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Your new kit for Ryzen 9000?
Review Summary
The G. Skill Trident Z5 Neo RGB follows the classic design of this lineup to bring us another high-performance kit. With an EXPO speed of DDR5-6400 at CL30, the memory runs at an ultra-low latency of 9.375 and shows excellent performance in our benchmarks. Its price is $119, which is not much higher than you’ll find a DDR5-6000 CL30 kit for, and G. Skill offers a limited lifetime warranty for the kit. All in all, it’s a great choice for a Ryzen 9000 CPU that can run this kit at 1:1 with the memory controller.
Hours Tested: 6
Overall
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Performance - 9/10
9/10
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Design - 9/10
9/10
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Features - 8/10
8/10
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Value - 8/10
8/10
Pros
- Excellent performance
- Great signature design
- Intermediate height (decent clearance)
Cons
- DDR5-6000 CL30 kits can be up to $35 cheaper
- Its 42mm height may create issues with bulky air coolers
Today, we are taking a look at the G. Skill Trident Z5 Neo RGB DDR5-6400 kit. This is a 32GB (2×16) single-rank kit. We’ve already taken a look at the DDR5-6000 kit, and this follows the exact same design. DDR5-6400, of course, is the sweet spot for the Ryzen 9000 series CPUs if you hit your luck in the silicon lottery (more on that later). For now, let’s get into the review.
Key Takeaways
- The G. Skill Trident Z5 Neo RGB DDR5-6400 CL30 is a 32GB kit from G. Skill’s all-familiar series, offering the same pleasing aesthetics and impressive performance at $119.
- You should buy this kit if you’re looking for an ideal memory kit for your Ryzen 9000 CPU without needing to overclock and/or if you prefer a kit with nice, balanced aesthetics.
- Don’t get this memory if you have a Ryzen 7000 series CPU (the memory will likely run at a 2:1 ratio with UCLK) and/or are running a bulky air cooler whose RAM clearance is less than 42mm.
Take a look at the specifications:
| Tested Speed | 6400 MT/s |
| Tested Latency | CL30 |
| RGB | Yes |
| Color | Black |
| Memory Voltage | 1.40V |
| Rated Speed (JEDEC) | 4800 MT/s |
| XMP | Yes |
| EXPO | Yes |
| Warranty | Limited Lifetime |
Compared to the DDR5-6000 kit, this one operates at 1.40V with EXPO. Memory timings have been tightening at 30-39-39-102. CAS Latency is the same, so the kit’s overall latency is 9.375ns.
DDR5-6400: Ryzen 9000’s Sweetspot
With a few tweaks from AMD to the memory controller on the Ryzen 9000 chips, it is now possible to run these CPUs coupled with DDR5-6400 memory at a 1:1 ratio. The 1:1 ratio is, of course, between the memory clock (MCLK) and the unified memory controller clock (UCLK). With increasing memory speeds, it becomes difficult for the memory controller to catch up. That’s why the Ryzen 7000 CPUs switch to a 1:2 ratio beyond DDR5-6000.
Only in the rarest of cases you’ll end up with a Ryzen 7000 CPU that will run DDR5-6400 memory at a 1:1 ratio. For the Ryzen 9000, the chances are greater, but it still depends on your luck in the silicon lottery, whether or not you’ll end up with a CPU memory controller good enough.
We generally do not recommend purchasing this kit for a Ryzen 7000 series CPU and would instead recommend a DDR5-6000 kit. Our Ryzen 7 7800X3D was able to support this kit while maintaining the 1:1 ratio, but again, this is an exceptional case that you likely won’t experience.
– Mussab Ali
Packaging and Unboxing
Let’s take a look inside the box.
This is the same packaging as the DDR5-6000 kit we tested. Up front, we have a print of the kits in front (this kit is also available in white), and EXPO support is mentioned. A cut-out shows us the memory kit inside a plastic clamshell packaging.
The back of the box shows us cut-outs for the memory again, displaying the sticker on which you can find the memory’s key specifications. We get some certification marks and compliance symbols and assurance that the RGB can be controlled by different motherboard software.
We get the memory itself, a card that gives us some basic tips, tricks, and cautions about the RAM, and a G. Skill sticker to proudly don on your chassis.
Design
It’s time to dive a bit deeper into the design.
The Trident Z5 Neo RGB black variant matches the other kits we’ve looked at from this lineup; nothing new. You get a matte black + solid black aesthetic on the heat spreaders, with two silver linings running across the kit. The exterior is matte black, while the central inlay has a brushed aluminum texture and the “Trident Z5 Neo RGB” branding.
Of course, we also have the all-familiar light bar up top, which is definitely our favorite part of these kits. We’ll look at the RGB illumination in a little bit. The RGB lighting can be controlled through G. Skill’s software or your motherboard vendor’s utility. It supports ASUS Aura Sync, ASRock Polychrome Sync, Gigabyte RGB Fusion 2.0, and MSI’s Mystic Light Sync software.
The memory height comes in at 42mm, again, like any Trident Z5 kit you’ll come across. This height makes it ideal for most setups without any clearance issues.
Looking at the sticker, we have some basic information about the kit, including the serial number. We can also note that this uses A-die ICs from SK-Hynix, evident from the letters and numbers above the barcode. This is a 2x16G kit. Do not remove the sticker, as that will void the warranty.
RGB
Here’s a gallery of some RGB goodness. The kit’s lighting looks fantastic, and we had no problems controlling it through MSI’s Mystic Light software on our test bench.
Test Build
Time to get into the test build! Here’s our system:
- CPU Cooler: DeepCool Mystique 360
- CPU: Ryzen 7 7800X3D [Auto, Stock]
- Motherboard: MSI MEG X670E ACE
- GPU: Gigabyte RTX 4090 Gaming OC
- Storage for OS: Western Digital SN850 Black 500GB NVMe SSD
- Storage for Software: Sabrent Rocket 4 Plus 2TB Gen4x4 NVMe SSD
- Storage for Games: Sabrent Rocket 4 Plus 4TB Gen4x4 NVMe SSD
- Power Supply: Corsair HX1200i ATX 3.0 Platinum
- Operating System: Windows 11 Pro Build 23H2
We used Cinebench R23 and the AIDA64 suite for testing. Here is a look at the CPU-Z configuration for our setup:
Let’s take a look at the ZenTimings menu.
We successfully ran our kit at 3200 MHz (DDR5-6400) while maintaining the 1:1 ratio between MCLK and UCLK. Also, we pushed the Infinity Fabric clock (FCLK) to 2133 MHz, marking that sweet spot 2:3 ratio of FCLK to MCLK and UCLK.
Test Results
Let’s get into the test results. We have compared this kit’s performance to the following other kit to get the best idea of its performance:
- G. Skill Trident Z5 Neo DDR5 2x 16GB @6000 CL30 (AMD EXPO)
- G. Skill Flare X5 DDR5 2x 16GB @6000 CL30 (AMD EXPO)
- G.Skill Trident Z5 Neo RGB DDR5 2x 16GB @6000 C30 (AMD EXPO)
- Corsair Dominator Titanium RGB DDR5 2x 16GB @6000 CL30
- Corsair Dominator Titanium RGB DDR5 2x 16GB @6000 CL30 (AMD EXPO)
- Corsair Vengeance RGB DDR5 2x16GB@6000 CL30
Our Trident Z5 Neo RGB DDR5-6400 kit stood out in read, write, and copy operations, beating all competitors in our list. However, the memory latency test proved problematic; it was the slowest of the bunch, at 70.2 nanoseconds.
Of course, there is plenty of room to obtain better memory latency through some manual tunings, like increasing the tREFI and using power-down mode. However, we decided to stick with stock settings to determine how this stick performs with only its EXPO profile.
Our CPU is also top-scored in the Cinbench R23.200 multi-threaded benchmark, albeit by a very narrow margin.
Overall, the performance numbers are great and up to the mark, but this kit did fall behind the rest in latency numbers, despite us hitting ideal clock settings.
Should You Buy It?
Let’s conclude.
Buy It If:
✅ You want fast memory for Ryzen 9000: If you want the best memory speeds for your Ryzen 9000 CPU without needing to tune anything manually, this is the kit for you.
✅ RGB is a priority: If you like a memory kit that lights up, the G. Skill Trident Z5 Neo RGB kits offer some of the best implementations we’ve seen, with a dedicated light bar.
✅ You need RAM that won’t interfere with your CPU cooler: With its 42mm height, most air coolers should fit right in with the kit.
Don’t Buy It If:
❌ You’re running older Ryzen 7000 CPUs: Unless you’re running one of the X3D Ryzen 7000 CPUs, you’ll probably be better off with a DDR5-6000 kit, as the memory controller will most certainly run at half the frequency with this kit.
❌ You want the best out-of-the-box performance: Mushkin’s Redline Lumina and ST kits offer better timings at DDR5-6400 than this kit, at around the same price.
My Thoughts
The G.Skill Trident Z5 Neo RGB is an excellent kit, and there’s no doubt about it, as we’ve tested other kits out of this lineup before. For a Ryzen 9000 CPU, the kit should serve you well, as these CPUs are more likely to allow DDR5-6400 memory to run at a 1:1 ratio between MCLK and UCLK.
A little recap of the specifications, this kit operates at timings of 30-39-39-102 at a voltage of 1.40V (with its EXPO profile). At default, it runs at the JEDEC speed of 4800 MT/s at 1.10 volts.
The kit offers the same mix of solid black and matte black and an RGB light bar that looks fantastic when lit up. Aesthetically, the design stands out for us; it’s not too extravagant (like the G. Skill Trident Z5 Royal Neo kits) and not too simple (G. Skill Flare X5). This kit is also available in white.
Its intermediate height of 42mm should make it fit with most air coolers, though some big dogs, like the Noctua NH-D15 G2, won’t fit in their dual-fan configurations.
G.Skill is one of the first to offer DDR5-6400 kits to couple with the new Ryzen 9000 CPU, and the kit is priced at $119.99. That is $10 more than the G. Skill Trident Z5 Neo RGB DDR5-6000 (CL30) for a mild overclock. Competing kits are Mushkin’s Redline Lumina ($124.99) and G.Skill’s Trident Z5 Royal Neo ($149.99). The Redline Lumina has tighter timings than this kit for $5 more.
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