G.Skill Achieves DDR5-10000 on Air Cooling

By Mark Tyson
published

Air cooled overclock achieved using a single module

G.SKill Trident Z5 memory overclocking
(Image credit: G.Skill)

G.Skill says it has touched a milestone: DDR5-10000 on air cooling. This satisfyingly round-numbered feat was achieved using a single air-cooled Trident Z5 memory module and some hardware and technical help from Asus. 

(In other news, G.Skill today announced a high-frequency Trident Z5 DDR5-8000 32GB (16GB x 2) CL40 memory kit validated for use with Intel's Core i9-13900K processor and Asus' ROG Maximus Z790 Apex Motherboard (BIOS 0702).)

The headlining DDR5-10000 achievement by G.Skill was achieved using only air cooling used for both the system processor and RAM. While numerically impressive, the overclocked DDR5 won't be part of any practical PC build, as it needed to run with a single memory module for the system to be stable enough to validate the performance using CPU-Z.

(Image credit: G.Skill)

Above you can see a screenshot of the DDR5-10000 achievement, with CPU-Z displaying the double data rate DRAM clock at 5,000 MHz. This confirms that G.Skill used one of its DDR5-8000 modules using SK Hynix ICs, which was then overclocked to DDR5-10000. You can check more details via the official CPU-Z validation link.

G.Skill also showcased DDR5-8000 CL40 32GB (2x16GB) and DDR5-7800 CL38 32GB (2x16GB) memory kits validated on an Intel Core i9-13900K processor and Asus ROG Maximus Z790 Apex motherboard (BIOS 0702) platform. This is the same platform used for G.Skill's DDR5-10000 feat, but here the air-cooled memory kits use a matched pair of RAM modules.

G.SKill Trident Z5 memory overclocking

(Image credit: G.Skill)

According to G.Skill’s testing in AIDA64, the DDR5-8000 kit has a memory bandwidth read speed of over 124 GB/s and a write speed of over 120 GB/s.

It's interesting to see these (claimed) DDR5 speeds ratcheting up as overclocking experts grow comfortable with Intel's new generation of processors. Less than two weeks ago, G.Skill was teasing work on the Trident Z5 DDR5-8000 memory kit, and now it's being overshadowed by a 20% faster air cooled achievement. 

An observer might expect other memory makers to respond quickly, but none of the G.Skill Trident Z5 modules and kits mentioned are on the market yet. G.Skill has yet to provide info about shipping times or pricing, so these blistering speeds are just headline eye-candy for the moment. The fastest Trident Z5 kits currently available (opens in new tab) peak at DDR5-7600 CL36.

Mark Tyson
Mark Tyson
Freelance News Writer

Mark Tyson is a Freelance News Writer at Tom's Hardware US. He enjoys covering the full breadth of PC tech; from business and semiconductor design to products approaching the edge of reason.

Topics
Memory
3 Comments Comment from the forums
  • ezst036
    I love how these guys scour dozens of chips for special binned units, work with the manufacturer using a particular bios and board and whatever else assist they received.......

    Cause I can do all of that this weekend.
    Reply
  • DavidLejdar
    That's nice. Now if I could just get another RAM of theirs to work with AMD Expo...

    Running F5-6000J3636F16GX2-FX5 on a X670E PG Lightning, it works fine with stock setting - and Windows (11) memory check tool didn't report any problem. But after turning on AMD Expo and rebooting, I got issues such as the first tab in browser crashing after I opened a second tab, and that followed shortly after with a blue screen saying: "Memory management".

    I didn't run the full gauntlet of (blue screen) troubleshooting yet, for which I set aside some time tomorrow, in the hope that it may be possible to fix software-wise. But as is, not much use to high numbers, when they come with system instability, is there?
    Reply
  • thestryker
    Memory overclocking is always a tricky thing as there are so many different things at play though I'd imagine most AMD chips should be perfectly stable at 6000. It's entirely possible that manually tuning the memory is what would be needed. If Expo timings are anything like many if the XMP timings they're poorly done in the first place. I'd suggest checking to see if any of the videos Buildzoid has done go over the basics for overclocking memory on AM5 (https://www.youtube.com/actuallyhardcoreoverclocking)
    Reply