G.Skill Trident Z5 RAM Drenched In LN2 Sets DDR5 Overclocking Record At 8,888 MT/s
G.Skill continues to claim overclocking records with its Trident memory products, and that has continued in the emerging DDR5 era. The company's latest bragging right, made possible with the help of ASUS, applies to its Trident Z5 DDR5 memory—it set a world frequency record at DDR5-8888 while nestled in an ASUS ROG Maximus Z690 Apex motherboard.
That's an Intel Alder Lake platform, in case that needs clarifying. For consumers, Alder Lake is the only avenue to DDR5 on the desktop for the time being. That will change when AMD launches its Zen 4 CPUs later this year, but we're not there yet.
The advent of DDR5 memory also provides a clean slate for setting records. By that we mean DDR5 came with the promise of exceptionally high transfer rates, with talk of kits eventually scaling to DDR5-10000 and beyond. We're not quite there yet, as DDR5-4800 as emerged as the de factor standard for the time being.
We'll eventually see faster DDR5 kits become a bit more common (after the DDR5 shortage ends, probably). For now, the professional overclocking scene is where higher transfer rates are more likely to manifest, as is the case here.
"At the dawn of the DDR5 era, G.SKILL and ASUS have been constantly exploring the memory speed limitations of the latest Intel Z690 platform. Surpassing the previous DDR5-8704 world record in November 2021, a new memory frequency world record is achieved at DDR5-8888 under liquid nitrogen extreme cooling. The memory speed has been validated by CPU-Z," G.Skill explains.
Extreme overclocker "lupin_no_musume" achieved the record overclock, which now ranks as the highest ever for DDR5. And of course it took some extreme cooling to push the memory that far—liquid nitrogen (LN2), as shown in the video above.
"We are very excited to collaborate with the ASUS ROG team to break the DDR5 frequency world record at DDR5-8888 with our best-in-class hardware," says Tequila Huang, Corporate Vice President of G.Skill International. "This demonstrates the unparalleled overclocking potential of DDR5, and we will continue to dedicate effort into developing faster DDR5 memory for overclockers and PC enthusiasts."
That said, the timings are not for the faint of heart. They were set at 88-88-88-88-127-2 (tCAS, tRCD, tRP, tRAS, tRC, tCR). Therein lies the trade-off of hitting faster speeds compared to DDR4, though the added bandwidth more than makes up for looser timings in most cases.
