A Closer Look

The Patriot Viper Venom RGB modules have an interesting design. Every company has a similar goal: to create something that is visually distinct from competitors. In this case, Patriot's Viper Venom uses a two-toned base with a matte black and brushed aluminium color scheme. The heatspreader covers the entire PCB and part of the lighting defusing bar.


Patriot places the Viper logo as well as the VIPER branding on each side of the DIMM.


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


Laying the DIMMs on the side, you can see "VIPER" written in red lettering in the center.


The Patriot Viper Venom RGB DDR5-6200 CL40 kit weighs in at 51 grams on my scale. For Z-height, it is 43 mm rounding down with my calipers.


After taking the heatspreader off, we see that these are single-sided DIMMs with eight 2 GB ICs. This is as expected for a DDR5 32 GB kit since densities increased with DDR5. The thermal pad covers all the memory ICs. This particular kit does include a bit of thermal tape for the PMIC and surrounding components.

Patriot is using 8 LEDS with 8 independent zones on one side. Generally, a lack of LEDs tends to impact the quality of the RGB lighting implementation. This will of course vary by manufacturer.


A closer look at the ICs shows that these are SK Hynix (H5CG48MEBDX014). Currently, Micron, Samsung, and SK Hynix are the three suppliers of DDR5 ICs. As the months have passed by, SK Hynix M-Die has emerged as the current leader for low-latency DDR5 kits. For the time being, M-Die is the IC you want if you plan to overclock.


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 seen with DDR4. The PMIC is manufactured by Richtek and unlocked to allow above 1.435 V to be applied as well.