AMD's Ryzen 7000 'Raphael' and EPYC 7004 'Genoa' to Support DDR5-5200

AMD
(Image credit: AMD)

When AMD implied several weeks ago that its next-generation Ryzen 7000-series 'Raphael' processors would have remarkable DDR5 overclocking capabilities, it didn't really elaborate on the capabilities. But as it turns out, Raphael will support DDR5-5200 memory out-of-box, according to Apacer, a leading supplier of memory modules. 

Apacer recently published a table (discovered by @momomo_us) describing which types of memory are supported by modern and upcoming processors from AMD and Intel. Intel's Alder Lake and Sapphire Rapids CPUs support DDR5-4800 memory, just like AMD's Ryzen 6000 'Rembrandt' APUs. Meanwhile, AMD's Ryzen 7000 'Raphael' and EPYC 7004 'Genoa' processors based on the Zen 4 microarchitecture are said to support faster DDR5-5200 SDRAM. 

(Image credit: Apacer)

DDR5-5200 memory modules will provide about 8.3% higher peak memory bandwidth than DDR5-4800 DRAM sticks currently officially supported by Intel's Alder Lake processors, so AMD's next-generation desktop CPUs will have a slightly more advanced memory subsystem when compared to Intel's existing processors. Meanwhile, since DDR5-5200 is within JEDEC's specifications for DDR5, it is logical to expect Intel to support this speed in the future as well (after all, Apacer's table says nothing about memory subsystem of Intel's Raptor Lake processors).  

While Intel's existing 12th Generation Core 'Alder Lake' CPU officially support DDR5-4800 memory, as long as they are properly cooled, they can handle memory data transfer rates 8,000 MT/s or higher. To that end, it is reasonable to expect AMD's next-generation Ryzen 'Raphael' CPUs to be at least as capable as Intel's Alder Lake chips, so their DDR5 overclocking capabilities should be considerably more impressive than out-of-box DDR5 support. 

DDR5 was designed to provide significant performance and capacity upgrades when compared to DDR4 memory, so over time DDR5 memory chips will further gain both performance and capacity. Right now high-speed DDR5 modules are quite expensive and It remains to be seen whether high-speed memory modules gain significant popularity with next-generation processors.

Anton Shilov
Contributing Writer

Anton Shilov is a contributing writer at Tom’s Hardware. Over the past couple of decades, he has covered everything from CPUs and GPUs to supercomputers and from modern process technologies and latest fab tools to high-tech industry trends.

  • mdd1963
    It'll be nice to see the officially supported speeds start creeping their way up...

    Next stop--DDR5-6400 as default/standard! :)
    Reply
  • spentshells
    +
    mdd1963 said:
    It'll be nice to see the officially supported speeds start creeping their way up...

    Next stop--DDR5-6400 as default/standard! :)
    Ill adopt when it becomes 10,000Mhz but im gonna assume that will be ddr6
    Reply
  • peterf28
    Shall I wait for AM5 or not ? I have currently i5 2500K @ 4.7ghz, 16gb 2133 ddr3, 1070ti.
    Reply
  • jacob249358
    peterf28 said:
    Shall I wait for AM5 or not ? I have currently i5 2500K @ 4.7ghz, 16gb 2133 ddr3, 1070ti.
    If you can last until then but alder lake looks pretty good right now.
    Reply
  • peterf28
    jacob249358 said:
    If you can last until then but alder lake looks pretty good right now.
    Will the hybrid cores architecture not cause problems with old software? Like cracked games?
    Reply
  • KyaraM
    peterf28 said:
    Will the hybrid cores architecture not cause problems with old software? Like cracked games?
    Never noticed anything. Though defining old software first would help. Besides, there are non-hybrid Alder Lakes, too. Up to the 12600.

    Edit: even if you get an issue, there are ways to deactivate E-Cores in Windows with a key combo. Should work for this, too.
    Reply