DDR5-8400 modules incoming for Intel's Alder Lake processors

Adata has teamed up with Gigabyte and MSI to ensure that its upcoming DDR5 memory modules will be able to hit an 8400 MT/s data transfer rate on Intel's next-gen Alder Lake platform. 

The DDR5 memory promises a rather massive performance increase compared to DDR4 due to a tangible increase in data transfer rates as well as efficiency improvements. When the DDR5 specification was published in mid-2020, it was expected that the first desktop memory modules based on the new standard would hit DDR4-4800 or DDR5-5200 data rates, whereas eventually the standard will reach up to DDR5-8400. As it turns out, even the first-generation DDR5 platforms will be able to hit an 8400 MT/s data transfer rate.  

Adata on Wednesday said that it was testing its 64GB DDR5-8400 memory modules on the 'latest Intel platforms' for consumers, which probably means Intel's upcoming Alder Lake processors with up to eight high-performance Golden Cove cores and eight energy-efficient Grace Mont cores. The motherboards that Adata uses right now are from Gigabyte and MSI. 

DDR5 memory supports several technologies to enable high data rates, long-term I/O scalability, and real-world efficiency, including on-die single error correction (SEC) ECC, DFE (decision feedback equalizer) to eliminate reflective noise at high frequencies, improved training modes, on-die termination, and two independent 32/40-bit I/O channels (non-ECC/ECC) per module. Micron once estimated that DDR5 memory would be 28% ~ 36% more efficient than DDR4 at the same I/O speeds. 

Intel's 12th Generation Core 'Alder Lake' processors based on the next-gen Golden Cove microarchitecture promise further instructions per cycle (IPC) performance gains compared to Willow Cove and Cypress Cove microarchitectures. Using DDR5-8400 modules with such CPUs will further increase their real-world performance thanks to a higher peak bandwidth and improved efficiency, giving them a competitive edge over DDR4-based platforms. 

Hitting DDR5-8400 using the first-generation DDR5 platform and memory modules is an impressive achievement. Given all the advantages that DDR5 already has on an architectural level, it remains to be seen how significantly real-world data rates can be improved with the evolution of memory controllers, platform designs, and memory module designs.