G.Skill RAM Hits DDR4-6666 in New World Record

G.Skill Trident Z Royal & Asus ROG Maximus XII Apex

G.Skill Trident Z Royal and Asus ROG Maximus XII Apex (Image credit: G.Skill)

There's a new DDR4 record in the books. As announced today by G.Skill and Asus, an overclocker known as Bianbao has set the new world record for fastest DDR4 RAM at DDR4-6666 (technically running at 6,665.4 MHz). To do so, the enthusiast used the new Intel Core i9-10900K processor, which has been overclocked to 7.7 GHz on all 10 CPU cores in another world record.

G.Skill provided some of its luxurious Trident Z Royal memory for the feat, while Asus supplied the ROG Maximus XII Apex motherboard. Asus' Apex-branded motherboards have gained famed for its memory overclocking prowess so its selection was expected.

Trident Z Royal DDR4-6666 (Image credit: G.Skill)

The Trident Z Royal's part number suggests that the module's advertised memory speed is 4,000 MHz, and it's probably one of G.Skill's offerings that come with CL timings of 18-22-22-42 by default. With a bit of diligent work and lots of liquid nitrogen, the overclocker managed to push the module to 6,665.4 MHz with timings set to CL 31-63-63-63. That's a whopping 66.6% overclock.

Sure, DDR4-6666 has zero utility for everyday use, but it's still a pretty amazing achievement nonetheless. G.Skill and Asus were just 334.6 MHz short of hitting the mythical 7,000 MHz mark. Even at 6,665 MHz, the memory is already crossing into DDR5 territory.

It has become sort of a tradition that every processor release ushers in a new wave of world records. In a way, the records stand as testimony that improvements are being made from one generation to the next. However, some still might question Intel's progress on the newly released 10th Generation Comet Lake chips.

Zhiye Liu
News Editor and Memory Reviewer

Zhiye Liu is a news editor and memory reviewer at Tom’s Hardware. Although he loves everything that’s hardware, he has a soft spot for CPUs, GPUs, and RAM.

  • drtweak
    My comment has nothing to do with the article and everything to do with the "WTF were they thinking that that SATA connector design? Like WTF? I can't see how you can plug in the inside set of connectors! they would hit each other? I don't see how you can cable mode that to look nice? XD
    Reply
  • DZIrl
    Yes and no. Yes, data is steamed out at 6666 but other timings are almost identical. And they could not be changed cause of DRAM hardware. For example CL-18 @4000 == CL-31@6666.
    For me this 6666 tells more about motherboard then DRAM.
    When overclocking do they also measure FCC compliance?
    Reply
  • d0x360
    Wait what? So I had the world record before ...

    According to the record for 2023 and 2022 I did.

    I had a 32 gig (16x2) kit of gskill running that fast years ago on am4 (5800x @ 5.4ghz all except core 7 @ 5.2) and i literally just gave the system to a friend like 2 months ago. Motherboard was an ROG Crosshair viii Formula. Before settling on that kit I had bought 3 others from different companies and returned 2 others from gskill because I wasn't happy with stability.

    I didn't know it was anything special overclock wise.. I haven't checked anything beyond boost clock specs since I had an i7 5820k running all core of 5.2ghz (6 cores) up from like 3.7 boost it wasn't even hard to get stable. I've always been pretty good at overclocking but never chased anything specific beyond my own performance desires but maybe I should lol.

    It was running at 6200mhz (3000x2 because it's ddr yo!) and had timings of CL18-18-18-36 up from the normal cl14-14-14-28 and the regular clocks were 2400mhz using the DOCP profile. I forget the voltage I had it running at but I wasn't using anything special for cooling.

    Hell I have my 7950x3d pretty much topped out at 5.4ghz ccd0 and 5.9 ccd1 with ddr5 @ 6800mhz CL28-28-28-78 using a kit of Corsair 32x2 6400mhz ddr5 and a ROG x670e Extreme motherboard.

    Id push it higher but there's no reason to because of the FCLK in Ryzen 7000. It's kinda a shame the 7000 series is so temperamental with memory because it's a 14 layer thick motherboard PCB which would be absolutely amazing for memory overclocking and I think it's at the top most layers and thickness on a consumer board. Mo layers = mo stability for OC... usually. The thing is like a a giant square hammer lol
    Reply