Gigabyte D5 Single Boost: Single channel DDR5 tuning

Of course, while Gigabyte will like to drum up the benefits of D5 Single Boost, you’d ideally still want to use dual-channel memory whenever you can, as it’s fundamentally an issue of bandwidth – there’s less of a bottleneck as the CPU can access the memory resources of both sticks simultaneously. 

Still, it’s a welcome feature considering the times we’re in. RAM prices are as high as they’ve ever been – taking a look at our Sim Lim price lists, the cheapest 32GB DDR5 dual-channel kits go for around S$500. If you’re still running single-channel memory alongside a Gigabyte board, or if you’re planning a build but the dual-channel memory prices are too prohibitive, D5 Single Boost may be a pleasant stop-gap until the memory crisis blows over.

On that note, Gigabyte stated that D5 Single Boost will only be available on Z890 and B860 motherboards, so no AMD systems will get this feature. Do also note that it only applies to Hynix’s M-Die memory chips – it’s an important distinction as not only does Hynix have different die variants, but memory chips can also come from other companies like Samsung and Micron. Tools like CPU-Z can tell you who which manufacturer made the DRAM in your memory module, but not the exact die, unfortunately.

According to Gigabyte, D5 Single Boost can be found on the latest BIOS updates (for applicable boards) from the company’s official website. Taking a look at the BIOS downloads for some of these motherboards, the last updates were uniformly released on 28 April this year, so if you’ve updated your BIOS since then, your board may already have this new feature.