DDR5 has come a long way in just over a year since its launch. It is now widely available, has come down in price, and has eliminated his early BIOS issues. And then there’s speed.12th generation (opens in new tab) When Alder Lake CPUs Launched, DDR5-6400 Was The Max Speed You Could Get, But Forget It: DDR5-8000 Kit (opens in new tab) It’s on the market. Not a bad improvement in just over a year!
I have a Trident Z5 RGB DDR5-7200 kit from G.Skill for review. It’s still very fast, but not fast enough to cause problems with all but the highest spec overclocking boards. Still, it’s worth checking the QVL list to make sure your board can handle the XMP settings. As for AMD, EXPO kits around the DDR5-6000 mark should be considered for maximum compatibility.
Ultimately, this kit can be considered 2nd generation DDR5. It comes with a Hynix A-die chip and seems to be used in all of the highest spec modules available today. These run at higher frequencies than the Hynix M dies found in most of the first wave DDR5-6000+ kits.
Memory at this speed is expected to cost a bundle, and while the price of $299 / £319 / AU$519 is certainly high, it’s really not that bad of a price. And with the 6000MHz kit priced at around $150 and the 6400MHz kit starting at $190, the price G.Skill is asking for the 7200MHz is not unreasonable. In fact, it’s a real bargain compared to the cost of premium DDR5 a year ago. (opens in new tab)prices of $500/£500/AU$1,000 and above were common.
The G.Skill Trident Z5 DDR5-7200 kit has timings of 34-45-45-115. It’s good that the CAS latencies are kept relatively low as the speed increases, but the secondary timings are certainly much higher than those seen on slower kits. The best of his DDR4 kits are still perfectly viable, but early complaints about the higher latency of DDR5 compared to DDR4 are quickly becoming moot.
Trident Z5 specs
Model name: G.Skill F5-7200J3445G16GX2-TZ5RK
Memory type: Unbuffered DDR5
capacity: 32GB (2x 16GB)
Rated speed: 7200MHz
Rated Latency: 34-45-45-115
Voltage tested: 1.40v
guarantee: limited lifespan
XMP: Supports Intel XMP 3.0
price: $299 | £319 | $519 AUD
The kit supports XMP 3.0 and comes in 2x16GB capacities with an operating voltage of 1.40V. The review sample is black, but silver is also available. Honestly, the black version blends in with a wider range of builds.
G.Skill hasn’t changed the look of the Trident Z5 kit, so why? It looks great and its RGB implementation looks nice. It features a more opaque look than many kits, giving it a classy and understated look. Personally, I like it better than individual LEDs that are bright and hurt the retina.
RGB lighting can be controlled via popular motherboard vendor apps or G.Skill’s own simply named lighting control app. It’s a simple and lightweight app, weighing only 5.7 MB. No unnecessary bloatware. Well done G.Skill.
So how does it work? Is it worth paying for a top-spec memory kit? This is a perennial question for PC gamers, and it’s especially interesting given the dramatic increase in gaming performance offered by cards like the Nvidia RTX 4090. am. (opens in new tab).
Starting with a look at the system benchmarks, we can see that traditionally memory sensitive apps perform well, especially the file compression and video encoding tests. However, the AIDA64 results are purely synthetic and are more about comparative testing than actual real-world performance.
test equipment
CPU: Intel Core i9 13900K
Motherboard: Gigabyte Z790 Aorus Master
GPUs: Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090 Founders Edition
cooler: Cooler Master PL360 Flux
SSDs: Seagate FireCuda 530 2TB
Power supply unit: Corsair AX1000
Gaming is an intriguing place, and given the performance leap offered by the RTX 4090, this is an area I was personally very much interested in.
Traditionally CPU-limited games like Far Cry 6 saw benefits, but the bigger surprise was Cyberpunk 2077, known for being extremely GPU-intensive. It was effective. Average FPS scales well at higher memory speeds. Metro Exodus is another example of a GPU-intensive game that scales using memory, albeit to a lesser degree.
But not all games benefit. Both Total War: Warhammer III and Ghost Recon: Breakpoint show no substantial gains even compared to DDR5-4800.
In summary, the status quo hasn’t really changed. Buying top-of-the-line DDR5 only makes sense when matched by a similarly high-spec system. Think Core i9 13900K (opens in new tab) and RTX 4080 (opens in new tab) that’s all. Otherwise, it’s better to spend the extra money on a faster CPU or GPU that delivers more tangible performance gains.
Overclocking turned out to be difficult, but that’s not the fault of the memory itself.DDR5-7600 was bootable at 1.45v with the Z790 Aorus master, but increasing the memory voltage didn’t help, just the IMC voltage. was helpful. If you’re lucky, you can even use memory controllers above 8000MHz. If you don’t mind pushing it and adjusting the timings on an overclocking focused motherboard. Make sure he has a Z790 motherboard with a 13th generation processor. Otherwise this kind of kit would be a waste.
Relying on XMP above 7000MHz is highly discouraged in case your motherboard struggles or tries to apply abnormal voltages. Tuning yourself is definitely the way to go.
It’s actually a very good value for money when compared to the cost of other components in high-end gaming systems.
When it comes to fast memory, G.Skill rarely disappoints. If you need fast memory, G.Skill is usually at the top of your list. The Trident Z5 RGB DDR5-7200 kit is highly desirable, but as is often the case with fast memory, it’s not for everyone.
It is a kit for those who have a high-end system. However, the $299 / £319 / AU$519 price tag is actually quite a bargain when compared to the cost of other components in a high-end gaming system. In that case, it can’t be helped. But if your system is a bit more mundane and you’re just looking for a simple set he forgets the XMP setup then something in the DDR5-6000 range is much better both in terms of price and performance Appropriate.
But apart from that, I love fast memory kits. It’s actually available for purchase, delivers performance gains in some gaming situations, is a great tweaking kit, looks great, and doesn’t come at an exorbitant premium. You can also
If you have a comparable high-end system to match a kit of this caliber, give it a try.
