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New DDR4 overclocking world record set at 5.9GHz

In the quest for more performance, a new world record for DDR4 RAM clock speed has been achieved at 5.9GHz.

Chris Jarrard

August 8, 2019 11:50 AM

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For those who like to work with cars and take pride in squeezing every last drop of horsepower from their shop projects, a sense of pride can be had when the hardware is pushed to the absolute limits of its capability. The same is also true for PC hardware enthusiasts, who often spend loads of cash and endure sleepless nights in pursuit of reaching the next level of performance. Team MSI overclocker Kovan Yang now owns bragging rights and a certified world record for hitting the highest frequency yet for DDR4 RAM, coming in at 5.9GHz with a pair of Kingston HyperX sticks on the MSI MPG Z390I Gaming Edge AC motherboard.

Yang was able to smash the world record for highest frequency on August 6 and had the results certified over at HWBOT. Like most world record overclocking attempts, this insane amount of heat generated during the tests were cooled with the help of liquid nitrogen. For a world record to be certified, the PC in question must be able to boot into the operating system and remain stable through validation. Stability for world record overclocking requires extra voltage to be applied to the memory, thus producing more heat.  When pushing the operating limits of this type of hardware, excessive heat leads to stability issues, thus the need tor extreme cooling.

The overclock was completed using MSI’s MPG Z390I Gaming Edge motherboard. This particular model makes use of the ITX form factor, which only leaves room for two memory slots. When attempting to overclock RAM, having only two slots is preferable as it offers increased stability when compared to motherboards with four slots. The Intel Core i9-9900K CPU used in this attempt was also altered to run with only two of its eight cores clocked at ~800MHz to help with stability. A single 8GB stick of HyperX 3466 DDR4 RAM was used and the timings were adjusted to 31-63-63-63-2.

The HyperX memory knocks G.Skill’s TridentZ Royal off the top spot in the frequency rankings for now. Overclocking teams for all the different PC hardware vendors are likely hard at work trying to reclaim the top spot as we speak, so expect to see this new world record toppled sometime in the near future.

Chris Jarrard

Contributing Tech Editor

Chris Jarrard likes playing games, crankin' tunes, and looking for fights on obscure online message boards. He understands that breakfast food is the only true food. Don't @ him.