G.Skill shows DDR5-8000 kit running on an Intel Core i9 13900K
It's also announced Trident Z5 DDR5-7800 kits are on the way.
Keep up to date with the most important stories and the best deals, as picked by the PC Gamer team.
You are now subscribed
Your newsletter sign-up was successful
Want to add more newsletters?
Every Friday
GamesRadar+
Your weekly update on everything you could ever want to know about the games you already love, games we know you're going to love in the near future, and tales from the communities that surround them.
Every Thursday
GTA 6 O'clock
Our special GTA 6 newsletter, with breaking news, insider info, and rumor analysis from the award-winning GTA 6 O'clock experts.
Every Friday
Knowledge
From the creators of Edge: A weekly videogame industry newsletter with analysis from expert writers, guidance from professionals, and insight into what's on the horizon.
Every Thursday
The Setup
Hardware nerds unite, sign up to our free tech newsletter for a weekly digest of the hottest new tech, the latest gadgets on the test bench, and much more.
Every Wednesday
Switch 2 Spotlight
Sign up to our new Switch 2 newsletter, where we bring you the latest talking points on Nintendo's new console each week, bring you up to date on the news, and recommend what games to play.
Every Saturday
The Watchlist
Subscribe for a weekly digest of the movie and TV news that matters, direct to your inbox. From first-look trailers, interviews, reviews and explainers, we've got you covered.
Once a month
SFX
Get sneak previews, exclusive competitions and details of special events each month!
DDR5 isn't hanging about. The memory standard may still be viewed as being new for the vast majority of us since its introduction to the PC market last year, but it's gaining speed quickly. And I mean that literally. The latest memory kits and specifications announced by G.Skill show DDR5-7800, DDR-7600, and DDR5-7400 kits are on the way.
The performance memory company also published a screenshot showing its Trident Z5 RAM clocked at a whopping 4,000MHz for an effective DDR5-8000 rating. The shot shows the memory running on an Asus ROG Maximus Z790 Apex motherboard with an Intel Core i9 13900K in the driving seat. The 2x 16GB kit has 38-48-48-125 timings, which is surprisingly speedy. You're looking at real-world latencies of 9.5ns, which is impressive given the frequency.
Incredible stuff when you consider that the memory standard launched just last year at what can now only be considered utterly pedestrian DDR-4800 speeds. While some of these new kits from G.Skill may take a while to come to market, there are plenty of DDR5 sticks out there that are close to or exceeding 6,000MT/s. And while you will pay a premium over slower kits, the push to go faster is clearly a driving force.
One of the reasons for this renewed push for DDR5 is because Intel's new Raptor Lake and AMD's Zen 4 processors support the standard, while at release only Intel's Alder Lake did. It's worth noting that Alder Lake and Raptor Lake support DDR5 as well as the more-affordable DDR4, while AMD's Ryzen 7000 chips only support DDR5.
Best DDR5 RAM: the latest and greatest
Best DDR4 RAM: affordable and fast
The good news for anyone looking to buy either of these new platforms is that pricing for DDR5 has continued to fall since launch and the initial scarcity over the last holiday period. While you're still paying more for DDR5 than for DDR4 there are at least now plenty of 16GB kits available for less than $100, such as this Kingston Fury Beast kit on Newegg for $93.
Admittedly you won't be looking at the sort of speeds that G.Skill has just announced at these sorts of prices, but as the market gets more competitive you can expect prices to drop further and for speeds to keep increasing.
Keep up to date with the most important stories and the best deals, as picked by the PC Gamer team.
Alan has been writing about PC tech since before 3D graphics cards existed, and still vividly recalls having to fight with MS-DOS just to get games to load. He fondly remembers the killer combo of a Matrox Millenium and 3dfx Voodoo, and seeing Lara Croft in 3D for the first time. He's very glad hardware has advanced as much as it has though, and is particularly happy when putting the latest M.2 NVMe SSDs, AMD processors, and laptops through their paces. He has a long-lasting Magic: The Gathering obsession but limits this to MTG Arena these days.


