Memory crisis makes you creative: New MSI laptop with DDR4 or DDR5

The world’s PC manufacturers are in a bind when it comes to memory. DDR4 RAM can be a solution when DDR5 is poorly available. MSI is therefore releasing its latest gaming notebook in versions with DDR4 or DDR5 RAM.

MSI relies on flexibility during the crisis

The ongoing memory shortage has left PC manufacturers struggling with skyrocketing costs for memory, flash storage and SSDs. Even cheap gaming notebooks have now become significantly more expensive. MSI is therefore trying to keep costs under control with a creative strategy for the new Katana 15 HX C14. The 15-inch notebook for gaming fans therefore comes with Intel chips from the 14th generation of the Core series in the form of the “Raptor Lake Refresh” family, which supports both DDR4 and DDR5 RAM. Depending on the region and price variant, MSI then equips the device with DDR4 RAM, which is often available at a slightly cheaper price, while some editions come with DDR5 RAM.

They are trying to control the market situation, because a 32 GB DDR4-3200 SODIMM kit is currently available at prices of around 200 euros, while you have to spend well over 400 euros for DDR5-6000 RAM of the same capacity. This gives the Taiwanese manufacturer the opportunity to react more flexibly to the availability and prices of RAM. Otherwise, under the hood there is a maximum of the Intel Core i9-14900HX with up to 24 computing cores and a 5.8 gigahertz boost clock. Nvidia GeForce RTX 50 GPUs up to the RTX 5070 laptop with eight gigabytes of GDDR7 VRAM are also installed.

The 15-inch display is always an IPS panel, although MSI plans to offer versions with QHD or FHD resolution. There is also space for two PCIe 4.0 SSDs, Bluetooth 5.4 and Wi-Fi 6E and a 60 watt-hour battery, which should enable at least limited mobile gaming sessions. The entire package is housed in a casing that is almost 2.3 centimeters thick and weighs 2.1 kilograms. MSI states that the new Katana 15 HX C14 is available now, but neither the manufacturer nor the retailer mentions prices.