DDR5 gaming RAM is about to get much faster, thanks to this new tech

Gaming RAM maker Asgard has just unveiled its fastest DDR5 memory kit yet, with its new kit rocketing along at 9,600MT/s (megatransfers per second, which is like the effective MHz frequency). Moreover, the company has claimed 10,000MT/s kits will soon be available, thanks to new CUDIMM technology.

While most of the memory we recommend in our best gaming RAM guide is clocked far slower than this, more and faster memory is of course always welcome, and that’s where the PC games hardware industry is going thanks to some clever new tech.

CUDIMM, or clocked, unbuffered, dual-inline memory module, is the term for a new type of memory stick that allows the memory to dynamically control clock speeds and voltages to suit demand, thanks to the inclusion of a clock driver (CKD) on the memory module itself. This CKD chip regenerates the clock signal used by the memory chips, in order to improve stability and offer support for even higher operating frequencies.

The technology isn’t brand new, with the likes of V-Color announcing a 9,200MT/s module a few months ago, but it’s still not widely available and is the next overall technological step in system memory, with a wider range of CUDIMM kits expected to arrive in the coming months. Crucially, this new type of memory works as a drop-in replacement for existing DDR5 RAM, so you shouldn’t need to swap motherboards to get these faster modules.

According to Chinese tech site, Weixin, the new Asgard kit runs at 9,600MT/s, which is also written as DDR5-9600, with a clock speed of 4,800MHz and CAS latency timings of 46-48-50-44. It comes in some genuinely smart-looking Midnight Black and Lightning Silver heatsinks but comes with the downside that Asgard only currently sells its wares in China, so you’ll have to wait for other larger players such as Corsair and Crucial to come out with similar kits you can buy in the US.

As for that 10,000MT/s memory, Asgard has declared this speed milestone is on the way but hasn’t pinned down an exact date yet. With 9,600MT/s being quite so close, though, we wouldn’t be surprised if it arrives sooner rather than later.

It’s good, then, that we wouldn’t recommend rushing out to buy a DDR5-9600 kit just as soon as you can, anyway, as it will have limited benefits for gaming systems. System RAM tends not to be a major bottleneck in gaming scenarios with modern CPUs, with graphics card speed and then CPU speed being far more important. We recommend DDR5-6000 memory for most gaming systems.

That’s assuming you’re already running a DDR5-capable system, of course. If you’re not, you may need to consider a motherboard and CPU upgrade, in which case you’ll want to check out our best gaming motherboard guide, as well as our DDR4 vs DDR5 RAM guide, to find out the best upgrade route for your needs.