DDR5-6000 Memory Performance On Linux, Scaling From DDR5 3000 to 6000 MT/s

Up to this point my Intel Alder Lake DDR5 memory testing on Linux has been limited to a set of DDR5-4400 modules given the very limited DDR5 availability. But with having recently received a DDR5-6000 kit, here is a look at how the Intel Core i9 12900K performs under Linux with memory speeds up to DDR5-6000 and running a memory scaling comparison from 3000 to 6000 MT/s.

With now having a G.SKILL TRIDENT Z5 2 x 16GB DDR5-6000 memory kit (thanks NVIDIA), I've been able to run some DDR5 Linux memory benchmarks at higher frequencies than prior rounds of the Alder Lake Linux testing. The G.SKILL F5-6000U3636E16GX2-TZ5K DIMMs are rated for DDR5-6000 with 36-36-36-76 timings at 1.3V. With the current state of the supply chain and PC marketplace, this 2 x 16GB DDR5-6000 kit currently retails for about $469 USD.

For today's article with these DDR5 memory modules the testing was carried out with an ASUS ROG STRIX Z690-E GAMING WiFi motherboard and Intel Core i9 12900K processor. An Ubuntu 22.04 snapshot with the Linux 5.17 kernel was running on this Intel Alder Lake system while testing these G.SKILL TRIDENT Z5 F5-6000U3636E16GX2-TZ5K DIMMs at a range of memory speeds. For looking at the scaling performance the tested speeds were DDR5 3000, 3200, 3600, 3800, 4200, 4600, 5000, 5400, 5600, and 6000.

From there a wide range of synthetic and real-world Linux benchmarks were carried out for looking at the performance difference on this Core i9 12900K Linux desktop.