G.Skill Fires Back At DDR5 Expo ULL Memory Price Gap Criticism

Memory maker G.Skill caught some heat after its new memory kits supporting AMD's EXPO Ultra Low Latency (ULL) profiles debuted at eye-watering prices as high as $1,099.99 for 32GB (2x16GB) of DDR5-6000 RAM. Even though memory is expensive these days, paying over a grand for just 32GB is a surefire way to induce sticker shock. According to G.Skill, however, it's not a greedy markup but a reflection of the crazy market conditions.

Let's backtrack a moment. At Computex just a few weeks ago, AMD introduced EXPO ULL, which builds on its EXPO technology. Like Intel's Extreme Memory Profile (XMP) technology, EXPO enables automatic memory overclocks so users do not need to play around with settings or become overwhelmed with fine-tuning various memory options in the BIOS. The key is to invest in a good motherboard that plays nice with EXPO ULL settings, and board makers are busy updating firmware to support the new profiles.

EXPO ULL is described by AMD as the "next level" of EXPO with more aggressive latency settings. According to AMD, EXPO ULL memory kits deliver 13% better frame rates compared to standard JEDEC memory, and 4% better frame rates versus original EXPO memory settings.

AMD's claim is based on testing more than 30 games in a system with a Ryzen 7 9700X installed. Beyond the average results, AMD further states users can expect 15% higher frame rates during the 1% lows compared to standard JEDEC memory, and the same 4% uptick versus regular EXPO RAM.

That's all fine and good, but the messaging from AMD's David McAfee during Computex was that EXPO ULL memory would cost around the same as standard EXPO kits. Hence, the sticker shock when some of the first EXPO ULL kits by G.Skill showed up at retail. So, what's going on?

"Previously, David McAfee from AMD mentioned that the new AMD EXPO Ultra Low Latency kits would be introduced at a similar price point to standard AMD EXPO memory kits. Currently, we have maintained pricing for our AMD EXPO ULL memory kits in line with our non-ULL products. However, due to the recent increase in DRAM IC prices, along with retailers still selling inventory purchased before these cost increases, a pricing gap has emerged in the market. This is the reason for the difference highlighted in recent media articles," G.Skill told WCCFTech.

In other words, there is a pricing gap as G.Skill acknowledges, but it's due to new retailer inventory purchased at new prices competing against old or existing inventory purchased at a lower markup than what currently exists in the supply chain. For added context, we asked G.Skill a long time ago why it does not post MSRPs for its memory kits and were told it's because the memory market fluctuates too much. This was long before the current AI-driven memory crunch.

In any event, while not outright stated, the insinuation is that we should see pricing parity between EXPO and EXPO ULL memory kits over time, just not right away. If so, we can expect DDR5 memory pricing in general to get even more out of control than it already is.