Why You Shouldn't Pay Too Much for DDR5 - 7000MHz 1T Daily Stable on EVGA Z690 DARK KINGPIN

As I was binning my Corsair Vengeance 6200 CL36 Hynix based sticks from daily overclocking perspective, I actually came to a conclusion that the memory kit itself doesn't matter overly much after a point. At this early stage of DDR5's lifespan the CPUs' IMC and motherboard itself actually matter more than the kit itself on how high memory frequency can you actually reach.
First of all, as mentioned thoroughly by Buildzoid, you can't go even close to 6933 or 7000+ frequencies with 4 DIMM slot motherboards. That is why most of the DDR5 motherboards should have 2 slots only as a standard or 1 slot per channel. With 4 slot motherboards you are heavily limited on frequency, and you can actually be better off with Samsung based kit than Hynix, as Samsung can do some of the timings at tighter values than Hynix.
Secondly, the IMC quality difference is massive. Like I already tested on my G7400s and Core i3 12300, those locked CPUs are so limited by IMC to lower frequencies of like 6200-6400. Generally the better models like 12900K/KF/KS can do even close to 7000 and beyond fully stable. I used the very same DDR5 kits to test both the G7400 and 12900K IMC as the difference is massive.
This CPU has an IMC limit at around 7000 in HCI memtest. 6933 to 6980 is rock solid, and 7000 is on the edge. Surely, DDR5-7000 with CL31-39-39-32 and Command Rate 1T is still awesome at 7000 MT/s, but still you can reach this level even on a more affordable averagely binned kits and not only on the most expensive kits. All of my current Hynix based DDR5 kits hit around the same end frequency in HCI memtest including Corsair Vengeance 6000 CL36 and 6200 CL36, Trident Z5 6400 CL32 and Ripjaws S5 6000 CL40.
Surely, the situation can change with the upcoming Z790 and X670 platforms as memory frequencies are expected to go even higher with better motherboards and IMCs, at the present moment with Z690 you can find very top tier performance even among more affordable kits.
For example a relatively affordable G.Skill Ripjaws S5 6000 can be found for even under 300€ like 250-300 and even cheaper alternatives if you can confirm that they are Hynix, whereas G.Skill Trident Z5 6600 CL34 is around 450€ and end result can be roughly the same.
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#DDR5 #RAM #motherboard

[@HeirTrap]

big fan of you Luumi! Your passion for our hobby and your results are remarkable!

[@dinudaniel1568]

Great job man!! Buyers need people like you to make an opinion for what to buy!!

[@LuumiJuhani]

Thanks for the kind comment. Hopefully you will subscribe :D .

[@dinudaniel1568]

@@LuumiJuhani i am!!

[@J.king87]

Hi men could you advise me maybe ? I wanna overclock my setup I have the skill 7600 ram kitt And 13900k What board would you go for ? Unify x or z790 apex ? ( for best gaming performance ) Thanks in advance !

[@sneedsneed460]

Luumi have you tried the Bitspower ddr5 waterblock kit? I put it on my dimms and it's working great, I was able to tighten a lot of timings more than even with a fan at full blast on my dimms. Much better results in my experience than watercooling ddr4

[@LuumiJuhani]

No, but could be good.

[@el_manosanta]

The best!

[@ParmesanChase]

I have gskill 32g 6000mhz. Was wondering if I should go higher or stay

[@AlexanderDinebier]

Got myself 128GB G.Skill Trident Z5 DDR5 6400 CL32. They contain Hynix A die of course. Still need a motherboard, but i'm really curious what kind of frequency and latency can be done with that direct die cooled, extremely overclocked 13900KS. I heard the KS CPUs do have better IMCs than the basic K version. At least they should be binned somewhat. Does anyone know when the EVGA Z790 classified will finally be available in europe?

[@user-ce2ug8qy1t]

Hey I’m new to ram overclocking. I have Corsair DOMINATOR PLATINUM DDR5 32GB (2x16) 5600MHz C36. I’d have to look up the rest of the stock timings but do you recommend any settings so I can overlock them to 6000Mhz? I also have an i5-12600KF and a Msi Z690 tomahawk motherboard.

[@Multimeter1]

If Samsung it’s not gunna happen

[@maxpower5481]

Dear Luumi , what boards would you advise for z690 to overclock memory?

[@Multimeter1]

Go for z790 or dark. More layers can help. 10 layers + is a good start

[@TechTusiast]

So how do I recognize which memory kits use these Hynix chips when PC stores don't usually tell it, nor memory brands like G.Skill, Kingston aso? Also which Hynix are you referring to if there are many? (Like Samsung had B-die but others too)

[@GeneralSouthParkFan]

With DDR5 it's easier to tell what it isn't than what it is at lower XMP/EXPO speeds. 4800-5400 can possibly be Micron (absolute garbage), 5600-6000 is possibly Samsung, & anything above that is 100% Hynix. 6000c40/6000c36 can be either Samsung or Hynix, but in the case of Kingston Fury Beast 6000c40 kits, they are way more often than not Hynix, making Kingston kits usually the preferred option for value overclocking on DDR5.

[@TechTusiast]

@@GeneralSouthParkFan So for instance 5600 cl28 or 30, or 6000 c30 and above, considering low latency (for DDR5), would be hynix?

[@GeneralSouthParkFan]

​@@TechTusiast 6000 CL30 is 100% Hynix & the same reasonably applies for 5600 CL28 (which appears as much given the former & latter are priced according to typical Hynix DIMMs).

[@TechTusiast]

@@GeneralSouthParkFan Ok. Thanks!

[@Adem.940]

what cpu cooler is that?

[@oganesd]

does EVGA DARK have same issue like Apex690? i'm talking about DDR5 max clocks, some Apex can do 7200+ easily, some can't even 6800

[@LuumiJuhani]

I havent tested enough boards, but i have seen the massive quality difference on Apex and Tachyon. On Apex the question is about 2021 and 2022 dated boards. The old ones aren't good.

[@Multimeter1]

What was your system agent voltage or IO voltage or memory controller voltage for the CPU?

[@dainluke]

I know I'm not Luumi, but to run 7000 on the Dark KP you need between 1.35-1.4 TX VDDQ and anywhere between 0.95-1.25 SA depending on the chip. My chip seems to handle 1.25 well. VDDQ is left on Auto for th Dark KP because it matches memory drain voltage, and it somehow works perfectly this way on this particular board as well as on Aorus boards.

[@Multimeter1]

Are you on MDIE Hynix? Also what ram manufacture?

[@Shaxuul]

*Wow!*

[@ParmesanChase]

Just got my z690 kingpin my 12900KS and my kingpin 3090ti. I’m gonna need to much help getting it all tuned in. I’m wanting to get it pushed as far as it can possibly go on water for daily gaming.

[@hasancan]

EVGA Z690 Dark K|NGP|N is good for daily ?

[@ParmesanChase]

@@hasancan it’s Ming blowing.

[@hasancan]

@@ParmesanChase which case are you using for it ?

[@rulik006]

Bought Hynix M-die 2x16 160$, easy oc 6400c32 with tight subs, 1.39v on 4dimm MSI No sense to buy fancy kits, except corsair dominator platinum. Also, Hynix A-die Jedec 5600 HMCG78AGBUA081N appeared this week, 7200-8000 easy OC

[@guily6669]

I don't know how it is on this gen, but a few years ago two same exact kits could be a world apart from each other because sadly they used mixed components and we only knew what we had after bringing home and testing which sucks.

[@waatup]

Nice! Where did you find out about this new Hynix A-die?

[@patent5421]

I can only do 6000Mhz stable on my Z690 Aorus Master :( The timings are also much looser than what buildzoid was showing in his videos of Hynix overclocking. I have 6200Mhz cl36-39-39 Corsair Dominator kit on Hynix and 12900K

[@LuumiJuhani]

We have seen massive difference between motherboards too. Like you can buy 2 Gigabyte Tachyons, first one maxes at 6600 and second one does 7200... This is the issue of early stage in the lifespan of ddr5.

[@oganesd]

@@LuumiJuhani APEX Z690 have same issue

[@ramair325]

gigabyte has different modes for memory overclocking its kinda dumb and probably even broken per gigabyte but i would get the latest bios and dig deep for this setting they really like to hide it well. and then give higher frequency a try again.

[@patent5421]

@@LuumiJuhani seems like new bios helped a little. I can basically set the timings as low as Buildzoid did on his Hynix sticks and CR1 works but I still can't get 6200Mhz stable. It's "almost" stable because there are only some single errors after running TM5 for 30 minutes+. Unfortunately I don't have any more space for the voltages because they're pretty high currently. Maybe next bios will finally help. DDR5 isn't fun to play with it, atleast on 4slots motherboards. It's very tedious to overclock. Overclocking Patriot Viper Steels 4400Mhz kit on 10900K was much more fun and I could actualy get there two sticks to run 4266-16-16-16 with no issues.

[@j.d.3269]

Any voltage higher than standard causes extra stress hence shortens its lifespan.

[@j.d.3269]

@Od1sseas Does "safe" also mean longer life?

[@markissboi3583]

yep another life changing PC tech video these save lives and cats from jumping off the high rise balcony's wearing a backpack full of lead bricks xd kids will saying for years this video saved my life and made me get a real Job & a haircut while pulling up there socks ha! .

[@markissboi3583]

Clean your PC dude i was reaching for the tooth brush & WD40

[@guily6669]

And I was thinking you shouldn't overpay too much for DDR5 now because some day they will probably be on the 10000mhz 😎😁.

[@oganesd]

not sure about 10000mhz, 8000-8888 looks more realistic

[@steezegod2768]

@@oganesd 8400CL28 Tight timings 64GB (Or Better) is the dream for your avg OC Gamer.

[@Multimeter1]

I can see 9000 being the new DDR4 4400 MHz. 10,000 for hard core over clockers in 2 gens and 2 dimm motherboards

[@guily6669]

@@Multimeter1 there are DDR4 5000+MHz kits of like CL20 and whatever from factory tested but they are crazy expensive and off course it all depends on the rest of the PC to handle such high DDR4 frequency... I'm thinking if DDR5 ever achieves 10K MHz will probably be a similar story a very end of the line super expensive kit for just the latest best hardware at that time...

[@ramair325]

DDR5 is simply not as good as DDR4 for gaming right now. in a few more years i'm sure it will be much better. but you are absolutely right high end kits are a waste of money right now. One would argue using DDR5 is also a huge waste right now :D I would like to try out the new AM5 boards but i'm not hyped about DDR5 for them at all. since we know latency matters for chiplet cpu even more than it does on monolithic dies. oh well maybe we will just have to wait for the x3d zen 4 chips :)

[@Boogeymanjw]

WRONG

[@ramair325]

@@Boogeymanjw LOL keep telling your self that bud. tests have been done, bandwidth is not an issue for games today.

[@suthtokcraew1227]

if money isn't not a issue. u mean ddr4 better than ddr5?

[@ramair325]

@@suthtokcraew1227 does not matter what the cost is. total latency is king. so why spend more for ddr5 if its actually slower where it matters. ie your lowest fps will be worse on ddr5. and ddr5 cost more. worse yet for ddr5 its highs are not much better if not worse in many cases. Better ddr5 will come out its just not here today.

[@GeneralSouthParkFan]

Sounds like skill issue tbh kzbin.info/www/bejne/i3e0nKKfmpKZhqc