G.SKILL Trident Z5 Royal Neo

G.Skill makes many different RAM kits, to say the least. They have 40 different series, some with over 20 different products. That's because G.Skill is pretty crazy about RAM and makes just about every type, purpose, and speed you could want in black, silver, gold, white, and a variety of RGB variants. In addition, they make specifically for either Intel-XMP or AMD-Expo overclocking.

The special feature of this kit, as you might guess, is the combination of gold or silver colours with a crystallised light strip. This is CNC-milled aluminium with a surface coating (so not pure gold or silver) and it's polished to a mirror finish. The crystallised light strip is a special design that diffuses the light a lot better than usual and provides a less artificial and brighter light. You can say a lot, but it stands out from the crowd and looks quite flashy. Even the box it comes in offers a little something extra, a design philosophy others could learn from.

We've tested a DDR5 2x16 GB kit, wonderfully named F5-6000J2836G16GX2-TR5NG, which comes with CL28 timing, which is pretty low, and runs at 6000 MHz. Although this has been the optimum point for AMD CPUs for some time, the X3D versions in particular are much more flexible and can easily handle higher speeds, but this varies from CPU-to-CPU, so each individual should experiment. It's good that you can also overclock this kit if you want to. We tested it "as is" but typically you can only increase the voltage by about 10% before things start to become unstable. We had a single swing from 1.40 to 1.44, where it was easily and stably increased to 6200 MHz, however above that, you'll probably start running into problems.

A timing of 28-36-36-96 is not the fastest on the market, but it's close, and it's much tighter than average. This is done by G.Skill not just rebranding existing products, but manually matching the circuits and using a hefty 10-layer PCB. If you're unsure if it will work, G.Skill offers a limited lifetime warranty. And the price is nothing to complain about - under £180 - and you can probably find it cheaper if you look.

Behind it all is RAM made with Hynix A-Die, considered by many to be the best choice up to speeds of 7200 MHz and with the best - or in this world, tightest - timings. It also has the advantage of minimising heat generation. If you need to go above these speeds, you will typically use M-Die, which can be clocked higher, but also gets a lot hotter. A-Die is also quite forgiving with the motherboard.

G.Skill calls it "luxury-class of extreme overclock performance DDR5 memory". Performance matters - or rather timing matters - because while you typically look at capacity, speed, and timing, this CL28 kit consistently outperformed others with the same capacity and speed. We're not talking a lot - a single FPS typically, sometimes two - but enough that it was pretty consistent. Then it just needs to be combined with a higher speed, because if there's one thing CUDIMM RAM - which G.Skill also makes - has shown, it's that RAM speeds matter again. But that's why it's perhaps even more important to look at optimising timing, especially if you want to stick to an ultra stable system.

But where it's particularly interesting is the 0.1% low. Especially in heavy games, there was a noticeable difference - we're talking 30-40% and often more - and it will make the experience much smoother. Especially in this case, using an X870E chipset with an X3D CPU, the numbers were even higher with V-Cache enabled. If you run a lot of heavy games, you should therefore consider RAM with a low CAS rating. It's not about average FPS, it's about lifting your FPS from dipping and hitting 60 to suddenly only dipping down to 95. And then it's about running at the highest speed you can, because if there's one thing the new X3D CPUs enjoy, it's higher speeds in combination with tight timing. Now, I've also cheated a bit by deliberately comparing RAM that all had looser timing, but that's simply because the market isn't exactly flooded down here - in fact, most manufacturers stop at CL30 RAM. But the point is that behind seemingly small improvements there's something under the surface, and with a price as low as the Trident Z5 Royal Neo - and with the potential for overclocking - there's no reason to buy something that's slower. And with poor RGB to boot...