Galax HOF Teases Overclockable DDR5 Modules: Onboard VRM and PMICs?
With Micron's DDR5 memory chips.
As DDR5 memory and supported platforms are approaching their launch, more makers of sophisticated DRAM modules are teasing their upcoming DDR5 products. Galax did exactly this today.
"DDR5 memory module is coming soon," a statement over Galax OC Lab on Facebook reads.
The post also shows a palette of Micron's DRAM chips marked as ICA45 D8BNJ R6KB, which are not currently listed at the company's website, but which we understand are the devices that Galax OC Lab is playing with at the moment.
Galax OC Lab is known for its rather exotic Hall of Fame (HOF) components, with overengineered PCBs and cooling systems that are designed to enable great out-of-box performance along with some extra overclocking potential. With DDR5, Galax HOF engineers are going to have a lot of things to play with.
As we noted in our coverage of Team Group's upcoming DDR5 modules for overclockers, one of the innovative features of DDR5 DIMMs is that they can be equipped with their own voltage regulating modules (VRMs) and power management ICs (PMICs) to lower voltage fluctuation ranges, decrease power consumption, potentially increase DRAM yields, and boost performance.
Memory modules with onboard VRMs and PMICs will be particularly important for servers that use up to 4TB of memory per socket (and with DDR5 this number might grow to 32TB in the coming years), where power consumption of the DRAM can surpass that of processors.
Meanwhile, makers of memory modules for client PCs can also take advantage of this capability and equip their DIMMs with sophisticated VRMs and PMICs to amplify performance, differentiate from rivals, and maximize overclocking potential.
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Right now, makers of memory modules for enthusiasts are improving performance by improving PCB design, cherry-picking DRAM (after sourcing the 'right' devices from IC vendors), playing with voltages, and tweaking timers. With DDR5, the game will get a bit tougher and easier at the same time as companies will be able to choose and tweak VRMs and PMICs.
That said, so far neither Galax nor Team Group confirmed that they will use onboard VRMs and PMICs for their first overclockable DDR5 modules. Still, we do know that the specification supports this capability.
Intel's Alder Lake-S, expected at some point later this year, promises to be the industry's first desktop platform to support DDR5 memory.
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.