G.Skill is touting its lineup of "Extreme Speed" DDR4 RAM, culminating in a 16GB (2x8GB) kit that delivers a blazing fast 5,333MHz on Intel's new Z590 platform. It even outperforms earlier DDR5 memory kits.

Previously, Crucial's Ballistix Max 5100 occupied that spot; Crucial's DDR4-5100 memory in 16GB kits is offered at a whopping $952. To put this in perspective, 16GB DDR4-3600 kits are available for under $100 these days, including the Ballistix family.

G.Skill has not announced pricing for DDR4-5333 memory kits, and while we have been told in the past that they do not share that information because RAM prices are always in flux, there is no chance at all that they will fit into an affordable price. For reference, the fastest G.Skill 16GB kit we could find on Newegg is a DDR4-4600 kit for $542.

To be fair, these companies do not claim bang-for-buck when it comes to the most extreme kits. These are primarily for professional overclockers in pursuit of world records; G.Skill happens to be heavily involved in the professional overclocking scene, and setting records with their RAMs brings a certain value to the company and their product portfolio.

Of course, it may depend on the motherboard used. In this case, G.Skill's DDR4-5333 memory kit has been tested on three specific Rocket Lake motherboards: Asus ROG's Strix Z590-E Gaming WiFi and Maximus XIII Apex, and MSI's MEG Z590I Unify, respectively paired with an Intel Core i9 11900K processor.

As you can imagine, at such high frequencies the timings get loose, like 22-32-32-52. This is like fuel consumption, which is a trade-off (an imperfect analogy) for such high speeds.

How does this compare to DDR5? Eventually, we will see DDR5 memory kits touting 8,400 MHz speeds. DDR5 has advantages such as on-die ECC (Error Correction Code), which corrects memory errors on the fly, and low voltage. However, in terms of raw speed, G.Skill's DDR4-5333 leads DDR5 kits. This is impressive, if not practical.