German Overclocker CENS Pushes DDR5 To 13,322 MT/s With Intel Core Ultra 9 285K

Just ten days after the last milestone, the DDR5 overclocking scene has been shaken up again: German benchmark veteran CENS has pushed a single stick of DDR5 memory to a jaw-dropping 13,322.8 MT/s, claiming the new world record and reminding everyone that memory tuning is still very much an extreme sport.

The record-breaking setup

To pull this off, CENS built his run around Intel’s new desktop flagship, the Intel Core Ultra 9 285K, dropped into ASUS’s overclocking-focused ROG Maximus Z890 APEX motherboard.

Instead of the GIGABYTE Z890 AORUS Tachyon ICE that has powered many of the recent records, this time it is the APEX that takes the spotlight and proves it can clearly keep up with the most aggressive Z890 designs on the market.

Memory duties were handled by a single 24 GB G.Skill Trident Z5 DDR5 module, widely regarded in the community as one of the strongest options based on high-binned SK Hynix dies. Running in single-channel, single-DIMM mode strips away as many signal integrity headaches as possible and lets the board and the CPU’s memory controller focus purely on raw frequency, which is exactly what matters for leaderboard-chasing submissions.

13,322.8 MT/s: what that number really means

The validated frequency for the record run is 6,661.4 MHz, which translates to 13,322.8 MT/s effective for DDR5. On paper it might look like just another tiny step, but it is roughly 111 MHz higher than the previous top spot, widening the gap not only to second place but also to the rest of the top entries on the HWBot leaderboard. In an arena where gains are normally counted in single megahertz, a triple-digit jump is massive.

CPU-Z verification confirms that the timings remain identical to several of the earlier records: CL68-127-127-127-2. In other words, CENS did not simply loosen the timings to brute-force the higher clock; he managed to keep the same aggressive latency configuration while scaling the frequency. That balance between raw speed and tight timings is exactly what makes this run so impressive to hardcore memory tweakers.

Liquid nitrogen and the realities of extreme overclocking

As you would expect at these insane speeds, conventional cooling was never an option. CENS ran liquid nitrogen on both the CPU and the memory, with frosty pots and thick insulation wrapped around the socket and DIMM area. At temperatures far below zero, the memory controller and DDR5 ICs behave in ways that simply are not possible on air or water, unlocking those headline-grabbing frequencies that only exist in screenshots and short benchmark runs.

This is exactly where the split in the audience appears. Some readers roll their eyes and insist that nobody cares, calling the platform dead and the RAM overpriced because it needs a bucket of LN2 to get there. From a daily-use perspective, they are right: you will not be gaming or editing video at 13,000-plus MT/s any time soon, and the cost of the hardware plus the nitrogen bill puts this firmly in the hobbyist and sponsorship territory.

But for extreme overclockers, that criticism misses the point. These records are the Formula 1 of the PC world: not practical, often not even remotely close to real-world settings, yet constantly pushing the limits of silicon, motherboard layouts, power delivery and memory design. The same experimentation that breaks records also helps vendors refine trace layouts, BIOS training routines and binning strategies, and those improvements eventually trickle down into the kits and boards that regular enthusiasts can actually buy.

APEX vs Tachyon and the evolving DDR5 platform

One intriguing angle in this new record is the hardware shift. Many of the recent DDR5 frequency titles have been set on GIGABYTE’s Z890 AORUS Tachyon ICE, a board built from the ground up for extreme memory abuse. By nudging ahead on ASUS’s ROG Maximus Z890 APEX, CENS shows that the overclocking crown is not locked to a single manufacturer and that there is still plenty of competition in the high-end Z890 space.

On the memory side, the result reinforces just how dominant SK Hynix-based DDR5 has become for high-frequency records. G.Skill’s Trident Z5 kits using those dies continue to show incredible headroom when paired with the right IMC and board, especially under liquid nitrogen. Seeing CL68 remain intact at over 13,000 MT/s suggests there is still untapped potential in current silicon, even before the next generation of dies hits the market.

14,000 MT/s is now on the horizon

The pace of progress is what makes this record especially exciting. If the community can jump from one record to the next in barely more than a week and still keep timings like CL68 intact, it is not far-fetched to imagine 13,500 MT/s falling in the near future. With upcoming Intel Core Ultra Refresh processors promising stronger memory controllers and vendors continuing to refine Z890 APEX-class boards, the platform clearly has room left to grow despite the jokes about it being a dead end.

Add to that the next wave of SK Hynix-based DDR5 dies and even more aggressive binning from brands like G.Skill, and 14,000 MT/s starts to look less like fantasy and more like the next checkpoint on the roadmap. Whether you personally care about world records or see them as expensive party tricks, they are a useful reminder of how fast DDR5 has matured and how much headroom is still hiding inside those sleek heatspreaders.

For now, CENS holds the crown, but nobody in the scene expects it to last forever. Competitive overclocking is a constant arms race between fresh BIOS revisions, golden CPU samples and ever-tighter memory kits. Somewhere, another overclocker is already insulating a frosty test bench and pouring LN2, hoping to nudge the slider just a little higher and write their name on the next DDR5 world record.