INTRODUCTION

   Ever since the very first overclocking oriented motherboards made their appearance in the market several years ago gamers, enthusiasts and professionals alike were all presented with a single problem, total RAM capacity. Since most of these motherboards only featured 2 DIMM slots for improved clocks and system stability the maximum possible capacity was set at just 64GB (2x32GB) and well, that just wasn't enough for everyone. Now i don't really know why it took the industry this long to offer a solution but it's finally here with single RAM modules currently going all the way up to 48GB compared to the previous 32GB which in turn results in a very welcome 96GB total for such motherboards (and of course 192GB for quad-DIMM motherboards). Neo Forza was among the very first manufacturers to release one such kit and well that's exactly what's on my test bench.

   We are a professional team, studying in computer memory and storage devices industry for more than 10 years. In order to meet the rising demand on speed and capacity of the high-end gaming market players, we created Neo Forza, a new generation of ultra-standard overclocking module, SSD and other related storage device designing brand. Neo represents from virtual to reality, showing our core value for product innovation. Forza shows our strength and determination to meet gamers every need. Neo Forza possess strong resources, focus on core technology. From research & design, specific production to exceed the testing benchmark; Neo Forza keep pushing over technical boundary, providing top-notch performance and quality, providing gamers / game players extraordinary using experience.

   The latest MDK5 line of DDR5 RAM by Neo Forza includes dual (2x16/32/48GB) and quad (4x32GB) channel kits all of which feature low profile aluminum heatspreaders (roughly 40mm in height total) available in black color and are compatible with both Intel's XMP 3.0 and AMD's EXPO profiles. The MDK5 line is available currently with frequencies going all the way up to 7800MHz (5200/5600/6000/6400/6600/6800/7200/7600/7800MHz), timings as low as CL30 (5600/6000MHz CL30 - 6400/6600/6800MHz CL32 - 7200MHz CL34 - 6400/7600/7800MHz CL36 - 5600/6000/6400MHz CL40 - 5200/5600/6400MHz CL42) and voltages ranging from 1.2V and up to 1.45V (5600MHz 1.2V - 5600MHz 1.25V - 5600/6000MHz 1.3V - 5200MHz 1.35V - 5600/6000/6400/6600/7200/7600MHz 1.4V - 6400/6800/7800MHz 1.45V). Inside the low-profile heatspreaders Neo Forza has placed M-die modules by SK Hynix for optimal timings. Finally, and as expected Neo Forza covers the entire MDK5 line of DDR5 RAM kits with a limited lifetime warranty.

SPECIFICATIONS AND FEATURES

THE MDK5 96GB DDR5 6000MHZ CL40

Once again, Neo Forza packs their RAM inside a blister package which allows the consumer to actually see the rear of both modules.

The main selling points of the MDK5 line of DDR5 RAM are printed at the rear of the package.

Typically, just the two RAM modules are inside the package.

Roughly 40mm top to bottom means that the MDK5 are also ideal for use in very small cases (here you can see the new Predator Hermes RGB module by Acer).

At the rear of each module, we find the usual sticker which contains information such as frequency, timings, voltage and of course the serial number and barcode.

The lack of RGB lighting may not sit well with some consumers but the MDK5 are not bad looking RAM modules.

Yes, they do look somewhat plain when installed but that's not always a bad thing.

TEST BED

TESTING METHODOLOGY

   Thanks to XMP 3.0 and EXPO profiles the only thing one needs to do in order to run a brand new RAM kit at its advertised frequency, timings and voltages is to choose/enable it from within the BIOS and reboot. That being said if you're into overclocking you may not wish to use the main XMP/EXPO profile but instead to choose your very own frequency, timings and voltages to achieve even higher performance numbers and that's exactly what we'll also be doing during our DDR5 tests. To be more specific aside testing each kit with its XMP profile I'll also be upping the voltages (up to 1.4V for 1.35V kits – even though most kits can function at higher voltages I don’t recommend doing so - RAM modules that use 1.4V/1.45V/1.5V will be tested up to 1.45V/1.5V/1.55V respectively) and frequencies (200MHZ increments) until i find the maximum achievable stable frequency (those results will be entered into the OC charts). I also thought about upping voltages and reducing timings instead of increasing the frequency of the modules as high as it can go (always stable and without using 0.5-1V over stock) but the end results are pretty much identical.

   As for the how I'll be testing each DDR5 Dual-Kit to arrive in the lab well there aren't that many benchmark programs that only test RAM (or at least RAM and CPU without anything else coming into play) but I’ve got most of them and so you will be seeing results from following benchmarking programs, AIDA64 Engineer Edition, Cinebench Release 23, MaxMemm2, Passmark Performance Test v10.1, Sisoftware Sandra Titanium and WPrime v2.11. All tests are performed on a fresh Windows 10 Pro x64 installation (complete with all updates until the day of this review) and are repeated a total of 6 times after which the average numbers get recorded into the charts.

* Since you all decided for me to use the Intel Core I9-13900K for graphics cards tests I’ll also be using that for DDR5 tests (5.8GHz P-Cores / 4.7GHz E-Cores / RING 4.9GHz) and in order to showcase potential gains between stock and overclocked clocks/frequencies I’ll also be using Forza Horizon 5 (1080p/Extreme Graphics). Still do keep in mind that i can't dedicate a high-end GPU solely for DDR5 reviews so each time i review such a kit I’ll be using a different chart (the card used will be listed above).

TEST RESULTS - XMP 3.0 PROFILE

TEST RESULTS – OVERCLOCK

TEST RESULTS – FORZA HORIZON 5

CONCLUSION

   Moving from 64GB to 96GB RAM for dual channel systems and from 128GB to 192GB RAM for quad-channel systems may not seem as a big deal to the vast majority of users but this step is something both professionals and enthusiasts had been waiting for a long time. Well, we’re finally there and if plenty of RAM wasn’t enough as you can see from todays review such dual-channel kits are also very easy to overclock (from 6GHz with 1.3V all the way to 7GHz with 1.38V is a very good result – yes, I went slightly higher with this kit to see just how well 48GB modules overclock) something which should appeal especially to enthusiasts. The lack of ARGB/RGB lighting is something that would mostly look bad to gamers (and yes, some enthusiasts and even professionals as well) but gamers are not really the target audience of such kits to begin with. Height on the other hand is something many people across the board care about and the Neo Forza MDK5 modules are among the shortest ones out there right now.

   Once again, I find myself unable to track down a Neo Forza product and so I can only offer the company MSRP for the MDK5 96GB dual-channel kit which is currently set at a very tempting USD263/245Euros (VAT not included). With that out of the way there’s not much else i can say about the MDK5 96GB dual-channel kit by Neo Forza, it offers plenty of RAM for even the most demanding users out there (at least with dual-channel motherboards), it’s quite fast out of the box, the low profile heatspreaders fit everywhere and it overclocks very well so the Golden award is in order.

PROS

- Build Quality
- Good Performance
- Overclocking Headroom
- Listed Kits (Dual/Quad Channel Up To 7.8GHz)
- Low Profile Heatspreaders
- Limited Lifetime Warranty
- Price (For Some)

CONS

- Current Availability
- Lack Of RGB Lighting (For Some)