More than ever, manufacturers have been pushing memory to the absolute limits. JEDEC, the standards committee, is pretty conservative. Yet the moment DDR5 launched, everyone threw JEDEC out the window. Intel + AMD's memory controllers were *not* ready to handle it.

DDR5-4800 was the baseline. Day one kits were pushing 6000+. Today, even 8000+. On-die error correction is masking chips that would have been binned as trash in the DDR4 era. The gap between JEDEC spec and retail has never been wider.

Some of you will remember how bad DDR2 was. It really feels like the latest generation is a return to that “flaky” era. I know I’m ranting, but if you care about memory performance, manual tuning in this era is a nightmare. I can suggest taking a look at Level1Techs for a

@lauriewired I have never regretted upgrading my computer more than launch day and the 7950X. Full of RAM issues, moved to a 13900K and it’s also not great. Got an M3 Mac and I just use that for 95% of my work.

@Tymscar lol I was also in the "unstable 7950x" gang unfortunate that intel isn't much better

@lauriewired @grok why is DDR5 intrinsinctly unstable? Does it include my two 16GB DDR?

@lauriewired when I built my DDR5 pc I was infuriated at the boot times because the ram wasn’t stable at 6000(even though it was marketed as 6000) would only run stable at 4800, thus the bios wouldn’t “train/learn” the ram. Took me 3 different tries to find stable 6000 ddr5. Ryzen 7900x.

@lauriewired DDR5 is not garbage

@lauriewired If you combine this with a 13th/14th gen Intel Core i9 you will experience peak system instability

@lauriewired It's fine, that's just neurotic behavior atp. Most of the issues start on the motherboard, not the CPU or DRAM kit itself. They're designed to work in different environments (profiles). Each DRAM kit can vary in quality in PCB layers and die type (dies different between gens)

@lauriewired It’s the mobo memory handler chip that matters more than the ram

@lauriewired I don't know how you so consistently discuss topics that I've never even heard, and are squarely in my area of expertise. It's humbling how much esoteric technological knowledge you have. You're awesome.

@lauriewired DDR5 prices doubled (literally) since January, I checked and bought myself

@lauriewired Is active cooling required?

@lauriewired been having great time with Zen4/Zen5 EPYCs and 8/12 channels. Been having miserable time with Ryzens and high capacity dimms.

@lauriewired I've found that the faster sticks (6000Mhz, CL30) are the ones that were binned highest for passing initial stress testing. I wouldn't even bother with slower sticks. Anecdotal, but my two 32GB CL30 SK Hynix sticks have been solid on an MSI B850Pro motherboard with EXPO settings.

@lauriewired "Cleaner look without resistors" is so cuuute. 🤡

@lauriewired Thought you were talking about dance dance revolution 5

@lauriewired she clearly means "double data rate" but I still find this funny

@lauriewired All of my computers that I've ever used have been DDR2 or DDR3 I've been too poor to upgrade. So does this mean if I get a new system I should stick to DDR4?

@lauriewired I'm using DDR5 on ARM. I haven't had any issues.

@lauriewired Preach! It is junk tier.

@lauriewired Thats what I thought, seeing specs and testing.... DDR4. OK.

@lauriewired another day, another you telling me i'm not knowing shit about my computer.. amazing!

@lauriewired That's sad

@lauriewired The machine priests mumble in silent discontempt. Respect for what you do.

@lauriewired Whew good thing I still use DDR4

@lauriewired Does this mean that bitflips are more likely in consumer products like phones since chips run hotter and have more errors?

@lauriewired Yes, DDR5 isn't much faster than DDR4, yet it's more expensive and far less stable. It's just that they rushed to move on because China started mass-producing DDR4.

@lauriewired DDR5 is great because i got my 2x16GiB @ 3200MT 16CL for like 35 euros

@lauriewired meh mines rock stable took some bios updates though.. my shit was super flakey at first but now i can leave it running for days without issue i use my pc to render things in blender too, which pushes it kinda hard, not just a gamer

@lauriewired If you're getting that many Memtest errors at JEDEC then something is definitely broken. Though I think DDR5 got a worse reputation than it deserved because of AMD, which had pretty bad compatibility at the early days of AM5. Intel's memory controller is more forgiving.