Introduction

Dating back to 1985, Patriot was founded in the United States San Francisco Bay Area and has since expanded, with distribution channels around the world offering consumers access to a wide range of different products. While the headquarters may still be located in the USA, all the company's products are assembled in the country, with facilities in Fremont, California, Taipei, and Taiwan.

Patriot currently offers multiple memory products, with consumer and enterprise lines to fit a wide range of consumer needs. Patriot first brought forward the well-established DDR4 Viper Venom brand, later the Extreme series, and now, with the new Non-Binary capacities, comes an updated Elite series for DDR5. With these three divisions, Patriot sells a wide variety of memory kit configurations with binned frequencies ranging from 5200 MT/s to 8400 MT/s. These Configurations include 16 GB (2x 8 GB), 32 GB (2x 16 GB) and 48 GB (2x 24 GB) kits.


In this review, we will be taking a closer look at the Patriot Elite 5 RGB DDR5-6000 48 GB (2x 24 GB) memory kit marketed towards budget gamers and budget-conscious PC builders. With that in mind, the primary timings are a bit "looser" in comparison to PC enthusiast-grade memory kits. Coming in at 42-42-42-82 for the main 6000 MT/s EXPO / XMP profile, we will put this memory through a number of benchmarks to see how looser primary timings impact gaming performance. Now, with the introduction out of the way, let's see how this memory kit stacks up against the competition, beginning with a look at the specifications.

Specifications

Packaging

Taking a quick look at the packaging, we can see Patriot uses a different design for the Elite 5 series. Even so, all the important things are still accounted for. Information on the box is easy to digest, with a sticker in the right corner indicating this specific kit's bin. Across the bottom is the product branding. Flip the box around, and Patriot also has a QR code that can be scanned, sending you to the product page for further information. At the bottom are the XMP / EXPO and RGB badges indicating supported ASUS Aura Sync, GIGABYTE RGB Fusion, MSI Mystic Light Sync, and ASRock Polychrome Sync motherboard RGB software.


The box has some tape to prevent anything from falling out during shipping. Once cut and removed from the outer packaging, the memory sticks are secured and protected from minor damage with a clamshell inside the outer box.

A Closer Look

Patriot has three different series currently available for DDR5 available under the Viper Gaming branding. These include Viper Xtreme 5, Viper Venom and Viper Elite 5. All have distinct aesthetics and different targeted markets to offer a kit for every type of consumer. The Xtreme 5 starts at 7600 MT/s and currently goes up to 8400 MT/s, placing it as the current flagship product line for Patriot. This review covers the Elite 5 series, which is geared towards those who aren't looking for the pinnacle, but also need a little bit more than what 4800 MT/s JEDEC memory offers. These Elite 5 memory kits are only sold with white heatspreaders. Non-RGB versions are also listed on the website.


Similar to the rest of Patriot's lineup, Each memory module has the Viper branding on both sides of each memory DIMM.


On one side of each DIMM module is an identification sticker listing the product number, rated XMP / EXPO operating frequency, voltage, and the CAS value.


Laying the DIMMs on the side, you can see "VIPER" written in black on one corner. The entire plastic strip in the middle will be illuminated when the system is powered on and lighting can be controlled with supported motherboard software.


Patriot Elite 5 RGB DDR5-6000 kit weighs in at 43 grams on the scale. For Z-height, it comes in at 41 mm rounding up.


After taking the heat spreader off, we see that these are single-sided DIMMs with eight 3 GB ICs. A single thermal pad strip covers all the memory ICs. This particular kit does have a thermal pad covering the PMIC and surrounding components.


Currently, Micron, Samsung, and SK Hynix are the three suppliers of DDR5 ICs. However, only Micron / Spectek and SK Hynix have released Non-binary 3 GB ICs to the consumer market. Micron 3 GB ICs have shown to reach at least 7000 MT/s, while SK Hynix has seen up to 8400 MT/s in a retail kit so far.

A closer look at the ICs shows that these are SK Hynix (H5CGD8MGBD-X021). Which can be abbreviated to SK Hynix 3 GB M-Die, not to be confused with SK Hynix's first DDR5 M-Die (2 GB) in 2021. Up until the release of 3 GB ICs, the previous world record title was held by SK Hynix A-Die (2 GB) and is still considered a good choice for high frequency overclocks paired with lower primary timings.


With DDR5, one of the major changes is how the motherboard directly provides 5 V to the memory module's PMIC, which is then stepped down and split accordingly. No longer is the motherboard responsible for regulating the voltages, as with DDR4. The PMIC has the part number "OP=9E W0X." Software reports this as Richtek being the manufacturer. Internet investigation provides no additional information.