DDR5-7000 memory modules are coming, at a hefty price

nanoguy

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In context: Early adopters of Intel’s LGA 1700 platform will have to choose between DDR5 or DDR4 memory when buying a motherboard, as the company’s Alder Lake CPUs will only work with one type of memory at any given time. The good news is that enthusiast-grade DDR5-7000 modules are coming, but don’t expect them to be cheap.

Now that Intel’s unlocked Alder Lake desktop processors have started shipping, companies will be rushing to offer early adopters the best DDR5 memory that money can buy. This became apparent last week, when Gigabyte published a list of supported DDR5 modules for its Z690 Aorus Tachyon motherboard.

Gigabyte’s list includes everything from modules that work within the standard JEDEC specification and up to DDR5-7000 modules from multiple vendors that will deliver a higher bandwidth at the cost of increased power consumption and heat.

Apparently, you’ll soon be able to purchase 16-gigabyte sticks of CL40 DDR5-7000 memory from companies like Adata and TeamGroup, as well as Gigabyte’s own Aorus sub brand. The 7000 MT/s data transfer rate is afforded by increasing the input voltage to 1.5V from the standard 1.1V spec, but the good news is that you won’t need any exotic cooling to deal with the added heat. Earlier this week, G.Skill revealed it was able to overclock its Trident Z5 DDR5 memory to 3,500 MHz (7,000 MHz effective speed).

All of these high-speed memory modules integrate Samsung’s 14 nm DDR5 chips, possibly a model that is the spiritual successor of the highly sought-after B-die from yesteryear. We have yet to see any official announcements for these DDR5-7000 sticks, but one thing is for sure — they’ll cost you an arm and a leg.

As of writing, even a basic 32-gigabyte DDR5-4800 kit from Crucial or GeIL will set you back anywhere between $211 and $428. PNY’s XLR8 DDR5-4800 kits are expected to hit the shelves later this month with a price tag in the same range, and the company is also readying CL36 Mako RGB DDR5-5600 modules that will be capable of up to 6400 MHz effective speeds.

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I'd hold off as long as possible for speeds and prices to level off if you're a gamer. It's new tech with on-module VRM and a pandemic, so yea... Slow adoption is especially expected.

But man do they already perform great in productivity applications out of the gate. We've never seen this before from new RAM. If you need the perf you'll pay the premium now without complaint.
 
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My DDR4 memory is chugging away, just fine so rather than have to sign up for the Paralympics I'll just keep my arms and legs and trot off into the sunset!
 
I'd hold off as long as possible for speeds and prices to level off if you're a gamer. It's new tech with on-module VRM and a pandemic, so yea... Slow adoption is especially expected.

But man do they already perform great in productivity applications out of the gate. We've never seen this before from new RAM. If you need the perf you'll pay the premium now without complaint.
Anyone building a new Pc right now is utterly insane, with the price of alder lake, DDR5, GPUs.......
 
It seems the best time to upgrade would be next Black Friday at the rumored ending of the chip shortage and AM5 platform. If you have a high end rig from 2 to 3 years old its definitely worth the wait imo. Ddr5 should come down in price as well.
 
I'd hold off as long as possible for speeds and prices to level off if you're a gamer. It's new tech with on-module VRM and a pandemic, so yea... Slow adoption is especially expected.

But man do they already perform great in productivity applications out of the gate. We've never seen this before from new RAM. If you need the perf you'll pay the premium now without complaint.
It's pretty typical compared to DDR3->4. I didn't go back to look at DDR2->3, but the pattern it's good on things that are basically memory bandwidth benchmarks, about the same compared with good stuff from there previous generation, and a little bit behind on other things because it's the ****-tier of the next gen (the timings and clock speed suck on all the modules that are out of stock everywhere).
 
It's pretty typical compared to DDR3->4. I didn't go back to look at DDR2->3, but the pattern it's good on things that are basically memory bandwidth benchmarks, about the same compared with good stuff from there previous generation, and a little bit behind on other things because it's the ****-tier of the next gen (the timings and clock speed suck on all the modules that are out of stock everywhere).
Power Management Integrated Circuits for modules are in short supply and it will take 35 weeks to get more. aka Avoid DDR5 until next year at the earliest.
 
Power Management Integrated Circuits for modules are in short supply and it will take 35 weeks to get more. aka Avoid DDR5 until next year at the earliest.

Some are showing 52 weeks - MC13892CJVK

So a $4.18 cent add-on chip is holding up a billion dollar industry for up to a year.
 
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