Patriot Viper Xtreme 5 DDR5 8000MT/s RAM
In addition to pairing our Intel Core i9-14900K with a robust motherboard, we also wanted to give it the best chance possible and pair it with the fastest memory we could get our hands on in a very short time period. We reached out to Patriot, and they provided us with some of the fastest DDR5 memory that they currently have. We were able to include testing with Patriot’s Viper Xtreme 5 DDR5 32GB Kit rated at 8000MT/s CL38. We will be performing a full review of this RAM in the future, in the meantime we will use it in this review in all the i9-14900K data.
Patriot does offer the Viper Xtreme 5 DDR5 at up to 8200MT/s, and we have the 8000MT/s kit. The CAS Latencies are low at 38-48-48-84 and it operates at 1.45V and they come with a limited lifetime warranty. This is Patriot’s flagship memory in its Viper Gaming lineup. These RAM modules are made from a high-quality IC that is selected and screened for overclocking abilities. They utilize an aluminum Viper-head style heatshield and also have RGB options. They support Intel XMP 3.0 and RGB App, and have an unlocked PMIC for full performance options.
Now, while this RAM is rated at 8000MT/s, that all depends on the motherboard, BIOS, and CPU lottery for IMC controller. Unfortunately, we were not able to run this RAM at 8000MT/s as the ASRock Phantom Gaming Z790 NOVA WIFI is currently configured with 2.01 BIOS. Keep in mind that all of this is happening before the launch, and as such BIOS versions are in flux, and always an evolution of software.
When we installed the RAM into the motherboard and applied the XMP Profile 1 (8000MT/s) the motherboard would not make it through POST. This is likely an issue with BIOS, or even CPU/IMC silicon lottery (you never know). We have yet to try the RAM on other 14th Gen CPUs, or other motherboards. In the future, we will be testing the RAM with other 14th Gen CPUs and motherboards, so perhaps they will do better. In addition, we are sure ASRock will be releasing newer BIOS in the future for this motherboard, and then at that point, it may work just fine at 8000MT/s. We don’t think it’s the fault of the RAM, in this case.
All of that said, we did manage to run the Patriot Viper Xtreme 5 DDR5 RAM kit at the XMP Profile 2 instead. What this does is run the RAM at 7800MT/s instead, and still at the same CL38 setting. When we did this, the motherboard booted right up, and all of our testing went perfectly without a hitch.
Thankfully Patriot includes 3 XMP profiles into the RAM, which gives you options if 8000MT/s won’t work. In XMP Profile 1, it will set it to 8000MT/s CL38, at XMP Profile 2 it will run at 7800MT/s CL38, and at XMP Profile 3 it will run at 7600 CL36, so you have options. We ended up running it just fine at XMP Profile 2 for 7800MT/s CL38 in all of our testing today. In the future, when we get 8000 MT/s working, we can try out some CPU and game testing to see how that changes things.