Skip to main content

AMD may release Intel’s next rival in memory overclocking

It seems that AMD may be working on a new memory overclocking standard for its upcoming AM5 platform. The company has recently trademarked “AMD EXPO,” and a reliable source reveals that this tech might be the new rival to Intel’s XMP 3.0.

If proven true, the tech will make it much easier for AMD Ryzen 7000 users to optimize their DDR5 RAM, including frequency, voltage, and timings.

AMD EXPO trademark information.
VideoCardz

The new tech was previously thought to be called “AMD RAMP,” which stands for Ryzen Accelerated Memory Profile. However, VideoCardz has obtained new information from a known leaker that implies the name is in fact going to be AMD EXPO. Contrary to what one might think upon reading “expo,” this isn’t the name of an event — it stands for “EXtended Profiles for Overclocking,” and it seems that AMD EXPO does exactly what it says on the tin.

Recommended Videos

AMD trademarked AMD EXPO in February 2022, and the description of the trademark implies that Disclosuzen (VideoCardz’s source) is not wrong to announce that the technology is closely related to memory. According to Disclosuzen, EXPO will be capable of storing up to two memory overclocking profiles.

Get your weekly teardown of the tech behind PC gaming
Check your inbox!

This seems to apply only to DDR5 RAM, but it will work with all types of it, including RDIMM, SO-DIMM, and UDIMM, implying that EXPO will one day be available in future AMD-based laptops. The technology essentially seems to be the AMD version of Intel XMP 3.0 profiles.

AMD Ryzen 7000 chip.
Wccftech

The first overclocking profile is going to be optimized for high bandwidth, and the second for low latency. However, the second profile is rumored to be optional, so it won’t be found in every single model.

AMD has recently teased that Ryzen 7000 CPUs “will make a big splash with overclocking.” It’s possible that Joseph Tao, memory enabling manager at AMD, could have been referring to AMD EXPO when he revealed the platform’s purported overclocking prowess.

It makes sense for AMD to try to focus on DDR5 memory and optimize it, especially given the recent rumors that the AM5 platform may not support DDR4 RAM at all. If the company is truly walking away from DDR4 so soon, the addition of AMD EXPO is a much-needed way to entice future customers to spend a lot of money on DDR5 RAM when the new Ryzen 7000 processors release later this year.

Monica J. White
Monica is a computing writer at Digital Trends, focusing on PC hardware. Since joining the team in 2021, Monica has written…
DDR5 vs. DDR4 RAM: Is DDR5 worth it?
The Corsair Dominator Platinum RGB DDR5 memory for AMD Ryzen 7000.

The two main types of RAM for modern computers are DDR4, and DDR5. Together they span a number of processor and motherboard generations across desktop PCs and laptops, and though DDR4 might be the more popular memory type for now, that is slowly changing. Since the release of Ryzen 7000-series processors and Intel's 12th, 13th, and 14th generations, DDR5 memory is becoming far more prevalent.

With AMD you don't have a choice, but for now, with Intel you do. That can make it hard to decide whether DDR4 or DDR5 are the better choice for your next system. And is worth upgrading to something newer to get access to this newer, faster memory?

Read more
Does RAM speed matter for PC performance?
Installing RAM sticks in a motherboard.

If you know what RAM is, then you know that it is one of the primary components in a PC, and that it is important that you have at least a certain amount of RAM depending on what you want to do with your PC. However, there are more things to RAM than just capacity: Frequency and latency are important considerations, too.

The question of whether RAM speed matters is especially important now that we have two generations of RAM available, both DDR4 and DDR5 -- and they have vastly different speeds. The official maximum clock speed for DDR4 was 3200MHz, while DDR5 starts at 4800MHz, an increase of 50%; however, you'll easily find RAM kits reaching above 7000MHz. Although latency significantly went up, from CL14 on most 3200MHz DDR4 kits to CL40 on most 4800MHz DDR5 kits, DDR5 is still found to be faster.

Read more
How to choose the best RAM for your PC in 2024
RAM inside the Starforge Navigator.

If you want to choose the best RAM for your PC, you'll be faced with a lot of terms that may not sound familiar at a glance. DDR? DIMM? CAS? XMP? When you just want something that goes well with the rest of your PC, having to pull out a dictionary before you shop can be pretty daunting. Fortunately, picking RAM is fairly straightforward once you understand what RAM is, what you need, and what it means.

In our RAM buying guide, we'll walk you through the process so that you can be happy with your choice.
Understanding RAM
The thing about RAM is that you don't need to fully get what each and every spec is responsible for -- not unless you want to. If you're building a barebones office PC, even sub-optimal RAM will make it run; the problem is that it won't run nearly as well as it could.

Read more