G.Skill announced that it is developing a new kit of dual-channel RGB memory that breaks the 5GHz barrier with air cooling.

To be clear, G.Skill isn’t announcing a DDR4-5000 memory kit. Yet. The company was able to reach the 5,000MHz barrier on an existing 16GB (2 x 8GB) kit of Trident Z RGB DDR4-4700 by overclocking the RAM an additional 300MHz using an MSI Z370I Gaming Pro Carbon AC motherboard with an Intel Core i7-8700K in the CPU socket. Previously, you’d have to run some kind of liquid cooling (either via open-loop waterblock or LN2 pots) on a single-channel RAM module to reach that speed, but G.Skill pushed its Samsung DDR4 B-die ICs to 5GHz in its CPU-Z verified overclocking experiment with stock Trident Z heatsinks and dual-channel operation.

The incredibly high memory speeds don’t come without some drawbacks. The RAM reached its insanely ridiculous frequency at the cost of CAS latency (the RAM was verified with a CAS timing of 21-26-26-46) and overvoltage (a scorching 1.45V). However, the fact that G.Skill was able to attain a stable system at these settings in dual-channel operation with stock heatsinks is impressive, and the company plans to develop DDR4 RAM kits that reach the 5GHz now that it’s proved that frequency is attainable.

“Previously, the 5GHz memory speed [was] only achievable in extreme overclocking and in single-channel. We’re excited to share that we’ve been able to achieve the 5GHz memory speed in not only air-cooling conditions, but also in dual-channels. This is a major milestone for us,” said Tequila Huang, Corporate Vice President at G.Skill International. “We will make every effort to bring this specification onto the consumer market, and bring the experience of extreme performance to worldwide users.”

Clearly, there’s some work to be done before these kinds of RAM speeds hit the consumer market, but it’s exciting to see G.Skill slowly move the memory speed goalpost a little further down the track with its product development. A release date and pricing is sheer speculation at this point, but a 16GB kit of G.Skill Trident Z RGB DDR4-5000 certainly won’t be cheap.