Gigabyte has achieved a new DDR5 memory world record using its enthusiast Z890 Aorus Tachyon motherboard which features a rotated CPU socket and improved memory traces. Though not far ahead of the previous holder, it is nevertheless a new record.
Armed with a Gigabyte Z890 Aorus Tachyon Ice motherboard and V-Color’s Manta Xfinity RGB memory, overclocker Hicookie managed to hit speeds of 6,375.8MHz or 12,752MT/s. This netted him the first spot on the global DDR5 frequency leaderboard, just ahead of Splave at 12,735MT/s.
Note that the overclocker used a single 24GB module, likely to improve stability and avoid introducing limitations from a potentially weakesr module in the chain, with timings thrown out the window – sitting at 68-127-127-127-2. Additionally, Hicookie greatly limited their Core Ultra 9 285K to just 2 threads at 420MHz, again to avoid bothering the integrated memory controller.
As you can guess, such an achievement required extreme cooling using liquid nitrogen in order to keep heat under control and avoid frying the chips. Nothing unusual for this discipline since all previous records had to rely on some sort of advanced procedure.
This goes to show how DDR5 has come over time from its 4,800MT/s base. That said, it also seems that we have largely reached what current DDR5 chips can muster even under LN2. The closer we approach the 13,000MT/s mark the smaller each record step gets. In this instance, Hicookie beat its predecessor by a mere 17MT/s. Arguably margin-of-error type of separation, which minor differences like power stability to module connection can influence.
Outside of the extreme overclocking space, enthusiast Intel users target the 8,400MT/s mark, either by buying kits that officially support that speed or by manually tuning a slower kit. AMD users on the other hand aim for 6,000MT/s to 6,400MT/s depending on their silicon lottery, but recent motherboard updates have opened the way for faster DDR5 modules’ support.
A nice achievement regardless of its day-to-day usefulness. Who knows, we may soon see kits that offer these speeds on air cooling. We surely won’t mind.
