G.Skill Readies AMD EXPO Memory that Applies "Zen 4" DDR5-6000 "Sweetspot" Settings

[btarunr]

G.Skill is readying variants of its DDR5 memory series that feature the AMD EXPO technology. A rival to Intel XMP 3.0, EXPO makes it easy to use overclocked memory modules with AMD Ryzen 7000 series platforms, by applying the advertised settings of the memory with one click in the motherboard's UEFI setup program, or Ryzen Master. What sets EXPO apart from XMP 3.0 is that it includes not just the memory frequency and main timings, but also fine-grained settings that are unique to the AMD platform. It's also different from DOCP, which was essentially a motherboard UEFI setup program-based feature that translates XMP settings to AMD-compatible settings on a "nearest neighbor" principle.

We've learned from earlier reports that DDR5-6000 will be the "sweetspot" memory frequency for the Ryzen 7000 "Raphael" processor, much in the same way DDR4-3600 is for the Ryzen 5000 "Vermeer," as this is when you'll be able to run the FClk at its highest possible frequency—3000 MHz in case of Raphael and 1800 MHz in case of Vermeer—without engaging a 1:2 divider between FClk and memory clock. At least one G.Skill SKU featuring EXPO has been confirmed, the Trident Z5 "F5-6000J3038F16G." G.Skill already sells Trident Z5 DDR5-6000 kits in the market, but those only feature XMP 3.0, and run the memory at CL30-40-40-96 instead of CL30-38-38-96 that the EXPO-equipped kit will. This is because the EXPO profile includes all the various AMD-specific sub-timings needed to tighten the tRCD, tRP, and tRAS. Various memory manufacturers are expected to announce AMD EXPO memory kits late-August, alongside Socket AM5 motherboards, and the Ryzen 7000 processors themselves; with market availability expected in mid-September.



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[docnorth]

More RAM variants. Let’s hope it won’t have a negative impact on pricing.

 

[Chaitanya]

More RAM variants. Let’s hope it won’t have a negative impact on pricing.

Lets hope so, right now DDR5 is still 2x the DDR4 (but still it has come down quite dramatically in price) and given its new platform launch worried about scalpers.

 

[btarunr]

More RAM variants. Let’s hope it won’t have a negative impact on pricing.

From what I'm hearing, these EXPO modules include XMP 3.0 profiles. So you'll be able to get "nearest-neighbors" of the advertised settings on an Intel platform. The settings on the tin will only apply exactly on an AMD platform.

 

[thegnome]

From what I'm hearing, these EXPO modules include XMP 3.0 profiles. So you'll be able to get "nearest-neighbors" of the advertised settings on an Intel platform. The settings on the tin will only apply exactly on an AMD platform.

I hope so, I wouldn't want to have to invest more time looking into dram sticks just to get the ones with XMP or EXPO depending on cpu vendor. They should both be on there at once.

 

[Chaitanya]

I hope so, I wouldn't want to have to invest more time looking into dram sticks just to get the ones with XMP or EXPO depending on cpu vendor. They should both be on there at once.

There was a time when only JEDEC timings and speeds were advertised even for high speed memory. Then nVidia tried their hand with SLI ready memory which then evolved into false advertisements called XMP.

 

[TheLostSwede]

From what I'm hearing, these EXPO modules include XMP 3.0 profiles. So you'll be able to get "nearest-neighbors" of the advertised settings on an Intel platform. The settings on the tin will only apply exactly on an AMD platform.

Yeah, there's enough space in the SPD now to hold more profiles than DDR4 could, so it should be a none issue down the road.

 

[zlobby]

CL30? Lolwut?

 

[zo0lykas]

CL30? Lolwut?

Welcome cave man!

 

[PapaTaipei]

Since I wish to switch to AMD I was wondering if AMD had something similar to XMP.

 

[robb]

They said if you go above 6000 that you can't do one to one so how in the hell is 6000 The Sweet spot? If anything that's really the maximum allowed and would make me worry that there might be cases where that could even be an issue. It just seems like if 6000 is really the maximum that 5600 would be more of The Sweet spot technically.

 

[catulitechup]

this smells a some like this:

ddr5 memory companies: please amd help to sell ddr5 because own liar publicity dont work and most people believe ddr5 dont offer
enough features to buy and most people buy ddr4 because stay cheap and normally can buy 32gb of ddr4 as same price than 16gb of ddr5 with crappy latency like 40ns

luck selling this garbage memory, maybe can rethink when stay cheap with frecuencies as 7000 or 7200 mhz minimum like cas latency around 38ns and with 1.35v as max

 

[Niceumemu]

this smells a some like this:

ddr5 memory companies: please amd help to sell ddr5 because own liar publicity dont work and most people believe ddr5 dont offer
enough features to buy and most people buy ddr4 because stay cheap and normally can buy 32gb of ddr4 as same price than 16gb of ddr5 with crappy latency like 40ns

luck selling this garbage memory, maybe can rethink when stay cheap with frecuencies as 7000 or 7200 mhz minimum like cas latency around 38ns and with 1.35v as max

You should go to the hospital because I think you're having a stroke

 

[docnorth]

From what I'm hearing, these EXPO modules include XMP 3.0 profiles. So you'll be able to get "nearest-neighbors" of the advertised settings on an Intel platform. The settings on the tin will only apply exactly on an AMD platform.

@btarunr, you and @TheLostSwede might be right, but then there is no real need to advertise AMD EXPO modules.... Of course that’s not your responsibility or fault, it’s just marketing from G-Skill, later Corsair and so on.

 

[Why_Me]

G.Skill DDR5 doesn't come cheap.

G.SKILL Desktop Memory | Newegg.com

Shop G.SKILL Desktop Memory on Newegg.com. Watch for amazing deals and get great pricing.

www.newegg.com

 

[mechtech]

wow all those tiny little pins in that socket!!

 

[DeathtoGnomes]

yay more BIOS settings!

/s

 

[konga]

DDR5 pricing has been coming down a LOT lately, and you can get low-end and midrange DDR5 now at prices that are competitive with DDR4. The idea that you have to pay 2x as much is outdated, unless you're only going by the really cheap DDR4-3200 kits out there. (and even then, the difference is less than 2x)

Like, here's 32GB of DDR5-5600 WITH a 2TB PCIe 4.0 SSD for $250: https://www.newegg.com/team-32gb/p/N82E16820331847

The cost of buying a separate 2TB SSD and 32GB of DDR4 is about the same or even higher. Prices are getting pretty good now.

 

[HisDivineOrder]

DDR5 pricing has been coming down a LOT lately, and you can get low-end and midrange DDR5 now at prices that are competitive with DDR4. The idea that you have to pay 2x as much is outdated, unless you're only going by the really cheap DDR4-3200 kits out there. (and even then, the difference is less than 2x)

Like, here's 32GB of DDR5-5600 WITH a 2TB PCIe 4.0 SSD for $250: https://www.newegg.com/team-32gb/p/N82E16820331847

The cost of buying a separate 2TB SSD and 32GB of DDR4 is about the same or even higher. Prices are getting pretty good now.

So you're comparing low-end DDR5 to high end DDR4 pricing? DDR5 is still a bad deal meant for people unwilling to wait another generation for the speedier releases that will make it truly worthwhile.

 

[TheLostSwede]

@btarunr, you and @TheLostSwede might be right, but then there is no real need to advertise AMD EXPO modules.... Of course that’s not your responsibility or fault, it’s just marketing from G-Skill, later Corsair and so on.

By your logic, then there's no need to advertise XMP 3.0 modules either.
It's marketing, it's s way to promote your products, so we'll just be seeing more of this kind of stuff.

So you're comparing low-end DDR5 to high end DDR4 pricing? DDR5 is still a bad deal meant for people unwilling to wait another generation for the speedier releases that will make it truly worthwhile.

High-end DDR5 is only around 25% more than high-end DDR4 here. High-end DDR4 is comparatively expensive here though.

 

[AnarchoPrimitiv]

More RAM variants. Let’s hope it won’t have a negative impact on pricing.

The fact that AMD is going with ONLY DDR5 for AM5 should drive prices down and result in increased production in a way that Intel's Alder lake platform couldn't since it allowed a choice between DDR4 and DDR5, plus I have a feeling that AM5 adoption will occur at a faster rate than alderlake did.

G.Skill DDR5 doesn't come cheap.

G.SKILL Desktop Memory | Newegg.com

Shop G.SKILL Desktop Memory on Newegg.com. Watch for amazing deals and get great pricing.

www.newegg.com

With the release of AM5 it will become much cheaper. AM5 should hypothetically at least double the demand for DDR5 and therefore be the impetus behind a related increase in production.

 

[konga]

So you're comparing low-end DDR5 to high end DDR4 pricing? DDR5 is still a bad deal meant for people unwilling to wait another generation for the speedier releases that will make it truly worthwhile.

DDR5-5600 is low-end? DDR4-3600 is high-end? I disagree with both. But even if you just look at things from a price to performance standpoint, the current price of DDR5-5600 is a lot better than it used to be, and a well-tuned kit will perform better than your standard DDR4-3600 CL16. And my point isn't that it's amazing right now, but that it's gotten a lot better and will continue to get better because the price is still falling. There is nothing bad about getting 32GB of RAM and a 2TB SSD for $250 lol.

 

[AnarchoPrimitiv]

More RAM variants. Let’s hope it won’t have a negative impact on pricing.

I don't forsee this having any impact on pricing, though the release of AM5 will will undoubtedly have a positive impact on pricing. I would imagine that the largest share of cost in producing RAM sticks are the chips themselves (and perhaps the labor by companies like G. Skill for testing/binning, etc), so having some more SKUs with EXPO compatibility/Orientation shouldn't have any noticeable effect on pricing. In the end (after any initial demand spikes caused in the immediate wake of the Ryzen 7000 release and any resultant price gouging by scalpers and "opportunistic" vendors), the sizeable increase in demand caused by the release of the AM5 platform should result in an equally sizeable increase in production by memory fabs and therefore the release of Ryzen 7000 should result in the largest price decrease of DDR5 since it was introduced to the market.

 

[docnorth]

By your logic, then there's no need to advertise XMP 3.0 modules either.
It's marketing, it's s way to promote your products, so we'll just be seeing more of this kind of stuff.

They could just advertise XMP 3.0 and AMD EXPO capable and that's it. Besides that, AMD specific modules might be bad marketing, it's not long ago when many users had proplems with RAM not specifically optimized for AMD CPUs... RAM is like storage, it should be able to perform optimal with every platform (taking of course into account the platform's capabilities).

The fact that AMD is going with ONLY DDR5 for AM5 should drive prices down and result in increased production in a way that Intel's Alder lake platform couldn't since it allowed a choice between DDR4 and DDR5, plus I have a feeling that AM5 adoption will occur at a faster rate than alderlake did.

That sounds logical and most of us think so, but still more variants usually means higher cost. Separate production line, advertising, distribution, storage etc.

 

[AnarchoPrimitiv]

They said if you go above 6000 that you can't do one to one so how in the hell is 6000 The Sweet spot? If anything that's really the maximum allowed and would make me worry that there might be cases where that could even be an issue. It just seems like if 6000 is really the maximum that 5600 would be more of The Sweet spot technically.

"Sweet spot" in this context is the point at which the price to performance figure is at its best, but I believe you are conceiving of it has some form of mid point or median number at it related to the highest possible frequency and the lowest possible frequency. Basically, anything above 6000 probably has diminishing performance returns that render higher frequency RAM a bad value proposition, and anything lower than 6000 is leaving substantial performance on the table. Again, I believe you are conceiving of it as: if, just for random example and easy math, the highest possible frequency is 6000 and the lowest 4000, then the sweet spot should be 5000 because it's at a certain distance away from 6000 and 4000, but in reality it has nothing to do with that and is determined by the price to performance proposition.

They could just advertise XMP 3.0 and AMD EXPO capable and that's it. Besides that, AMD specific modules might be bad marketing, it's not long ago when many users had proplems with RAM not specifically optimized for AMD CPUs... RAM is like storage, it should be able to perform optimal with every platform (taking of course into account the platform's capabilities).

That sounds logical and most of us think so, but still more variants usually means higher cost. Separate production line, advertising, distribution, storage etc.

I would imagine that production between xmp and expo prioritized modules are identical up until the very end when the RAM is programmed for the profiles, so in reality it should add minimal cost, however, opportunistic vendors could easily use iit as an unjustifiable excuse to increase prices. Either way, it was inevitable that, with their seemingly perpetual success and increase in sales and market share, AMD would develop something that allowed them to to have a valid rival and alternative to XMP rather than a mere "translation" of XMP like DOCP, demonstrating that they're on equal footing to Intel and not just a second string option