Kingston is one of the world’s leading manufacturers of memory technologies of all types – be it fast PCI-e 4/5 NVMe SSDs, secure portable storage, or DDR4 and DDR5 RAM. Today we’ll be looking at the impact of Kingston’s DDR5-6000 EXPO RAM on gaming performance using AMD’s Ryzen 7 7700X CPU paired with Nvidia’s RTX 4070 graphics card.
To test optimal case and worst case scenarios, I’ve tested games with two sets of graphics settings.
To give Kingston’s faster RAM the biggest chance of demonstrating an impact, I tested games at 1920×1080 with “medium” graphics settings – the lowest standard I would use while PC gaming.
To test “worst case” scenarios, I’ve tested games at 3440×1440 with “high” graphics settings. How much, or how little, does Kingston’s faster EXPO memory impact performance? Let’s take a look!
System Configuration
| RAM | Kingston FURY Beast DDR5-6000 Micron DDR5-4800 (JEDEC) |
| CPU | AMD Ryzen 7 7700X |
| Motherboard | ASRock B650e Taichi |
| GPU | MSI Ventus 3x RTX 4070 |
| Monitor | LG 45GR95QE 3440×1440 Ultrawide OLED 240hz |
| CPU Cooler | DeepCool AK620 Digital |
| Computer Case | DeepCool CK560WH |
Horizon: Zero Dawn
Most of the other examples I’ll show are good examples of how little OR how much a game can benefit from faster RAM, but Horizon : Zero Dawn is a perfect example to show both how little AND how much a game can benefit.
At Ultrawide 1440p (3440×1440), there is virtually no performance difference at all between DDR5-4800 & 6000 – only a boost of less than 4fps to the 1% lows. However, 1080p is a completely different ballgame – gaining an insane 45fps in minimums and 80fps in average framerates!
Metro: Exodus Enhanced Edition
I had included Metro: Exodus Enhanced Edition because Ray Tracing can cause higher CPU loads. This title, however, didn’t show many gains even at only 1080p. At 153 vs 147fps, I wouldn’t have noticed the difference in performance if I hadn’t been benchmarking it.
Shadow of the Tomb Raider
Shadow of the Tomb Raider sees a mention worthy jump in minimums of over 13fps at 1080p, from 103.1 to 116.9 fps. It also gains an average of 24fps, which is about a 10% increase. This is a pretty decent gain from memory alone, although those higher averages would require a 300+hz monitor to enjoy.
Forspoken
Forspoken is a controversial title, but I decided to include it in this benchmark due to it’s use of DirectStorage. Averages weren’t impacted much (only 1-3fps) at either 21:9 1440p or 1920×1080, but there was ~20% improvement in minimum framerates at both resolutions. This is a very significant improvement to the worst performing parts of this game.
Far Cry V
Far Cry V is notoriously single thread bound, so I figured it might be a good example to test. At 1080p we see moderate boosts to minimum framerates but a more impressive 21fps increase to the average fps. 1440p UW sees minor improvements, but these won’t be quite as perceptible in gameplay.
Cyberpunk 2077
With Cyberpunk 2077, I applied the HEX edit to the game’s exe file to make sure it properly used all 16 threads on AMD’s Ryzen 7700X. Before testing this title, I thought it might make for an idea showcase for faster RAM speeds – but I was wrong. While minimums did show a moderate improvement at 1080p, jumping from 186 to 202 fps, none of the improvements shown here I would consider perceptible.
Borderlands 3
With Borderlands 3, Ultrawide 3440 shows a curiously barely lower average framerate with faster DDR5-6000. I found this odd, but I retested it a few times and all results show the same result. This minor drop, however, is offset by a significant increase of minimum framerates from 71 to 80fps.
1080p gains in both average and minimums, but I consider the gains made in average framerate largely academic because few individuals will percieve a real difference between 268 and 285 fps. The minimum framerates’ increase was noteworthy, jumping 33fps from 167 to 200fps!
Assassins Creed : Odyssey
Ubisoft’s Assassins Creed: Odyssey is one of my favorite games, but it’s very unoptimized. When I first played this game on Ryzen, there were a few very noticeable framerate dips that bothered me and these aren’t very well represented by the bar charts, so I’ve also included a frametime chart for this title. As you’ll see, DDR5-6000 presents a much smoother experience.
A Plague Tale : Requiem
Our last title for testing doesn’t show much of an improvement with faster RAM, though it does show minor improvements at 1080p.
Conclusion
DDR5-6000 won’t always make a perceptible impact on performance, but when it does the impact is significant. Stuttering in Assassin’s Creed : Odyssey was significantly reduced in impact using DDR5-6000. Horizon Zero Dawn, although an outlier, gained an impressive 80fps in average framerates from faster RAM alone at 1080p!
Do yourself a favor – if you’re going to build an AMD Ryzen system, don’t cheap out with the cheapest DDR5 available. It’s worth spending an extra $10-$20 for faster RAM like Kingston’s AMD EXPO Certified Fury Beast DDR5-6000!
