ADATA XPG Lancer DDR5-5200 (2x16 - 32GB) Review | MMORPG.com

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ADATA XPG Lancer DDR5-5200 (2x16 - 32GB) Review | MMORPG.com

Fancy stepping up to the next generation of Intel processors and want a DDR5 memory kit to go with it? Find out if this one is worth a buy in our review.

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Quizzical

I realize that this is really just a case of measuring the things that are easy to measure because they're easy to measure, even though they're not the things that you actually want to measure. But your measurements involve three very different processors, and most the benchmarks probably depend a lot more on the CPU than the memory. Indeed, that so many of the benchmarks have the Core i9-11900K give wildly different scores from the Ryzen 9 5950X even with exactly the same memory kit confirms this.

A much better comparison would be of an Alder Lake CPU using this memory kit versus exactly the same CPU using a DDR4 memory kit, which is possible, though it would require a different motherboard. The reason that you didn't do that is, of course, that you don't have that other motherboard. But that is really the only way to get a meaningful comparison of this particular DDR5 memory kit to DDR4.

You may also be able to get some meaningful benchmarks by running the same benchmarks on the same hardware but with different memory clock speeds. Try running it at 5200 MHz, 4800, 4400, 4000, and 3600, and see what happens. You could also reduce latency timings at lower clock speeds to keep the latency in nanoseconds roughly constant, to see how much benefit comes specifically from the higher clock speed. That's the key thing that you want to know if considering whether it's worth paying extra for 5200 MHz DDR5 rather than the stock 4800 MHz--which is the highest that any CPU on the market officially supports, and even then, only on motherboards with only two memory slots.

Quizzical

"The density of each die has also been doubled from last generation, 16GB to 32GB each"

No.  For starters, you probably mean Gb, as in gigabits, not gigabytes.  Even with that interpretation, it's probably still wrong.  While there will be 32 Gb DDR5 dies in the future, Micron doesn't offer them yet:

https://www.micron.com/products/dram/ddr5-sdram/part-catalog

Hynix also only offers 16 Gb DDR5 at the moment.  As best as I can tell, Samsung doesn't yet have DDR5 to sell at all, of any size.  Or at least if they do, their web site doesn't list it.

It's not at all clear what "last generation" means in this context, either.  This is the first generation of DDR5.  If you mean as compared to DDR4, then there have been DDR4 dies of a variety of sizes.  For example, if you're willing to buy in sufficient volume, Micron will happily sell you DDR4 dies of 4 Gb, 8 Gb, 16 Gb, or 32 Gb:

https://www.micron.com/products/dram/ddr4-sdram/part-catalog

What tends to happen is that new process nodes allow fitting more capacity into about the same size as before, and then memory manufacturers use that to build higher density dies.

"All memory is now error-correcting, a capability previously limited to server-side memory, increasing its reliability."

Not really.  DDR5 does have in-die ECC memory, which DDR4 does not.  And in particular, even ECC DDR4 memory doesn't do that.  It uses a ninth die for ECC purposes.  But DDR5's in-die ECC can't protect against bits being flipped in transmission, which server-grade ECC will.  There is also server-grade ECC DDR5 coming, but this isn't it.

There are all sorts of error-correcting codes built into all sorts of protocols all over the place, including SATA, PCI Express, USB, and many other things.  It's not just a server grade thing.

"The modules utilize Micron memory controllers, which should bode well for overclocking if history is any indicator."

No.  The memory controllers in your computer that used the DDR5 memory are made by Intel, and are built into the CPU.  Memory controllers have generally been built into the CPU package for many years now.  You probably mean that the memory chips were made by Micron.  As to whether that bodes well for overclocking, there are only three major DRAM manufacturers in the world, and they all make a variety of products from the high end to the low end.

Jamar870

Well those that want/need this might consider acting soon if an article on TomsHardware is correct. Scaplers are flipping DDR5 memory now like video cards.

bfoxsyracuse

These don't work for me. I have the XPG Lancer 5200 cas 38 16gb x2 modules, MSI z690 Carbon MB, and an i9 12900KF. The XMP profile fails every time. I can only run them at 4800 cas 40. Me thinks ADATA XPG sold a bunch of 4800 cas 40 modules as 5200 cas 38 and tweaked them show up as such but when you try to implement it they fail and revert to their actual speed and latency.

Quizzical

bfoxsyracuse said:

These don't work for me. I have the XPG Lancer 5200 cas 38 16gb x2 modules, MSI z690 Carbon MB, and an i9 12900KF. The XMP profile fails every time. I can only run them at 4800 cas 40. Me thinks ADATA XPG sold a bunch of 4800 cas 40 modules as 5200 cas 38 and tweaked them show up as such but when you try to implement it they fail and revert to their actual speed and latency.

It's also possible that the problem is your processor, or more to the point, the memory controllers in your processor.  Your motherboard has four memory slots, not two, and so even if you only use two of them, Intel says that the CPU only supports up to 4400 MHz DDR5, not even the 4800 MHz that it supports for motherboards with only two memory slots.