Patriot Viper Elite 5 Ultra RGB DDR5-6400 UDIMM 96GB Dual-Channel Memory Kit Review

TweakTown Rating: 98%

Our Verdict

Patriot's new Viper Elite 5 Ultra RGB packed in 96GB worth of density at decent speed, delivering performance and flexibility we never expected, taking full advantage of the latest platforms.

Pros

• Density
• Overclockability
• New aesthetic
• RGB lighting
• Pricing

Cons

• Lower OC due to density

Should you buy it?

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Introduction, Specifications, and Pricing

We may be showing some age, but when we started in the PC game, the advent of high-density kits of RAM brought two things to our attention. First and foremost, you needed the fattest wallet possible, as the cost was astronomical. The second thing you needed was the skills to fine-tune the profiles so that you could run on whatever board you owned without issues. Even so, we all played the game of saving up and buying ever bigger kits, so we could do things like download LimeWire and compete in various forum threads for bragging rights.

As the RAM world progressed, stability improved, but cost remained a concern. When we initially got our hands on the first 32GB and 64GB kits, they ran what was specified, unless you had one or two specific motherboards and a miracle CPU. Otherwise, what you bought is what you got. As we moved from DDR3 to DDR4, the overclock came back into play, but again, we had issues with chipsets and compatibility there as well, where sometimes only three channels worked. With DDR5, we have seen more flexibility in the past, but we have yet to test a set so densely packed.

Time has progressed even more since we first got into DDR5 testing, and new things are afoot, such as the Ultra Intel CPUs and their memory capabilities, as well as a massive movement for memory overclocking with AMD as of late. In steps Patriot, with plenty of pre-existing options to fill the slots on whatever build you may dream up, but why not opt for something more complementary to the rest of the parts in the build rather than using the same old standbys most others are selling outside of their CUDIMM lineups?

The first thing we noticed with these new sticks is that the part number drops the "P" we are used to seeing at the start of these, but this Patriot Viper Elite 5 Ultra RGB sports the VEUR596G6432K. A lot can be gleaned from that model number, particularly from the beginning up to the "5." Past that, we read that we have a 96GB kit rated for 6400 MT/s at CAS32. While this kit does sport way more capacity than most would need, for those who are filling 32, 48, and 64GB kits, you now have yet another option, and at a reasonable cost.

Under matte black painted aluminum heat spreaders, we get sticks full of Hynix ICs, thirty-two in fact, making these some of the first dual rank sticks we have used, at least at this level. With 48GB per DIMM, there is a ton of talking going on, which to us should raise the timings, but somehow Patriot still impresses with what they offer. Even without XMP/DOCP active, this kit will run at the SPD profile, which is shown to run at 5600 MT/s using 46-46-46-90 2T at 1.10VDIMM. Those who know where to look will have XMP choices preset to two of the three XMP slots. The first of them is the 6400 MT/s with 32-39-39-101 2T at 1.40VDIMM. Should that be a tad too fast for your build to run with complete stability, you can opt for 6200 MT/s with 36-44-44-110 2T timings at 1.40VDIMM.

When it comes to weights and measures, we find that each DIMM is 43.5 grams at weigh-in, the majority of which is PCB, ICs, and accompanying chips. Each stick is 133.7mm long, it stands 41.2mm tall, and is 7.2mm thick, which is about average for what we typically see of heat-spreader-covered DIMMs.

At the top of the chart, you can see the $289.99 MSRP for this 96 GB kit with all the bling and style anyone could want. Compared to others, only Oloy can beat that price, as other big-name players are charging more for similar offerings. With a quick look, we found them at Newegg and Amazon, the latter being the lowest price at $279.99. For anyone with a newer Intel Ultra CPU, or those looking to run 1:1 on AMD and have serious RAM needs, Patriot has something you need to have a look at.

Packaging and Patriot Viper Elite 5 Ultra RGB UDIMM

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With a new series comes new packaging, where Patriot opts for a silver backdrop, with chunky white blocks fading away into it at the right. We find the Viper logo at the top, to the left of the kit specifications. The central portion features sexy matte black sticks illuminated by a smooth blend of RGB, while the bottom boasts prismatic lettering and a new "Ultra" compatibility icon.

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The reverse is typical of what we find with all Patriot kits. It includes an explanation of what lies inside, the part number, a view inside the box, legal info, a code to get to the product page, and their social media tags.

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Of course, thin cardboard won't protect the DIMMS; it is all show and no go. However, Patriot is keeping with the snap together, form-fitting, plastic inner packaging that has kept many a kit of RAM from them safe to our office, sometimes from around the globe.

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You may have noticed our intro was lacking in description, as we wanted you to see them with fresh eyes without any preconceived notions. The new Elite Ultra 5 RGB boasts a sleek contrast of black and white. Both the majority of the diffuse and the lone Viper logo are white, with a bit of black paint on the diffuser to complement that matte black heat spreader.

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On the other side of the sticks, you find everything is the same, with the logo on the left this time, but the right end sports the product sticker. On it, we get the part number, serial number, type, density, speed, CAS timing, and voltage.

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Without anything else to distract you from the view, what you see is what you too can have slotted into your motherboard. While one stick looks great, once you have two, it ups the contrast and appeal, leaving us with a stunning set of DDR5 to admire, and we haven't even seen the RGB yet.

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The diffusers take a familiar shape, with the end nearest the left pointed and angled down away from the rest of the diffuser. The majority are level with the world, and have the Viper name painted on them, to be seen through the RGB illumination yet to come.

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After running the benches, we used the heat to release the spreader, allowing us to glance under the hood. On this side, we see eight SK Hynix H5CGD8MGBD ICs, but keep in mind there are eight on the back of this black PCB as well.

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The SPD chip, made by FMD, is located at the top-left by the LED. The OP-8M PMIC, made by Richtek, is unlocked for overclocking goodness.

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We removed the spreader from the back, but the foam stuck to all the ICs. We did find the ene 6K5850UA0, which is the RGB LED controller, and where the default LED display profile is kept.

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To maintain contrast and avoid losing RAM in the picture, we had to keep the booth light intense, which washes out most of the RGB illumination. However, we can assure you it is bright, comparable to any other Patriot RGB set we've used so far.

The main set of timings is fine for what Patriot is delivering in this 96GB kit, and even looking at the likes of the tRFC and tREFi, you will notice they are tight out of the box. Even in tabs two and three, we see nothing alarming to suggest that the Elite 5 Ultra RGB should have any issues with our testing.

Test System Details

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To obtain the Intel CPU-Z screenshots, you will see directly following this image; this is the system we used to do it, as well as to get the results seen in the following pages. Thanks to ASRock, our wallet, HYTE, Patriot, GIGABYTE, and be quiet! for supporting us with this venture. Detailed specifications of the system can be found below.

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After a CMOS clear and a trip or two through UEFI, we enabled XMP and got what we expected to see. As described on the box, we have our Viper Elite 5 Ultra RGB, all 96GB of it, running at 6400 MT/s utilizing 32-39-39-101 2T timings. Another trip into the UEFI to verify voltages shows us 1.4VDD/q, 1.296 VCCIO, and 1.024 VCCSA.

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Keep in mind that, as we tell you, without changing anything other than the timings, this set of 32 ICs plays well enough together that we were able to run 6400 MT/s at 30-37-37-101 2T. We see this in 16, 32, and 48GB kits, but never did we expect it from this amount of DDR5 spread over two DIMMs.

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On the other side of the overclocking coin, we tried to get the most speed the kit had to offer, and were blown away by the amount of movement found here. Again, with no changes to the XMP voltages, we set the timings back to 32-39-39-101 2T, and started to increase memory speed. While we were able to get 6866 MT/s into Windows, testing was unstable, so we backed things down to 6800 MT/s and gained the stability we were lacking.

Not to say we did not try voltage adjustments. In most instances, changing them decreased the stability we had, and we found that the Patriot Viper Elite 5 Ultra RGB performs best as Patriot sends them, in this regard.

Chad's Intel DDR5 Dual-Channel Test System Specifications

Intel Performance

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Without much direct competition, Patriot just needs to stay ahead of the Crucial "6400 MT/s JEDEC" kit, and they did their job. In AIDA64 read testing, we see that PVE5UR is nearly 1000 MB/s faster head-to-head at 96.772 MB/s from the XMP profile. At CAS30, we were able to add another 824 MB/s over XMP, but we gained 5577 MB/s, increasing the speed to 6800 MB/s.

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Looking into write performance, we start 3885 MB/s better than the JEDEC kit at 89,277 MB/s using XMP. Tighter timings give us a nominal 383 MB/s advantage, but at 6800 MT/s, we gained 4827 MB/s more than XMP delivered.

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Patriot came out swinging with copy results, landing the XMP result some 8595 MB/s faster than the JEDEC set. Lowering the timings gains just 244 MB/s over XMP, which is essentially the margin of error, but increasing speed to 6800 MT/s nets us a 5433 MB/s advantage.

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In a scale of eighty to one hundred and ten, those latencies from the Patriot are much better than we assumed sticks with so many chips could produce. Out of the box, we start in the middle of the pack at 94.8ns, and the best result we saw was with more speed, which left us at 90.4ns.

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The first thing you do with a set of sticks this dense is rush to run Super Pi, as that is not what this kit is designed to be great at, although they do outside a new set of much faster CUDIMMs at this task. The PVE5UR starts at the bottom of the barrel, and there is not much gained by tightening down the timings, yet with a little more speed, Patriot outpaced a set marketed at 8400 MT/s with much less going on under Corsair's hood.

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PCMark 10 seems to like the JEDEC-6400 kit a bit better, with Patriot around 40 points behind. While overclocking often doesn't help our cause, you see that both options with overclocking net us nearly 100 points, pushing this kit much further up the chart.

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In a more real-world application, the XMP profile yielded a six-minute and eighteen-second result, significantly better than the 6400 Crucial. With tighter timings, we shaved off roughly five seconds from the XMP time. With more speed, you could get down to six minutes and five seconds.

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Sixteen seconds and some change is the gap Patriot took over Crucial in Handbrake at 6400 MT/s. We removed five seconds with tighter timings, but at 6800 MT/s, even though stable, we can see we may have been pushing a little too hard.

Final Thoughts

Starting with the basics, we love the look of the newest Ultra series in the Patriot arsenal. The black and white combination is not only high contrast out of the box, but once you get the RGB synced to the rest of the build, they get even sexier to look at. As always, the colors blend smoothly over their eight LEDS, with no hotspots, and the intensity is some of the best in the game.

On a sheer approach to what this kit is all about, we are stunned. To put it simply, with what we have seen in the past from high-density RAM offerings, what you saw was what you got. There was no room, no flexibility, and stability was never a guarantee. However, Patriot came out of nowhere, with a kit designed to appreciate the nuances of our Ultra 265K, and not only is XMP performance better than expected, with extra left in the tank, but we were able to get so much more from the investment into a kit of this nature.

We recognize that not everyone can utilize 96GB of DDR5, but for those who can, the Crucial JEDEC typically serves as the gold standard for stability. For those of you with newer CPUs and the guts to step outside the standard box of what you "should do" when looking for this much RAM. There are benefits nearly across all of the tests, and if you design things, play around in 3D modeling, open a million tabs in Chrome, edit videos and such, you all need to sit and have a think about new technologies and what stability means today versus what JEDEC sets as the standard for many users of this league of product.

You will need to dig a bit deeper to purchase this kit, as the $279.99 listed price is a lot for DDR5. Compared to other kits in this category, Patriot is one of the most affordable options, yet it still delivers all the fun we expect from its non-value lineups. So much density, so much flexibility, so much attention paid to what today's CPUs can do. Once again, Patriot delivers beyond what we thought to expect from a 96GB kit of RAM. The new Patriot Viper Elite 5 Ultra RGB is a recent addition to the market, but if you want to get the most out of your RAM and Ultra CPU, you need to pay attention to what's happening here.