With PCs being ever more capable and expensive, lots of people are using their rigs for more than just gaming. Video editing, offline rendering, and generative AI are great ways to make a little extra on the side and use your computer to its fullest. However, these also need lots of RAM, more than games really do, and to meet that demand, Team Group has just announced two new memory kits—both 256 GB in capacity and rated to 6,000 MT/s.
Fast, bountiful DDR5 memory has never been cheaper than it is right now, outside of sales. For less than $80, anyone can pick up 32 GB of DDR5-6000 that can slot right into an AMD AM5 or Intel 12th Gen (or newer) gaming PC, and have all the RAM they'd need for gaming. Sure, there are some exceptions, such as Flight Simulator 2024, but they're few and far between.
That said, if your PC is used for more than just games and you do a fair bit of content creation, then you'll almost certainly need more RAM than 32 GB. Anything that involves editing videos, 3D animation, locally run AI, or virtual machines will gobble up memory like kids in a candy store.
Normally, going with way more than 32 GB of RAM involves sacrificing speed or timings. That's because the more DRAM modules the memory controllers have to deal with, the more sensitive the signals become to minor blips and whatnot. Load up most AMD or Intel desktop motherboards with RAM, and they'll usually drop the data speeds right down to remain stable.
Team Group reckons it has that problem licked with its new 256 GB DDR5 kits, claiming that they were "[d]eveloped in close collaboration with leading motherboard manufacturers and validated on AMD's latest X870 platform, these kits provide a stable and high-efficiency upgrade solution for users seeking the perfect balance between speed and capacity."
One set is aimed clearly at the gaming crowd, as the T-Force Delta set spots RGB lights and a CAS latency of 32 cycles, whereas the T-Create Expert set is more consumer-oriented with its standard looks and CAS latency of 42 cycles. The former is rated to 6,000 MT/s when using the EXPO profile, and the latter to 5,600 MT/s.
Both are quad DIMM sets, i.e. four memory sticks per kit, and that has me wondering just how likely either set will run at their claimed speeds and timings in most AMD AM5 motherboards (and Intel DDR5 ones, as most of those can enable EXPO).
I recently tested a 128 GB DDR5-6400 dual stick kit from Crucial, but that's purely for Intel Arrow Lake machines, due to being CUDIMMs, and the set has a CAS latency of 52 cycles. If you slap two of those kits into a Core Ultra 200S PC, you probably won't get 6,400 MT/s, as most motherboards will just lower the speed right down to 4,400 MT/s (the lowest possible rating).
Which makes me suspect that Team Group's new RAM kits will only reach their full potential on very specific hardware configurations. In the press announcement, the memory and SSD company shows a Ryzen 7 9800X3D PC with 256 GB in an Asus ROG Strix X870-F Gaming WiFi motherboard, running at 6,000 MT/s and timings of 32-44-44-96.
Oddly, though, the memory's SPD (Serial Presence Detect) chip reports a 6,000 MT/s EXPO profile with 42-46-46-76 timings, so it's unclear just what latencies the product will officially use when it hits retailers' shelves. Team Group says this will happen in early September, and we'll try our best to get a set of T-Force Delta RGB DDR5-6000 CL32 256 GB in for review, to let you know the full score.
Something else that's unknown at this point in time is perhaps the most important detail: the price. If you head over to Newegg and search for 256 GB DDR5 RAM kits, you'll see just two options, and they're both over $750. I suspect Team Group's offerings won't be much cheaper, though the T-Create Expert set might sneak under $700. But just as with graphics cards, if you need all the RAM you can have, you're always going to pay top dollar.
1. Best DDR5 overall:
G.Skill Trident Z5 RGB 32 GB DDR5-7200
2. Best budget DDR5:
Teamgroup T-Force Vulcan DDR5-5200
3. Best high-capacity DDR5:
G.Skill Trident Z5 64 GB DDR5-6400 CL32
4. Best DDR4 overall:
TEAM XTREEM 16 GB DDR4-3600
5. Best budget DDR4:
G.Skill Ripjaws V 16 GB DDR4-3600
6. Best high-capacity DDR4:
Corsair Dominator Platinum RGB 32 GB DDR4-3200
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