One of the more important announcements this year in the world of DRAM has been the march towards 16GB un-buffered modules. We saw last year Intelligent Memory launch some for DDR3, but due to other issues they only worked out-of-the-box on AMD and Atom platforms and were not widely available. At CES we saw Corsair place an interesting image on one of their displays, indicating that DDR4 modules at 16GB a piece were coming. Today, G.Skill formalises this with the announcement of a 128GB memory kit for X99.

G.Skill has worked with Samsung in order to produce modules rated for DDR4-2800 at 16-16-16. These 8Gb ICs are produced at 20nm, and while the average user has little need for 128GB, X99 is aimed more at the prosumer market which can have exorbitant memory requirements – previously the only way to hit 128GB on a single socket was with RDIMMs and Xeon processors which have a substantial cost.

At this point in time, G.Skill is showing that DDR4-2800 with 128GB works with the ASUS X99 Rampage V Extreme, although the XMP profile should allow use on other motherboards. Personally I would suggest that X99 users ensure they have the latest BIOS update before installing these modules, should they have any additional sub-timing parameters needed. I would also expect that as other manufacturers get these modules in to test, validation lists and QVL will be updated.

As this is an announcement rather than a launch, G.Skill hasn’t released pricing or a date yet. Based on previous experience this usually means we will have to wait between 2-6 weeks before they go on sale. It is worth noting that Computex is in early June, and thus a launch around that time might be expected. A current 8x8GB DDR4-2800 kit costs $790, so I wouldn't be surprised if this kit easily doubles that. We should start seeing slower kits at DDR4-2133 for less over the summer, if this announcement is anything to go by.

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  • Laststop311 - Saturday, April 25, 2015 - link

    I do quite a bit of stuff and I have never found myself needing more than 16GB of ram. With quad channel memory and a 4x8GB kit there's no way I would need more than 32GB. For a home PC you gotta be doing some crazy stuff to need 16GB modules.
  • Pork@III - Saturday, April 25, 2015 - link

    WoW Nvidia make Volta with up to 64GB vRAM. PC with 16-32GB RAM and Volta graphic with 64GB vRAM like crazy frog. :D
  • DG4RiA - Saturday, April 25, 2015 - link

    Can the i7-5960X use 128GB ? Intel website said it has a max memory support of 64GB. Or will it just work with motherboard BIOS update ?
  • Pork@III - Saturday, April 25, 2015 - link

    Damn this is true. Intel cut deep into memory controller, for non professional use. :D
  • smilingcrow - Saturday, April 25, 2015 - link

    Which makes this RAM without a home right now seemingly!
  • Per Hansson - Saturday, April 25, 2015 - link

    That's an interesting catch!
    But then again the pictured system shows a i7-5820k utilizing 127GB of memory so...???
    A little feedback please! :)
  • Morawka - Saturday, April 25, 2015 - link

    just needs a bios update. he's even running it on a 20 lane 5820k in the screenshot
  • jabber - Saturday, April 25, 2015 - link

    Buy a set between two friends and split it.
  • Gigaplex - Saturday, April 25, 2015 - link

    It should just work. Those max memory specs usually just multiply the largest available RAM stick by the number of RAM slots, rather than specify what the controller architecture can actually do with hypothetical future RAM sticks.
  • coburn_c - Monday, April 27, 2015 - link

    DDR4 would have been a great time to switch us over to ECC memory... sigh.

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