Boosters for the Rocket (Lake) – G.Skill Ripjaws V DDR4-5066 CL20 2x 8 GB Memory Kit Review with Overclocking

1 - G.Skill Kits for Rocket Lake / Z590 2 - Unboxing and Teardown 3 - Heatsink-Performance and SPD 4 - Test systems and Overclocks 5 - AIDA64 and Geekbench 3 6 - Cyberpunk 2077 in FHD, QHD, UHD 7 - Closing Thoughts and Conclusion

Of course, the Ripjaws V DDR4-5066 CL20 can shine especially in applications that mainly value raw data throughput. But even in latency-sensitive tests like Cyberpunk 2077 at 1080p, the DJR-based kit can definitely hold its own, albeit reproducibly close in second or third place. However, there is no case tested today where the latency disadvantages have a serious negative impact on the final performance. At least performance-wise, the kit doesn’t do anything wrong.

Let’s move on to compatibility and overclocking, probably the biggest asterisk in the virtual purchase decision. Of course, CPU and mainboard always play a major role in high-end RAM kits like this one. The memory controller must be of sufficient quality to carry out the signal transmission at the appropriate speed and the mainboard must ensure sufficient signal integrity and must obstruct the transmission as little as possible. And even if you choose the best out of 3 CPUs and go with a 2-DIMM motherboard, there can still be one or two limitations, as we saw today.

So if in doubt, be prepared to at least tweak the clock and primary timings a bit until the kit can be run close to its intended specification. If you dare to do so, however, you quickly realize that the kit has been very generously binned and a lot of retrievable performance potential lies beyond the XMP profile. In this respect I would also question the DDR4-5333 variant, because to get these kits running properly you might need to tweak the timings yourself anyway and then, if CPU and mainboard allow it, the same clock rates can be achieved. 

Price-wise, G.Skill has positioned the F4-5066C20D-16GVK kit aggressively in the market, at around 170 Euros depending on the shop and availability. The combination of DDR4-5066 and under 200 Euro alone would have been unimaginable just a few years ago. For comparison, the B-Die based control sample with identical heatspreader is available for about 190 Euro, but also only specified for DDR4-4000. So if you have a particularly throughput-intensive use case, are looking for a suitable RAM pairing for your Rocket Lake CPU or simply enjoy relatively inexpensive RAM-overclocking and tuning, you definitely won’t go wrong with the G.Skill Ripjaws V DDR4-5066 C20 2 x 8 GB kit.

The RAM kit was provided by G.Skill without obligation. There was no obligation to publish. Moreover, there was no influence on the tests and their results.