What you need to know
- G.SKILL now holds the world record for fastest system memory speeds DDR5-8704, snatching it from HyperX for DDR4-7200.
- Overclocker Hocayu utilized the company's new Trident Z5 DDR5 RAM and an ASUS ROG Z690 Apex motherboard.
- These results demonstrate the potential for DDR5, but this speed comes at a cost in performance and shouldn't be tried at home.
G.SKILL proudly announced the company is now the record holder for memory speeds. Using its Trident Z5 DDR5 RAM modules, an ASUS ROG Z690 Apex motherboard, and the trusty Intel Core i7-12700K processor, it was possible to hit speeds of 8,704 MT/s. To put this into context, the memory modules we used for our Intel Core i9-12900K review were between 4,800 and 5,000 MT/s.
The results obtained by G.SKILL are nothing short of impressive, but they did have to use liquid nitrogen on not only the processor, but also the memory modules. This puts these sorts of speeds out of reach for the average PC owner. Then there's the case of diminishing returns for performance. In order to achieve 8,704 MT/s, the team had to ramp up the timings from 40-40-40-76 to 127-120-120-120.
This would make the test rig a poor choice for gaming and content creation. But this does show just how far we're going to be able to push RAM with the latest generation of hardware. Memory brands like G.SKILL and XPG are already making headway into the 5,000 MT/s range with decent timings and we can expect to see further development as the technology matures.
DDR5 will be replacing DDR4 RAM as newer motherboards and processors are released. Intel led the way with its 12th Gen processor launch, but we're sure AMD will follow suit. If you're building a new machine from scratch, it'll be worth going with the newer generation of memory, but you can find motherboards that take the latest CPUs from Intel and not require DDR5.
