Colorful iGame Shadow II DDR5 memory with CXMT ICs hits 8600 MT/s

With DRAM chip manufacturers including Samsung, Micron, and SK Hynix kicking consumers to the curb and prioritizing the production of high-margin enterprise DRAM and HBM products, consumer DRAM vendors are looking to source ICs from alternative manufacturers, including China based CXMT. Lexar's THOR II desktop memory is one such example, and now Colorful is another brand looking to source its chips from CXMT.

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Colorful used the memory to show off the capabilities of its iGame X870E VULCAN OC V14 motherboard. It used the board with a Ryzen 9 9950X3D processor and a 2x16GB iGame Shadow II DDR5-6000 kit overclocked to DDR5-8600 at CL46. The system successfully completed a 100% MemTestPro test. Colorful joins MSI and ASUS in validating CXMT based memory on its motherboards.

It's a good sign now that several motherboard manufacturers have demonstrated support for CXMT-based memory. 8600 MT/s is an impressive number for a kit without an integrated clock driver. A CUDIMM could conceivably be just as fast as one with chips from the established manufacturers. When next-generation CPUs come to market, there's every chance we'll start to see more CXMT memory kits.

There are some caveats however. CXMT is still relatively new to the global DRAM market. We don't know how much its chips cost relative to inflated Samsung, Micron and SK Hynix pricing, and the memory results from Colorful were performed on a dual-dimm motherboard, which usually outperforms the more typically available four-dimm boards. I'd really like to see an overclocker test a CUDIMM kit with CXMT chips on an Intel board to see what it's really capable of.

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How likely is DDR5-8600 stability on four-DIMM motherboards compared to the dual-DIMM result shown?

Colorful’s DDR5-8600 result was achieved on a dual-DIMM motherboard and the article notes dual-DIMM setups usually outperform four-DIMM boards, so the same level of stability is less likely on a four-DIMM motherboard. The article suggests further testing is needed, ideally by an overclocker on a different platform, to confirm scalability to four-DIMM systems.

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Question #2

Has TweakTown tested CXMT-based DDR5 kits on Intel motherboards and CPUs to compare real-world overclocking?

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Question #3

Will CXMT-based DDR5 kits be affected by the US government blacklist in terms of availability or import restrictions?

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While DDR5 memory with CXMT chips is slowly coming to market, it's not a replacement for existing chip makers just yet. Aside from validation and scalability considerations, there are ongoing geopolitical tensions, tariff considerations, and the blacklisting of CXMT by the US government. CXMT is not the saviour consumers are hoping for. At least not yet, but anything that improves consumer choice and lowers cost will be welcome.