G.Skill Unleashes DDR5-8000 C38 RAM For $530

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Crème de la crème DDR5, with an eye-watering price tag

Trident Z5 RGB
Trident Z5 RGB (Image credit: G.Skill)

G.Skill has launched the market's fastest retail DDR5 memory kit yet. Clocking in at DDR5-8000, the new Trident Z5 RGB memory is ready to compete with (and likely scream past) the best RAM on the market.

The DDR5-8000 memory kit hails from G.Skill's Trident Z5 RGB lineup, and it's available in both matte black (F5-8000J3848H16GX2-TZ5RK), and metallic silver (F5-8000J3848H16GX2-TZ5RS) trims. It comes with two 16GB DDR5 memory modules rated for DDR5-8000. G.Skill binned the memory modules with timings of 38-48-48-128, requiring 1.45V to hit the advertised data rate.

The Trident Z5 RGB DDR5-8000 is not your run-of-the-mill memory kit and requires a capable processor with a strong IMC (integrated memory controller). In addition, you'll need one of Intel's 13th Generation Raptor Lake chips, which are superior to AMD's Ryzen 7000 lineup regarding integrated memory controller (IMC) strength. Even the most exceptional Ryzen 7000 samples stop at DDR5-6600.

G.Skill tested the Trident Z5 RGB DDR5-8000 memory kit with the flagship Core i9-13900K on Asus' ROG Maximus Z790 Apex, a motherboard that caters explicitly to overclocking. Unfortunately, that's the only motherboard G.Skill has validated for the new speedy-fast DDR5-8000 memory kit. Like most DDR5 memory kits, the Trident Z5 RGB DDR5-8000 supports XMP 3.0. However, it's unlikely that the memory kit will work right off the bat without some manual tuning unless your processor has a strong IMC.

The Trident Z5 RGB DDR5-8000 memory kit will be available this month. Newegg has listed the metallic silver version for $529.99, whereas the matte black version costs $534.99. Both should be in stock very soon. The DDR5-8000 memory kit isn't the fastest kit that G.Skill has up its sleeves, though. The memory vendor has already demonstrated DDR5-10000 on air cooling, so it should be a matter before G.Skill brings those speeds to retail as well, for a small fortune.

Zhiye Liu
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.

8 Comments Comment from the forums
  • Giroro
    I think I choked when I realized that $530 price tag was for a 32GB kit.

    Your average person buying a 32GB kit of decent DDR4 is paying, what, $80?
    Reply
  • Soul_keeper
    Yeah, small, expensive, no ecc, stupid taped on aluminum heatsinks. And rgb which some of us have hated for years.
    Ohh, and the worst thing is that it needs 1.45V right out the gate. I don't even run my ddr4 at that.
    Mushkin experimented with some mainstream ecc ddr4 kits, hopefully they do that again with ddr5.
    Reply
  • thisisaname
    Zoom Zoom now all I need is is 6000 memory with some good timings and a cheap price :geek:
    Reply
  • DavidLejdar
    Giroro said:
    I think I choked when I realized that $530 price tag was for a 32GB kit.

    Your average person buying a 32GB kit of decent DDR4 is paying, what, $80?

    Yeah... at around 3200 MT/s though. On the other hand, DDR4 usually has lower timings / latency. But then again, DDR5 does it a bit different on how the RAM communicates with the CPU.

    Personally, I went for DDR5 2x16GB 6000 recently (having upgraded from a DDR3 rig), with the main reason being the better support for many-core CPUs - meaning that e.g. the current top-tier Intel CPUs get bottle-necked by DDR4.

    In particular for gaming it is possible to get a plenty good rig going for cheaper though, of course.

    I just didn't see much a point in spending on new DDR4 RAM and MB as a gap solution to then go DDR5 in a year or so (at a price not necessarily all that lower what the DDR4 would have cost me now) - and I can now just plop in a new-gen GPU while quite sure that the GPU won't get bottle-necked by anything. And as I went AMD CPU this time, I should be able to also upgrade the CPU reportedly even in 2 years without spending on a new MB.

    Soul_keeper said:
    Yeah, small, expensive, no ecc, stupid taped on aluminum heatsinks. And rgb which some of us have hated for years.
    Ohh, and the worst thing is that it needs 1.45V right out the gate. I don't even run my ddr4 at that.
    Mushkin experimented with some mainstream ecc ddr4 kits, hopefully they do that again with ddr5.

    Overclocked DDR4 often requires 1.45V to 1.6V. And when such overclocked DDR5 requires 1.45V (default 1.1V), that is an improvement in terms of efficiency.

    From your comment I take it that you are not a fan of non-ECC RAM. Myself, I picked non-ECC on purpose. ECC is great for servers, but it adds a bit of latency, which I didn't want.

    Sure is quite pricey though. And DDR5 seems to be generally taller than DDR4, which may not fit well with every older CPU air cooler in terms of physical space (if one has an older air cooler, which can handle current gen CPU wattage).
    Reply
  • watzupken
    Wow, 500+ for a 32 GB kit. Basically the asking price of a lower end system/ laptop/ mid range GPU.
    Reply
  • bolweval
    Team T-Force Delta RGB 32GB 7200 are only $299 right now on Newegg, I can only get them stable @ 6800 with my 12700k, hoping i can get their full speed when i upgrade to the 13700k. 🤞
    Reply
  • Barefoot
    bolweval said:
    Team T-Force Delta RGB 32GB 7200 are only $299 right now on Newegg, I can only get them stable @ 6800 with my 12700k, hoping i can get their full speed when i upgrade to the 13700k. 🤞
    Unlike our old DDR-4 stuff, the new JEDEC DDR-5 standard works a little differently than what we're used to!
    When upgrading/building a DDR-5 system, LOOK at the information for the motherboard you're thinking about buying, to see if there's a top speed rating for the DDR-5! SOME mobo's show on the box the memory requirements of say 4800mhz! Don't try to put larger frequency memory sticks in it, or you'll get instability!
    A lot of gamers are shouting about the timings on the DDR-5 as being slower than DDR-4! Those numbers are relative to the speed (frequency) of the much faster ram! Using the same timings as DDR-4 would cause instability because of the new platforms' speed!

    Here. Look at this information about DDR-5 compared to DDR-4

    https://www.rambus.com/blogs/get-ready-for-ddr5-dimm-chipsets/
    Pass the knowledge on?
    Reply
  • Soul_keeper
    DavidLejdar said:
    Yeah... at around 3200 MT/s though. On the other hand, DDR4 usually has lower timings / latency. But then again, DDR5 does it a bit different on how the RAM communicates with the CPU.

    Personally, I went for DDR5 2x16GB 6000 recently (having upgraded from a DDR3 rig), with the main reason being the better support for many-core CPUs - meaning that e.g. the current top-tier Intel CPUs get bottle-necked by DDR4.

    In particular for gaming it is possible to get a plenty good rig going for cheaper though, of course.

    I just didn't see much a point in spending on new DDR4 RAM and MB as a gap solution to then go DDR5 in a year or so (at a price not necessarily all that lower what the DDR4 would have cost me now) - and I can now just plop in a new-gen GPU while quite sure that the GPU won't get bottle-necked by anything. And as I went AMD CPU this time, I should be able to also upgrade the CPU reportedly even in 2 years without spending on a new MB.



    Overclocked DDR4 often requires 1.45V to 1.6V. And when such overclocked DDR5 requires 1.45V (default 1.1V), that is an improvement in terms of efficiency.

    From your comment I take it that you are not a fan of non-ECC RAM. Myself, I picked non-ECC on purpose. ECC is great for servers, but it adds a bit of latency, which I didn't want.

    Sure is quite pricey though. And DDR5 seems to be generally taller than DDR4, which may not fit well with every older CPU air cooler in terms of physical space (if one has an older air cooler, which can handle current gen CPU wattage).

    Yeah, i'm not a fan of non-ECC RAM.
    The truth is that non buffered ecc don't add latency.
    My last two kits have been ecc, which I overclock. They market it towards the server/workstation users and only provide official jedec speeds. It would be nice to see enthusiast oriented unbuffered ecc for everyone.
    Essentially 1 more dram chip on the dimm is the only difference. The motherboard has the traces and the memory controller handles it seemlessly without extra latency.
    Reply