Subjectively speaking, G.Skill makes some of the sexiest RAM out there, depending on your taste in modules. If you're unconvinced, I'd like to enter into evidence its latest Trident Z5 CK series memory with sleek and reflective black heatspreaders. Objectively, these new kits are some of the fastest memory on the market, and the only retail kit (that I've found) that's rated for speed of up to DDR5-9600.
We're entering into a new era of DDR5 memory speeds, and it's thanks to the advent Clocked Unbuffered Dual Inline Memory Modules, or
CU-DIMMs, with built-in clock drivers. They look just like regular DDR5 DIMMs and slide into the same slots, but CU-DIMMs have a clock driver (CKD) right on the printed circuit board (PCB) to generate clock signals.
That itty-bitty integrated circuit (IC) is key to improving stability which, in turn, enables higher frequencies that had so far evaded memory makers outside of the realm of extreme overclocking. I suspect we're going to see a lot of DDR5 announcements in short order (
it's already started), but for now, G.Skill is the only company that's released DDR5-9600 memory kits into the retail space.
"Designed for use with the latest Intel Core Ultra 200 K-series desktop processors and Intel Z890 chipset motherboards, the Trident Z5 CK and Trident Z5 CK RGB series comes with mirrored black finish heatspreaders and pushes the boundaries of memory overclock to new heights," G.Skill says.
RGB bling is optional, though for the moment, there's only a $10 difference between the RGB and non-RGB kits that are available—you can find a 48GB (2x48GB) G.Skill Trident Z5 CK DDR5-9600 memory kit for
$389.99 on Newegg, or
$399.99 for the RGB variant. They're not yet available on Amazon or anywhere else that I could find, though several more 48GB (2x24GB) kits are in the pipeline. Here are the ones G.Skill announced...
- DDR5-9600 (46-58-58 timings)
- DDR5-9000 (42-56-56 timings)
- DDR5-8800 (42-55-55 timings)
- DDR5-8400 (42-52-52 timings)
- DDR5-8200 (42-52-52 timings)
- DDR5-8000 (40-48-48 timings)
We used the DDR5-8200 variant in our
Core Ultra 200S Arrow Lake review and I would encourage you to check that out for a brief look at some mild overclocking results (more in-depth overclocking analysis is on our roadmap).
Related, G.Skill says it was able to achieve an overclocked speed of DDR5-1000 on its
Trident Z5 CK DDR5 memory with only air cooling, and on multiple motherboards—specifically, the ASUS ROG Maximus Z890 Apex and ASRock Z890 Taichi OCF. Not too shabby.