A Closer Look

Patriot has three different series currently for DDR5 available under the Viper Gaming branding. These include Viper Xtreme 5, Viper Venom and Viper Elite 5. All have distinct aesthetics and targets, for every type of consumer. The Xtreme 5 starts at 7600 MT/s and currently goes up to 8400 MT/s (with 9,000 MT/s shown off at CES 2024). This Xtreme 5 is from Patriot's flagship product line. As of now, these are only sold with black heatspreaders with both RGB and non-RGB versions in standard and non-binary capacities.


Patriot has placed the Viper branding on both sides of each memory DIMM. On the left is the Viper brand logo (snake head).


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


Laying the DIMMs on the side, you can see "VIPER" written in black on one corner. Since these are non-RGB, the opaque plastic strip used for light diffusion on top has been replaced with a bright red version, part of the Xtreme 5 signature look.


The Patriot Viper Xtreme 5 DDR5-7600 Z-Height is 47 mm after rounding up with calipers and weighs in at 47 g on the scale.


After taking the heat spreader 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 have coverage for the PMIC and surrounding components. It should be pointed out that the thermal pads covering the memory are not original, but replaced after being ruined during heat spreader removal the first time.


Unfortunately because the thermal pads were replaced before these photos were taken, they ended up removing the silkscreen in the process when taken apart a second time. This SK Hynix A-Die is the successor to M-Die (2 GB) and predecessor to M-Die (3 GB). While it cannot reach the same frequencies compared to SK Hynix 3 GB ICs, it is still known for its overclocking capabilities.


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=AC 7G1," software reports Richtek being the manufacturer.