Introduction
G.SKILL is a renowned Taipei-based memory manufacturer with a history of producing performance-oriented products. The company has in recent years ventured into other PC markets, such as SSDs, AIO coolers, and peripherals, with gaming-oriented keyboards, mice, headsets, and more.
Now that AMD has released its first generation of Ryzen processors and is exclusively DDR5, adoption rate is steadily increasing while supply and demand has evened out as we finish 2022. Throughout 2023, we should see prices continue to decrease as the market shifts to higher volume DDR5 sales. AMD has created a new memory profile called Extended Profiles for Overclocking (EXPO), specifically optimized for new AMD Ryzen CPUs. This technology is also an open standard, which can in turn be implemented into Intel systems as well.
G.SKILL has multiple product lines to fit different markets with plenty of performance-oriented DDR4 options available. These SKUs include the Trident Z, Royal, Neo, Ripjaw and Elite series. With the launch of DDR5 in late 2021, G.SKILL brought forward the Trident Z and Ripjaws series, which was well received and is still a great choice today. Now, a year later, the Flare X and Neo series makes their DDR5 debut catering towards AMD's new platform.
Flare X has been given a slight name change, now being called Flare X5 to reflect its place in the DDR5 market. It also has had a change in the overall design for this DDR5 iteration. Marketed exclusively towards consumers with AMD systems, configurations include 32 GB (2x 16 GB) and 64 GB (2x 32 GB) kits with frequencies ranging from 5200 MT/s to 6000 MT/s. In this review, we will be taking a closer look at the G.SKILL Flare X5 DDR5-6000 AMD memory kit. Equipped with performance grade timings of 32-38-38-96 operating at 1.35 V for the 6000 MT/s EXPO profile, it provides higher bandwidth and considerable performance gains compared to baseline JEDEC 4800 MT/s DDR5 with a CAS latency of 40 operating at 1.1 V. In this review, we will benchmark this G.SKILL Flare X5 DDR5-6000 DDR5 32 GB kit and see how it stacks up to the competition, along with some promising overclocking as well!
Specifications
Specifications |
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Manufacturer: | G.SKILL | G.SKILL |
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Model: | F5-6000J3238F16GX2-FX5 | F5-6000J3238F16GX2-FX5 |
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EXPO Profile: | EXPO | JEDEC |
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Speed Rating: | DDR5-6000 MT/s | DDR5-4800 MT/s |
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Rated Timings: | 32-38-38-96-130 | 40-40-40-77-117 |
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Tested Capacity: | 32 GB (2x 16 GB) | 32 GB (2x 16 GB) |
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Tested Voltage: | 1.35 V | 1.10 V |
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Registered/Unbuffered: | Unbuffered | Unbuffered |
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Error Checking: | ECC (resting) | ECC (resting) |
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IC Manufacturer: | SK Hynix | SK Hynix |
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Form Factor: | 288-pin DIMM | 288-pin DIMM |
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Warranty: | Limited Lifetime | Limited Lifetime |
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Packaging
The G.SKILL Flare X5 DDR5-6000 kit comes in a blister pack with a sheet of paper behind the memory. The packaging itself has the company logo (name) in the top-left with the Flare X5 product branding to the right. All the information about the actual memory can be found on the sticker for each DIMM module. Flip the blister pack around and the back has a barcode with the part number and the same information as written on the memory stickers.
Inside is a piece of paper with information covering common questions and technical issues. While this is mostly just a nice way for G.Skill to say the consumer is on their own for any unsupported configurations, it's still helpful to keep misinformation from spreading, and these statements have some truth to them.
Some examples written on card:
- "Do not mix memory kits. Memory kits are sold in matched kits that are designed to run together as a set. Mixing memory kits will result in stability issues or system failure"
- "Memory kits will boot at the SPD speed at default BIOS settings with compatible hardware"
- "Reaching the rated XMP/EXPO overclock speed and system stability will depend on the compatibility and capability of the motherboard and CPU used."