR4 that we highlight is its reusability, as users who have used high-end DDR4 kits can reuse them when upgrading to the LGA1700 socket for systems. Their 12/13th generation Intel.
However, this advantage may not last long as a new report alleges that Intel's motherboard supplier MSI plans to phase out at least some Z790 and B760 DDR4 variants under a Chinese sources.Applicable motherboard models:
MPG Z790 EDGE WIFI DDR4
PRO Z790-A WIFI DDR4
PRO Z790-P DDR4
MAG B760 MORTAR DDR4
Now, slow kill on DDR4 cards is recommended , at least for high-end motherboards, since AMD's competing solutions, i.e. the Ryzen 7000 series, only have options for DDR5. DDR5 is also getting faster and cheaper, and support for non-standard memory capacities, such as 192 GB, is also improving. While we expect low-cost motherboards to still offer some DDR4 variants, DDR4 memory is still very affordable and continues to be powered by AMD's
AM4 socket. While some of these motherboards use next-generation DDR5 RAM, others are only compatible with DDR4 kits.We've created a helpful guide to determine what type of memory is best to buy for your next Alder Lake PC based on the type of tasks you'll be performing.
However, there is a new motherboard from a Chinese vendor called Onda that can do the best of both worlds. Spotted by Twitter user momomo_us, this Onda 610M+ motherboard is a dual DIMM slot card. While one of its slots uses DDR4 RAM, the other slot has a slot set differently and is for DDR5 sticks. Both DIMMs have separate colors and black is for DDR5 RAM while the other is for DDR4.
You can see the DIMM slots of the motherboard in the figure below right.
Indeed, although DDR4 and DDR5 have the same number of 288 pins, the module key is different for the two types of memory and they are not compatible with the same DIMM slot.
