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AMD’s Instinct MI200 GPU Uses Multi-Chip Design for Exascale Supercomputer

(Image credit: AMD)

A recent Linux patch posted by AMD reveals that the company’s Instinct MI200 next-generation compute GPU, codenamed ‘Aldebaran,’ will use a multi-chip module (MCM) design. That means the GPU will come with two dies in a single chip package instead of the single die we’re accustomed to with standard GPUs. The accelerator is based on the CDNA 2 architecture and is set to be used for the Frontier exascale supercomputer due to be delivered this year.

“On Aldebaran, only primary die fetches valid power data,” an AMD Linux patch reads. “Show power/energy values as 0 on secondary die. Also, power limit should not be set through secondary die.”

AMD has a patent called ‘GPU Chiplets Using High-Bandwidth Crosslinks,’ as noted by Coelacanth-dream, so AMD has been working on its multi-chip compute GPU technology for some time. Meanwhile, according to the Linux patch, AMD’s MCM GPU technology requires one of the chiplets to become the primary and manage secondary chiplets, which helps the multi-chip GPU look and behave like one big processor to the host system.

(Image credit: AMD)

Making a multi-chip compute GPU is akin to making a multi-core MCM CPU, like the Ryzen 5000 or Threadripper processors. Firstly, bringing dies closer together increases compute efficiency. AMD’s Infinity architecture ensures a high-performance interconnection that promises to bring the efficiency of two dies close to one. Secondly, it is easier to mass-produce multiple small chips using an advanced process technology than big chips, as smaller chips usually have fewer defects, thus yielding better than larger chips.

(Image credit: AMD)

While multi-chip graphics subsystems have never been truly popular since many graphics workloads do not scale too well (and some do not scale at all), multiple compute GPUs per server are quite common since they scale well due to parallelized nature of supercomputing and datacenter workloads.

The devil is in the software details, applications have to be coded to extract the utmost performance from these types of architectures, but broad industry support for MCM seems to be coming to the fore.

(Image credit: AMD)

Intel’s Xe-HP and Xe-HPC GPUs also rely on MCM designs, so AMD is not alone with its MCM GPU plans. Furthermore, Nvidia’s upcoming Hopper compute GPUs are rumored to feature multiple dies, too.

AMD’s partner HPE confirmed that the forthcoming Frontier supercomputer, which will be the world’s fastest with peak performance of 1.5 ExaFLOPS, would use AMD’s codenamed Trento CPU (most probably a version of Milan with extra cache and/or other enhancements) and Instinct MI200 accelerator.

AMD’s New Quad-Core Ryzen 3 5300G Overclocks to 5.6GHz, With Exotic Cooling

(Image credit: AMD)

An overclocked named Yosarianilives has published a cool 5.6GHz overclock result for the all-new Ryzen 3 5300G, AMD’s first quad-core Zen 3 chip to date. Paired with the 5300G were an Asus ROG Strix B550-I Gaming motherboard and 16GB of DDR4 RAM running at 4600MHz, with very low timings of 16-16-16-38.

The Ryzen 3 5300G is part of AMD’s first rollout of Zen 3 based APUs, which are already trickling into pre-built desktops and all-in-ones. The higher-end models are expected to hit retail in early August. Similar to the Ryzen 3 3100 and 3300X, the 5300G is a quad-core part with SMT (8 threads) and the addition of Vega integrated graphics.

Thanks to the lower core count, the 5300G also has the highest base clock of any Ryzen CPU in existence right now, at a flat 4.0GHz, but is countered by a somewhat lackluster boost clock of 4.2GHz.

We don’t know what type of cooling the overclocker used to push his 5300G to 5.6GHz. But it is definitely in the realm of exotic cooling, as hitting those higher frequencies is impossible with ambient cooling. We’d guess the overclocker was using liquid nitrogen.

The overclocker didn’t post any gaming or synthetic benchmarks, but we’d imagine the 5300G with a 5.6GHz and an ultra-high memory frequency of 4600MHz really shines in single-threaded workloads. That said, assuming you’d need extreme cooling to hit frequencies close to this, it’s not like you’re going to be gaming or other real-world workloads with clocks this far above stock.

Noctua’s Colossal NH-P1 Passive Heatsink Arrives For $100

Noctua NH-P1 (Image credit: Newegg)

FanlessTech has spotted Noctua’s highly anticipated NH-P1 passive heatsink at Newegg for $100. Noctua hasn’t revealed the highly-anticipated heatsink to the public yet, but Newegg’s listing suggests that an official announcement shouldn’t be far behind.

The NH-P1 features a fanless design with six heatpipes that transfer heat from the processor towards the massive radiator with widely spaced fins. Noctua claims 100% compatibility with memory slots and the first PCIe expansion slot for most ATX and microATX motherboards. For added cooling or consumers that want to leverage a semi-passive configuration, Noctua recommends pairing the passive CPU cooler with the brand’s own NF-A12x25 LS-PWM 120mm cooling fan that’s barely audible.

Noctua advises consumers not to use the CPU cooler for overclocking or with processors that are space heaters. Being a passive cooler, the NH-P1’s performance depends on various factors, including ambient temperature and the other hardware inside your system. Therefore, Noctua doesn’t commit to a TDP (thermal design power) rating, instead suggesting that consumers consult the NH-P1’s processor compatibility list.

In fact, the NH-P1 will only thrive in cases with good natural convection or open-air bench tables. Noctua will release a list of recommended cases for the NH-P1 once it officially launches the CPU cooler.

Although Noctua didn’t slap a TDP label on the NH-P1, the cooling specialist mentioned processors, such as the Core i9-9900K and Ryzen 9 3950X. For perspective, the Core i9-9900K has a 95W PL1 rating and 210W PL2 rating.

Like countless other Noctua CPU coolers, the NH-P1 employs the company’s proprietary SecuFirm2+ mounting system, which provides an easy and quick setup. The cooler is compatible with Intel’s LGA115x, LGA1200 and LGA1200xx sockets and AMD’s AM4, AM3(+), AM2(+), FM2(+) and FM1 sockets.

Noctua also includes a tube of its award-winning NT-H2 thermal compound with the NH-P1. Noctua’s NH-P1 is already available for purchase on Newegg for $100. The manufacturer backs the cooler with a limited six-year warranty.

Alienware to Return Abducted GPU Cores to m15 R5 Laptop With vBIOS Fix

(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)

Alienware is addressing an error affecting the

Alienware m15 Ryzen Edition R5

that limits CUDA cores on models with an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070 graphics card.

“We have been made aware that an incorrect setting in Alienware’s vBIOS is limiting CUDA Cores on RTX 3070 configurations,” the company told Tom’s Hardware. This is an error that we are working diligently to correct as soon as possible. We’re expediting a resolution through validation and expect to have this resolved as early as mid-June. In the interim, we do not recommend using a vBios from another Alienware platform to correct this issue. We apologize for any frustration this has caused.”

Forum threads on

and

Notebook Review

showed people noticing that software like CPU-Z and HWInfo are reporting the wrong number of CUDA cores for an RTX 3070. Rather than 5,120 cores, it showed 4,608. HWInfo also reportedly showed fewer ray tracing and tensor cores. Some also had issues with the number of render output units (ROPs).

Some people in those threads reported that switching to the BIOS for the Alienware m15 R4 with an RTX 3070 fixed these issues, but that could cause other problems, especially as the R4 is an Intel system and the R5 is AMD-based. Others speculated wildly about potential special-order cards or other potential software problems.

If the cores were indeed being limited, not just misreported, it’s possible that performance will be increased once the fix is released.

Alienware M15 R5 Ryzen Edition review: the right parts at a high price

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The new Alienware M15 R5 Ryzen Edition is a slight undoing of progress, depending on how you look at it. As many gaming laptops are going thinner, this one is heavier and thicker than previous generations. Its design has been tweaked slightly in ways both good and bad, and it has fewer ports than before, too.

Despite all of that, it’s a cause for a small celebration because of the Ryzen processor it uses, marking AMD’s return to Alienware products after a 14-year gap when the brand exclusively used Intel CPUs. And it’s a welcome return, even if this laptop won’t appeal to everyone. AMD’s high-end mobile processors have been a boon to gaming laptops for the last couple of years, bringing long battery life and fast performance that sometimes outpaces and undercuts laptops that have competing Intel processors.

The Ryzen 7 5800H processor brings that magic to the M15 R5 Ryzen Edition, and gaming performance with its RTX 3060 doesn’t struggle to get above 60 FPS in graphically-demanding games — all thanks to being a high-wattage component. This R5 that I tested has 16GB of RAM and a 512GB NVMe SSD for a total cost of about $1,616 currently, which isn’t cheap despite being close to the most affordable version that Alienware makes. If money isn’t an issue, it can be upgraded to the more powerful Ryzen 9 5900HX with Nvidia’s RTX 3070 and more storage and RAM for $2,379.

The high price is something that I couldn’t ignore while reviewing this laptop, especially since Dell (Alienware’s parent company) makes a $1,225 G15 Ryzen Edition that has similar GPU specs that should come close to what this pricier M15 R5 can do. And, if you can settle for a slightly lesser processor, there’s a $900 model in the works that has the RTX 3060, but it isn’t available yet.

The value doesn’t fare well outside of Dell’s world either. Asus is currently the go-to brand for excellent AMD-based gaming laptops that are easier to recommend for people who want something more portable and feature-packed, without sacrificing battery life. Compared to a similar M15 R5 configuration, the ROG Zephyrus G15 offers a QHD display, more storage, a better processor and a powerful RTX 3070 (albeit a lower-powered GPU than you’ll find in the M15 R5) for a few hundred dollars less. The new Strix G15 Advantage Edition looks more garish next to Alienware’s laptop, but it also has fast gaming performance and high-end features for a lower price. Neither of these models feature a webcam, but that might be something you can live without.

The M15 R5 is 19.25mm (0.75 inches) thick for most of the machine (thinner at the front, but slightly thicker in the back) and it weighs 5.34 pounds. Some configurations weigh more, going up to 5.93 pounds. Its heft is jarring if you’ve picked up an ultrabook recently, but it’s an asset in helping its high-wattage RTX 3060 graphics chip (125W maximum graphics power, 1,702MHz boost clock) to perform similarly to a low-wattage RTX 3070. Compared to thinner laptops that have a low-powered 3070, like Asus’ TUF Dash 15, Alienware’s laptop makes up for the difference in CUDA cores with sheer power. It will likely be a solid performer well into the future — perhaps longer than some lower-powered 3070s — despite having a technically lesser component. It’ll just be more of a chore to lug around.

The M15 R5 Ryzen Edition fared well while running some demanding games at their highest settings. Red Dead Redemption 2 managed to reach 63 frames per second. Shadow of the Tomb Raider ran at about 80 frames per second with its ray tracing shadows feature and DLSS switched on. Horizon Zero Dawn ran at an average of 68 frames per second. None of them came close to fully taking advantage of the default 1080p display’s 165Hz refresh rate, but most people likely have older games in their library that should be able to display at very fast frame rates on this laptop.

It didn’t take long for this laptop to make a good impression with gaming performance. It took even less time to learn that it gets warm to the touch even while idling with no apps, and that when games (especially graphically-demanding ones) are running, it can get very loud. A fast and quiet gaming laptop is an oxymoron, and the M15 R5 is really just one of many offenders. But I didn’t notice signs of thermal throttling after long periods of gaming, nor did I encounter unexplainable slow-down. You just might want to wear some headphones while gaming. The speakers shoot sound out of the sides of the laptop. It’s serviceable for YouTube videos or video calls, but it doesn’t deliver enough depth or bass for entertainment purposes.

This Ryzen-based gaming laptop can handle any sort of casual browser-based workflow with ease. It shouldn’t have surprised me that the M15 R5 has great battery life, since AMD’s processors have proven to bring efficiency to other gaming laptops, but it still did. This one’s 86Wh battery lasted for about seven hours of mixed use, through sustained use of Microsoft Edge with 10 or so tabs, Spotify, Slack, and some video calls. That’s great for an Alienware laptop. The M15 R3 that I reviewed last year clocked in at just one hour. Though, other AMD-based gaming laptops have the M15 R5 beat. The Strix G15 Advantage Edition lasted over nine hours for my colleague Monica Chin.

One area where the Ryzen Edition got a little hung up is with a video export test in Adobe Premiere Pro. Our video team’s five-minute, thirty-three second 4K file took just over seven minutes to finish exporting. That’s not a bad result, but it’s not going to be fast enough for creators to quickly turn around projects and not nearly as fast as laptops with Intel processors can manage.

The M15 R5’s design is different from earlier models in minor ways. Sometimes, it’s for the better. For instance, this newer model is matte-textured all around, including on its screen bezels, which looks better than the glossy bezels used in previous generations. Some people might like the M15 R3 and R4’s two-toned color design, but the R5 comes in a gunmetal silver color that is striking, and the black plastic covering the keyboard is relatively free of distractions, aside from the backlit keyboard and illuminated Alienware logo. One of my favorite changes is inside of the laptop: Alienware lets you easily upgrade the RAM and storage if you want. Some previous models had RAM soldered onto the motherboard, but this one’s more futureproof.

Alienware shuffled around the keyboard layout, though, and it’s worse off than before. The M15 R5’s keys are still enjoyable to type on, but I make more typing mistakes because the volume keys have been delegated to the right side of the keyboard instead of the top. Also, the arrow keys were previously positioned a little lower than the rest of the keyboard to make them easy to find, but those have been shoved up in this model, resulting in a smaller right shift key. This might not be a problem once you get accustomed to typing on the M15, but it still feels like a step backwards.

The port selection isn’t as generous, either. The Ryzen Edition features three USB-A 3.2 Gen 1 ports, one USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 port, an HDMI 2.1 port (capable of 4K output at up to 120Hz), a headphone jack, and a 2.5Gbps ethernet port. It’s not a bad lineup, but it could be better.

Missing from this model, and all other new models that Alienware recently unveiled, is the proprietary amplifier connector for its external GPU enclosure, which has been officially discontinued. Intel-based versions of Alienware’s newest laptops, like the M15 R6, X15, and X17, will support Thunderbolt eGPUs, but the M15 R5 won’t because it lacks a Thunderbolt port. So, you’re just stuck with the GPU that’s inside. Thankfully, the graphics performance is great by default, but there’s a lot of unused space on the R5’s rear where that amplifier port used to be. It would have been nice if Alienware had filled it with an SD card reader and an extra USB-C port.

The M15 R5’s performance didn’t come into question during my testing. I don’t think I’ll ever tire of seeing the great battery life AMD’s processors bring, and it’s great that this GPU can hold its own next to pricier components like the RTX 3070.

But as a whole, Alienware missed the landing when it comes to value. If you want more features for your money, even if it involves swapping some of the M15 R5’s power for a QHD screen and better portability, you should look elsewhere. The M15 R5 isn’t the jaw-dropping value that it needed to be (and that I’d hoped it would be) to steer everyone away from the 2021 gaming laptop frontrunner (so far), the Asus ROG Zephyrus G15.

Photography by Cameron Faulkner / The Verge

RTX 3070 Ti Benchmark Results Leaked for Ashes of The Singularity and Geekbench

(Image credit: Nvidia)

We have our first glimpse at the performance of Nvidia’s recently announced GeForce RTX 3070 TI, thanks to two leaked benchmark runs from Ashes of the Singularity and Geekbench 5. They were brought to our attention by @leakbench on Twitter. However, the benchmark results are about as vague as it gets, giving us a little indication as to the real performance of the 3070 Ti.

Unfortunately for us, the Ashes of the Singularity score in particular tells us almost nothing about the performance of Nvidia’s new mid-range part, due to the system configuration and game quality settings.

The RTX 3070 Ti was paired with a Ryzen 9 3900X and 32GB of system memory, and the resolution used was 1080P with a high-quality preset (not the crazy preset). The 3070 Ti scores an average frame rate of 105.5 frames per second and a CPU frame rate of 105.9 fps.

(Image credit: Twitter)

While the frame rate looks good, this is probably one of the worst Ashes benchmarks to date, as the resolution is locked to 1080P and the teseter didn’t even use the maximum quality preset. On top of that, the Ryzen 9 3900X is a Zen 2 part, and at 1080P there should be a noticeable amount of bottlenecking, enough to skew performance results when comparing graphics cards specifically.

What we really needed from the leaker is a better testbed with a more powerful CPU like a Ryzen 5000 series or a highly overclocked Intel 10th gen or 11th gen part. But most importantly, we would like to see resolutions of 1440P or 4K and have the game running at the crazy preset.

As it stands now, there aren’t enough benchmarks on the high preset, with the same CPU and memory configuration to judge performance. For instance, the top result for the 1080P high preset benchmark results belongs to a system running on an i7-11700KF running 16GB of RAM, with an RTX 3080, which has exactly 1-2 FPS less on its score than the leaked RTX 3070 Ti test.

Geekbench

(Image credit: Twitter)

Hopefully, Geekbench 5’s result can give us some better guesses as to the performance of the RTX 3070 Ti. Paired with a Core i9-11900K, the RTX 3070 Ti scored 155763 points in the OpenCL test.

For comparison, the RTX 3080 on Geekbench’s browser earned a score of 183,452 and the RTX 3070 scores a 135,886. So the RTX 3070 Ti is sandwiched right in-between the vanilla 3080 and 3070, being 17% slower than the RTX 3080 and 14% faster than the RTX 3070, which is to be expected.

Take this result with a pinch of salt, until you see full reviews of the RTX 3070 Ti come online. This is especially true of Geekbench 5, which focuses on the raw compute performance of GPUs, which rarely applies to the actual gaming performance of Nvidia and AMD’s graphics cards.

Fortnite is getting updated visuals on PC alongside season 7 launch

Fortnite is getting a visual boost on PC very soon. As part of the upcoming Chapter 2: Season 7, which will launch on June 8th, the PC version of the game is getting a new “epic” graphical setting.

Epic says it will include “new and enhanced effects plus improved post-processing features and shadow quality.” Among other changes, it sounds like many of the great visual enhancements that came to the PS5 and Xbox Series X versions of the game are coming to PC, including “more advanced explosion effects.” In other words, after you update, try to find a rocket launcher to play with.

As part of the update, the system requirements for Fortnite are now getting a tweak. Basically, there are now three ranges: epic, recommended, and minimum. Here’s what you’ll need:

Epic specs

Nvidia GTX 1080, AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT, or equivalent GPU
4GB VRAM or higher
Intel Core i7-8700, AMD Ryzen 7 3700x, or equivalent
16GB RAM or higher
NVMe solid state drive
Windows 10 64-bit

Recommended specs

Nvidia GTX 960, AMD R9 280, or equivalent DX11 GPU
2GB VRAM
Core i5-7300U 3.5GHz
8GB RAM
Windows 10 64-bit

Minimum specs

Intel HD 4000 on PC; Intel Iris Pro 5200
Core i3-3225 3.3GHz
4GB RAM
Windows 7 / 8 / 10 64-bit

Season 7 kicks off on June 8th — and it looks like it’ll add an extraterrestrial element to the game.

AMD Is Expanding Power-Sharing SmartShift Support to Linux

(Image credit: AMD)

As reported by Phoronix, AMD is focusing on expanding its SmartShift ecosystem to support operating systems beyond Windows 10. AMD has released two patches this week that continue adding support of SmartShift’s features to the Linux ecosystem. That’s excellent news for Linux buyers who want to use AMD’s shiny new PowerShift notebooks.

SmartShift was released last year by AMD (with only one laptop, the G5 SE) as a way to further improve notebook performance and efficiency when using AMD CPUs and discrete GPUs together. The technology aims to turn both the CPU and GPU into one cohesive system, allowing both chips to dynamically share power depending on the workload at hand.

At Computex this year AMD showed off its second wave of SmartShift laptops (like the new ROG Strix G15 Advantage) based on the all-new RX 6000M GPUs and Ryzen 5000 mobile CPUs, plus new enhancements for the Smartshift technology. This aggressive push for SmartShift adoption shows us that AMD is really focused on bringing this technology out in full force. And the push to expand adoption to Linux users seems to be part of that, despite the fact that those users make up a part of the notebook segment.

Just a few days ago on May 30th, AMD released a patch to Linux which allowed support for SmartShift when a discrete Radeon GPU was detected in a notebook with SmartShift Support.

Today, another patch was released, further adding support for Smartshift’s features. This patch exposes SmartShift’s power-share info to the user-space via sysfs, meaning Linux can now monitor SmartShift’s behavior and judge to see if the system is working as intended or not.

Another patch was released as well, adding controllability of SmartShift’s power-sharing parameters to Linux, meaning the OS or possibly a user can control how much power goes to the CPU or the discrete GPU.

With all this effort, it seems AMD is preparing to make SmartShift a mainstream technology, with not only Linux support, but also a wide variety of notebook support coming in the not-so-distant future. Some serious questions remain, though, like when we’ll see the tech in more than a handful of laptop models.

And for those AMD-based models to expand, the company will need to assure its partners that it can pump out a substantial and consistent amount of its current-gen CPUs and brand-new mobile GPUs. In the current climate of high demand for desktop graphics cards, chip shortages, and TSMC’s production pushed to its limits, the only thing certain seems to be uncertainty.

Adata XPG Spectrix D50 Xtreme DDR4-5000 C19 2x8GB Review: Toy For The Rich

Our Verdict

The Spectrix D50 Xtreme DDR4-5000 is one of those luxury memory kits that you don’t necessarily need inside your system. However, you’d purchase it in a heartbeat if you had the funds.

For

+ Good performance
+ Gorgeous aesthetics

Against

– Costs an arm and a leg
– XMP requires 1.6V

When a product has the word “Xtreme” in its name, you can tell that it’s not tailored towards the average consumer. Adata’s XPG Spectrix D50 Xtreme memory is that kind of product. A simple glance at the memory’s specifications is more than enough to tell you that Adata isn’t marketing the Spectrix D50 Xtreme towards average joes. Unlike the vanilla Spectrix D50, the Xtreme version only comes in DDR4-4800 and DDR4-5000 flavors with a limited 16GB (2x8GB) capacity. The memory will likely not be on many radars unless you’re a very hardcore enthusiast.

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Adata XPG Spectrix D50 Xtreme DDR4-5000 C19 (Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)

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Adata XPG Spectrix D50 Xtreme DDR4-5000 C19 (Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)

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Adata XPG Spectrix D50 Xtreme DDR4-5000 C19 (Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)

Adata borrowed the design from Spectrix D50 and took it to another level for the Spectrix D50 Xtreme. The heat spreader retains the elegant look with geometric lines. The difference is that the Xtreme variant features a polished, mirror-like heat spreader. The reflective finish looks stunning, but it’s also a fingerprint and dust magnet, which is why Adata includes a microfiber cloth to tidy up.

The memory module measures 43.9mm (1.73 inches) so compatibility with big CPU air coolers is good. The Spectrix D50 Xtreme still has that RGB diffuser on the top of the memory module. Adata provides its own XPG RGB Sync application to control the lighting or if you prefer, you can use your motherboard’s software. The Spectrix D50 Xtreme’s RGB illumination is compatible with the ecosystems from Asus, Gigabyte, MSI and ASRock.

Adata XPG Spectrix D50 Xtreme DDR4-5000 CL19 (Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)

Each Spectrix D50 Xtreme memory module is 8GB big and sticks to a conventional single-rank design. It features a black, eight-layer PCB and Hynix H5AN8G8NDJR-VKC (D-die) integrated circuits (ICs).

The default data rate and timings for the Spectrix D50 Xtreme are DDR4-2666 and 19-19-19-43, respectively. Adata equipped the memory with two XMP profiles with identical 19-28-28-46 timings. The primary profile corresponds to DDR4-5000, while the secondary profile sets the memory to DDR4-4800. Both data rates require a 1.6V DRAM voltage to function properly. For more on timings and frequency considerations, see our PC Memory 101 feature, as well as our How to Shop for RAM story.

Comparison Hardware

Memory Kit	Part Number	Capacity	Data Rate	Primary Timings	Voltage	Warranty
Crucial Ballistix Max	BLM2K8G51C19U4B	2 x 8GB	DDR4-5100 (XMP)	19-26-26-48 (2T)	1.50	Lifetime
Adata XPG Spectrix D50 Xtreme	AX4U500038G19M-DGM50X	2 x 8GB	DDR4-5000 (XMP)	19-28-28-46 (2T)	1.60	Lifetime
Thermaltake ToughRAM RGB	R009D408GX2-4600C19A	2 x 8GB	DDR4-4600 (XMP)	19-26-26-45 (2T)	1.50	Lifetime
Predator Apollo RGB	BL.9BWWR.255	2 x 8GB	DDR4-4500 (XMP)	19-19-19-39 (2T)	1.45	Lifetime
Patriot Viper 4 Blackout	PVB416G440C8K	2 x 8GB	DDR4-4400 (XMP)	18-26-26-46 (2T)	1.45	Lifetime
TeamGroup T-Force Dark Z FPS	TDZFD416G4000HC16CDC01	2 x 8GB	DDR4-4000 (XMP)	16-18-18-38 (2T)	1.45	Lifetime
TeamGroup T-Force Xtreem ARGB	TF10D416G3600HC14CDC01	2 x 8GB	DDR4-3600 (XMP)	14-15-15-35 (2T)	1.45	Lifetime

Our Intel platform simply can’t handle the Spectrix D50 Xtreme DDR4-5000 memory kit. Neither our Core i7-10700K or Core i9-10900K sample has a strong IMC (integrated memory controller) for a memory kit.

The Ryzen 9 5900X, on the other hand, had no problems with the memory. The AMD test system leverages a Gigabyte B550 Aorus Master with the F13j firmware and aMSI GeForce RTX 2080 Ti Gaming Trio to run our RAM benchmarks.

Unfortunately, we ran into a small problem that prevented us from testing the Spectrix D50 Xtreme at its advertised frequency. One of the limitations with B550 motherboards is the inability to set memory timings above 27. The Spectrix D50 Xtreme requires 19-28-28-46 to run at DDR4-5000 properly. Despite brute-forcing the DRAM voltage, we simply couldn’t get the Spectrix D50 Xtreme to run at 19-27-27-46. The only stable data rate with the aforementioned timings was DDR4-4866, which is what we used for testing.