Patriot Viper Xtreme 5 48GB DDR5-8200 Memory Kit Review

After the already very fast Viper Xtreme 5 8000MT/s memory kit, we are back to you with an even quicker Viper Xtreme 5 memory kit rated at 8200MT/s. The latest addition to the Viper Xtreme 5 line is also the fastest memory kit in the Patriot’s offer (so far). Due to additional binning, Patriot could prepare memory kits at higher frequency and nearly the same timings as lower options, making the Viper Xtreme 5 one of the fastest RAM in stores.

The main visual difference between today’s memory kits and the recently reviewed memory kits is the lack of RGB illumination. It can be an advantage for all those who care about pure speed and don’t like all the noise related to the RGB. It’s not hard to notice there is too much RGB everywhere recently, and users are divided between those who like illumination in everything and those who like classic, minimalistic designs.

The memory kit is designed for the latest Intel chipsets. It supports XMP, so our tests will be performed on the ASUS Maximus Z790 APEX motherboard, which shouldn’t limit the hidden potential of the Xtreme 5 memory kit. I won’t make this introduction any longer as there are more interesting things awaiting. Let’s start with specifications and features so we know more details about the tested memory kit.

Specifications and Features

Push your system to the limit with Viper Gaming’s newest high-speed DDR5 DRAM series: the Viper Xtreme 5.
Featuring ridiculously fast speeds, the Viper Xtreme 5 is designed to deliver consistent record-breaking performance and overclocking capabilities. With support for three selectable XMP 3.0 overclock profiles, the Viper Xtreme 5 can meet the needs of the most extreme overclockers out there.
Backed by a limited lifetime warranty and built with best-in-class parts and materials, the Viper Xtreme 5 is 100% hand-tested on the latest Intel DDR5 platform for quality assurance and reliability on high performance to offer peace of mind for all users. Any unsupported platform may need to operate at a lower speed or require manual tuning for stability.

Key Features

• Enhanced Aesthetics and Superior Quality
  Featuring a unique snake head shape, matte finish coating, and large RGB lightbar, the Viper Xtreme 5 combines strong performance and a truly unique look gamers can’t find anywhere else. Created from high-quality aluminum materials, our heatshield is designed to last and able to go the distance with extreme performance.
• Higher Frequency Support
  Through improvements to our internal clock generation and memory timing circuits, the Viper Xtreme 5 delivers up to a ridiculous 8000MHz, achieving and supporting the highest data transfer rates and frequencies of any Viper DRAM in our entire catalog.
• PMIC-Lower Power Consumption
  The Viper Xtreme 5 is designed to operate at higher speeds with lower voltages without generating as much heat. This lower power consumption is possible due to the integrated high-quality PMIC, which creates more room for overclocking without exceeding safe voltages and temperature limits. (Overclocking requires more power, so a high-quality power supply with adequate wattage and stability can help ensure stable and reliable overclocking.)
• Intel XMP 3.0 Ready
  The Viper Xtreme 5 supports Intel XMP 3.0 Ready overclock profiles.
• Trustworthy Components
  With On-die ECC, the Viper Xtreme 5 can correct single-bit errors and detect multi-bit errors, ensuring that data integrity, data accuracy and system reliability are maintained in the event of hardware errors or other issues in high-performance environments.
• Motherboard and Viper exclusive RGB App supported
  The Viper Xtreme 5’s RGB lighting system on the lightbar allows for endless stunning customization options to stand out among other RGB performance memory. With our exclusive Viper RGB Sync, you can easily pair your lighting effects with other devices for a fully cohesive and immersive system.

Specifications

The tested memory kit contains two memory modules, 24GB each, so 48GB in total. As I mentioned in previous reviews, 48GB isn’t too much nowadays. Some users may not need it, but software developers see constantly lowering RAM prices and raising capacity, so they are not limiting themselves much. If you run multiple applications in the background, multiple web browser tabs, and leave other software open for days, then you may find more RAM very helpful. Of course, if you stick with one game that you run from time to time, then you may save some money by getting a 32GB kit at the same speed.

Current memory kits that use 24GB modules overclock as high as those with 16GB modules, what’s another reason why non-binary memory kits are getting popular. All motherboards with the latest chipsets should support non-binary memory, as BIOS updates were released a few months ago.

The same as every other DDR5-7200 or higher 48GB memory kit, the Patriot Xtreme 5 DDR5-8200 uses the new Hynix M-die IC. The highest memory kits are passing additional tests to confirm they are fully stable at the top frequencies.

The only issue can be compatibility on the motherboard and memory controller side. The Viper Xtreme 5 is compatible with every motherboard that also supports DDR5-8200. It should be ASUS APEX/APEX Encore and every higher Gigabyte from the new X series. There are more motherboards, but most of them don’t support anything above DDR5-7800/8000. Even if we have the best overclocking motherboard, then the CPU may cause problems.
If we have any stability problems, then Patriot prepared its memory to work at 7800MT/s and 8000MT/s as it has programmed three different XMP profiles.

All the product specifications and features come from Patriot, and you can also find them on the product website.

Patriot Viper Xtreme 5 is one of the only memory series rated at 8200MT/s and CL38. It also uses a reasonable voltage of 1.45V VDD/VDDQ. Most of the competition, including brands like G.Skill or V-Color, decided to use more relaxed timings like CL40-52-52. It doesn’t say how good memory chips are under heatsinks, but it gives us info that out-of-the-box, Patriot is supposed to be the fastest option on the market.

Above is a screenshot from ASRock Timing Configurator software, which shows a list of more essential timings when RAM works at the XMP#1 profile – the rated speed of 8200MT/s. All the tests were made on the ASUS Maximus Z790 APEX motherboard with BIOS 1701. It’s not the latest version, but the latest one was released once we finished tests.

Packaging and Product Photos

The memory kit arrived in a retail package, which is pretty much the same as that of the 8000MT/s kit. The main difference is the graphics on the front side, as the memory kit doesn’t have RGB illumination. Instead of that, it has a bright-red top bar, which, depending on the ambient light, may even look like it’s glowing.

Inside the package, we will find two memory modules and a sticker with the Viper Gaming logo. We don’t need much for the installation, and memory installation manuals always have motherboards. I assume anyone buying this type of memory already knows how to install it.

Patriot Viper Xtreme 5 48GB DDR5-8200 – Package 1

Patriot Viper Xtreme 5 48GB DDR5-8200 – Package 2

Patriot Viper Xtreme 5 48GB DDR5-8200 – Package 3

Patriot Viper Xtreme 5 48GB DDR5-8200 – Package 4

The memory kit arrived in perfect condition, as seen in the attached photos. The memory is well-protected by a blister-type box and the cardboard box from the exterior. The exterior is well-described, with key features, general product specifications, various certificates, contact to support, and some more. There is everything we may need to know while buying this product in a retail store. I’m sure most of our readers would read about the memory kit and order it online, but the package counts, too.

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Memory modules are protected by quite thick aluminum heatsinks. They’re painted black and have plastic, bright-red top bars. Since the used Hynix IC is top quality and PMIC is cooled, we had no problems even with higher temperatures. I recommend using additional airflow, but at least up to 75°C, this memory keeps stability.

There are no RGB LEDs installed on the tested version of the Viper Xtreme 5, but the memory kit looks amazing anyway. As you can see in the attached photos, it looks much better in light themes.

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Test Results

The test setup has been changed recently. The Radeon RX6800XT graphics card has been replaced with the Colorful RTX4080 Advanced OC. The CPU was slightly improved from the i7-13700K to i7-14700K. Since these changes significantly affect test scores, then, of course, the comparison is refreshed, too.

Once the new Intel processors are released, we will try to update the comparison list. AMD motherboards don’t officially support higher frequency memory kits, so we can’t switch to AMD chipsets, even though they feel more fun in recent months. Additional results on AMD motherboards may appear on our forums.

Stability at Rated Speed

The AIDA64 System Stability Test tested the XMP profile and passed without problems.

The memory kit passed more extended stability tests at XMP settings on the ASUS Z790 APEX motherboard. There were no problems during various tests, while the main difference is further overclocking, for which I highly recommend the ASUS Maximus Z790 Apex or the refreshed Encore version.

Even though the reviewed memory kit is designed for Intel motherboards, additional tests at XMP #2 8000MT/s and #3 7800MT/s passed on AMD platforms with ASUS X670E GENE and Gigabyte B650E Master motherboards. AMD motherboards don’t support anything higher than 8000MT/s, so we can’t count that the 8200MT/s profile will work, but it’s still worth mentioning that lower XMP profiles should be compatible with AMD, too.

Comparison Tests

Tests were performed on popular synthetic benchmarks and benchmarks included in popular games. The list consists of tests that react well to memory performance. Older popular benchmarks and tests based on pure CPU performance were skipped as we wouldn’t see any difference. For readers’ convenience, I added the overclocking result for comparison so you can see if it’s worth the overclocking.

Benchmarks list includes:

• AIDA64 Cache & Memory Benchmark
• Blender 4.0.0
• Cinebench 2024
• PCMark 10 – Applications Benchmark
• 3DMark: Time Spy, Time Spy Extreme, and Fire Strike Extreme
• Superposition Benchmark – 8K Optimized
• Final Fantasy XV Benchmark – 4K High Details
• Shadow of the Tomb Raider – 1080p, high details, default benchmark
• Far Cry 6 – 1440p, high details, default benchmark
• Assassin’s Creed Valhalla – 1440p, high details, default benchmark 

AIDA64 Cache & Memory Benchmark

AIDA64 Memory and Cache Benchmark is probably the most popular software to measure RAM bandwidth and latency.

The Viper Xtreme 5 gives us the best (so far) results out-of-the-box in the AIDA64 benchmark. At 8200MT/s and quite low latency, it’s faster than any other memory kit tested by us.

Blender 4.0.0

Blender is one of two benchmarks added after refreshing the test platform. Since anything above DDR5-7600 is already very fast, we can’t see a significant performance gain at higher frequencies. In our comparison, we can still say that rendering would be slightly faster on the Viper Xtreme 5 8200MT/s memory kit than on others.

Cinebench 2024

Cinebench 2024 results look almost like in Blender. The Viper Xtreme 5 is the fastest, but not as much to make a significant difference. The peformance gain is already impressive if we compare it to a standard RAM at DDR5-5600.

PCMark10 Applications

PCMark 10 tests have been changed from a general score to an Applications benchmark score as it better shows the difference between memory kits. Excel and Edge tests react much better to RAM speed than other tests.
The Xtreme 5 memory kit at 8200MT/s performs well, and the benchmark is scaling all the way up to its overclocked settings at 8600MT/s. I highly doubt that anyone will overclock RAM so high for daily purposes, but it’s interesting to see what we could expect at a higher speed than we can find in stores.

3DMark – Time Spy

3DMark series benchmarks are showing better results at higher memory frequency. These results are more important for competitive overclockers than gamers, but they prove that faster RAM helps in 3D tests and gaming. The Viper Xtreme 5 is one more time on the top of the list.

3DMark – Time Spy Extreme

In the Time Spy Extreme benchmark, the performance gain from RAM itself is not so visible. We can still tell which memory kit is the fastest, and the list looks about the same as in other tests. However, differences are not significant, and the highest step is from DDR5-5600 to DDR5-6000. The Xtreme 5 memory performs well, but it doesn’t matter if we overclock it any further.

3DMark – Fire Strike Extreme

Fire Strike Extreme acts nearly the same way as Time Spy Extreme. The performance gains at higher memory settings are almost the same as in the Time Spy Extreme benchmark, so barely visible.

Unigine Superposition

The Superposition benchmark is not any different than the more demanding 3DMark tests. All the DDR5-7600 or higher settings are not far from each other.
At high display resolutions, we barely see the performance difference. Most games still can’t use improved RAM performance, but more often, we can see titles that use more RAM and manage it better for higher FPS.

Final Fantasy XV Benchmark

Final Fantasy XV is an older benchmark that reacts similarly to most other 3D benchmarks. It’s a little surprise that on the refreshed test platform, it’s scaling better with the RAM clock. It’s easier to notice the difference between standard RAM settings at DDR5-5600 and DDR5-8000 or higher.

Shadow Of The Tomb Raider

Shadow of The Tomb Raider is already quite an old game, but it received a lot of updates that let it be popular for longer. It’s perfect to show the performance gain at lower display resolutions like 1080p. The Viper Xtreme 5 8200MT/s kit gives us 4FPS more than the same series 8000MT/s kit. As long as you are a highly competitive gamer, fast RAM seems like a great addition to squeeze more FPS to your advantage. We have to remember that many games work in the way that more FPS means a faster animation or character reaction, especially in MMORPGs.

Far Cry 6

In more demanding games or games at a higher display resolution, the performance gain from fast RAM is not so visible but still notable. In the Far Cry 6 benchmark, we could see a 17FPS gain going from the slowest RAM in comparison to the Xtreme 5 memory at 8200MT/s. Additional 3FPS were possible with further overclocking.

Assassin’s Creed Valhalla

Assassin’s Creed Valhalla performance is nearly the same on the Viper Xtreme 5 8000MT/s and 8200MT/s. There is only a single FPS gain on the faster memory kit. The game still reacts well to RAM performance, but it’s not scaling well past DDR5-7200.

Overclocking

Temperatures and Voltages

Viper Xtreme 5 is top-quality memory with premium PCB, high-binned IC, optimal PMIC for overclocking, and well-performing high-surface heatsinks. Temperatures of the non-RGB version are about the same as those of the RGB Viper Xtreme 5. Either way, I recommend good airflow in the PC case, as it may affect our RAM’s stability and overclocking potential.

We usually try to keep voltages up to 1.55V during the overclocking tests so the temperatures are still possible to tame by air cooling. Higher quality modules keep stability at higher frequencies up to about 75°C, some even higher. Our review sample was not generating errors because of the temperature up to 77°C at 8200MT/s (and mentioned 1.55V).
The DDR5-8600 setting isn’t fully stable because of the test platform limits. However, if you have a very strong CPU and motherboard, then you can count on it to easily reach 8600MT/s or even more.

If we won’t overclock the memory kit and use the XMP profiles, we can count on around 64°C during gaming or more demanding but still extended mixed load work.

I’m not recommending anything above 1.45V for daily overclocking, including games, as the performance gain at tighter timings or higher frequency won’t be apparent. Too high temperatures or voltages may cause random errors, even though memory may pass popular stability tests.

DDR5-8600 CL38-52-52-84 1.55V

On our test platform, we could reach the DDR5-8600 at still tight timings of CL38-52-52-84. The required voltage for the DDR5-8600 was around 1.55V, which, for the tested memory kit, isn’t a problem for daily work. The screenshot with the mentioned settings is below. It does not include additional fine-tuning, so if we spend more time, we can easily pass 135GB/s bandwidth and go close to 50ns latency. As I mentioned, these settings are not fully stable, but passed all our tests, and some are quite demanding. We are probably at the edge of the stability of the test motherboard, but the real reason still has to be found. I will only add that the same results were on two different CPUs and also ASUS APEX Encore, which was acting worse than the regular ASUS APEX.

Lower timings are possible at higher voltages, but the performance gain is barely visible, even in synthetic tests, so it’s not worth pushing it for anything but competitive benchmarking. For gamers, the XMP profiles are still optimal and provide high performance.

Since not all motherboards support higher memory profiles than 7200MT/s, it’s not guaranteed that we will be able to overclock our RAM. Most higher ASUS or Gigabyte motherboards should handle 8000MT/s+. MSI sometimes makes problems below that, and that’s why many of their motherboards are rated at 7800MT/s. Many ASRock motherboards won’t run at more than 7600MT/s, but the top models should pass 8000MT/s. To achieve the best results, we must remember that good RAM needs a good motherboard to shine.

Even though full stability wasn’t possible at 8600MT/s, we had no big problems making our Viper Xtreme 5 kit boot at 9000MT/s. It could also enter BIOS at 9060MT/s, but not Windows.

Here is the CPU-Z validation – click, and the screenshot is below.

The Viper Xtreme 5 is definitely the best RAM for overclocking. If you are searching for the best you can get, you may found the answer already.

If you are into overclocking, feel free to share your results on our forums.

Conclusion

The 8200MT/s version of the Viper Xtreme 5 is the fastest memory kit tested so far. There are barely any other options on the market that can match it, so we won’t see anything significantly better for some longer. The available motherboards and processors already work at the edge of stability, and your PC’s not guaranteed to handle such fast RAM. Considering the top quality, the best IC for overclocking, and hand-tested kits, you can’t find anything better for overclocking nowadays.

The 8200MT/s kit is available in a non-RGB version, but it’s not an issue as it looks exceptional even without RGB illumination. The top bar is eye-catching red, which perfectly matches aggressive memory specifications.
Even if your motherboard has problems with the main XMP profile, the memory is equipped with two more profiles at lower frequencies and tighter timings. The price is very reasonable considering that the 8200MT/s version is even $20 cheaper than the 8000MT/s RGB kit. Most stores may not have the 8200MT/s version of the Viper Xtreme 5 memory, so if you can’t find it anywhere else, then the Patriot online store has a pretty low price of $239.99. It’s pretty low, at least for a high-frequency memory kit.

The Viper Xtreme 5 48GB DDR5-8200 is another successful Patriot memory kit. It combines high quality, wide compatibility, exceptional design, high performance, and very high overclocking potential. You can’t go wrong with this memory series whether you are a gamer, computer enthusiast, modder, or overclocker. It definitely deserves our Approved Stamp!

Click the stamp for an explanation of what this means.

Bartosz Waluk – Woomack

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