XPS 8950, options for upgrading ram?

Question

My Dell XPS 8950 desktop currently has an i9-12900K 3200mhz processor and 1x16GB DDR5 4800mhz ram. I want to upgrade the ram from 16GB to 64GB and I was looking at the Crucial RAM 64GB Kit (2x32GB) DDR5 4800MT/s, but I also saw that the Crucial Pro RAM 64GB Kit (2x32GB) DDR5 5600MT/s is the same price. Since Intel says i9 processors only support up to DDR5 4800 MT/s ram, I have a few questions:

Would it be more cost effective to go for the Crucial Pro 64GB 5600MT/s since it has heat spreaders and is downclock capable to 4800MT/s?
Would going with 5600MT/s ram give me issues because it's higher than what my cpu supports despite the downclocking capability?
Would it be necessary to utilize the downclocking capability of the 5600MT/s ram for it to work in my pc?
Is it just a safer move to go with the 4800 MT/s ram even though it doesn't have heat spreaders?

*for context- I don't use my desktop for gaming, but I do regularly use it for photo editing and multitasking and right now with the 16GB ram my in use memory is typically 90-95% in use

RoHe · Answer

See if Crucial specifically recommends either of those 2x32 GB kits for the XPS 8950. If they recommend it, you should be good. If Crucial doesn't recommend one or the other of those kits, I wouldn't get it (them), regardless of where you buy them. And compare prices...

Since you have an i9 CPU, heat spreaders on the RAM might help with heat dissipation...

defiantsnack000 · Answer

@RoHe​ I checked Crucial first- they have both kits listed as compatible memory options for the XPS 8950

RoHe · Answer

So now it's just a question of price/budget and with/without heat spreaders.Only you can make those decisions...

ggpp · Answer

Both options are equally viable since both kits are compatible. However, considering that both kits are priced the same, opting for the 5600MT/s kit might provide a bit more future-proofing in case you decide to transfer the memory to a new system in the future, assuming that's something you would even be interested in. The "future proofing" idea don't always come to fruition, so grain of salt there. The faster memory will simply run at 4800MT/s on the XPS 8950. Similar to processors, it's likely that all these sticks originate from the same manufacturing process. The 4800MT/s sticks may have initially failed at 5600MT/s but still passed the testing at 4800MT/s and are sold accordingly.

(edited)

coliweird · Answer

Check the IRX, 8 is better than 16.

aswald · Answer

As of today, Ican confirm that the Crucial Pro-6000 64gb kit (2x32gb) does not work on the Dell XPS 8950 i9 12th Gen. It goes into No POST with 2 orange and 3 white led blinks on power button. Dell service manual states "No memory or ram installed / found".

Contacted Micron and they said there's been issues with Dell since they found out July 2024. I had my BIOS updated to the latest issue (May 2025) and it was the same. There's no ETA on whether dell will update BIOS to rectify this.

pacolawrence · Answer

@aswald​  did you try with the 4800mhz kit yet? I just did what you tried with the Pro 5600 kit and 6000 kit and got the same results. :( Going to try with the non pro 4800mhz kit next. My goal is 128GB with 4x 32GB.

Deadringers · Answer

Does anyone know if this got fixed? Tried upgrading a friend's to 32 GB Ram, ran into issues with it not working and found this thread :(

aswald · Answer

@pacolawrence​ Sorry for the late reply. I ended up using Kingston 64B (2x32) DDR5 5200MT/s CL36-40 Ram and it runs without issues. KF552C36BBE-32.Very hard to obtain Micron's 4800mhz where i live.

aswald · Answer

@Deadringers​ If you're posting this, I will assume Dell hasn't done anything to their Bios so that the i9 12th Gen cpu can run 6000mhz ram.

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XPS 8950, options for upgrading ram?

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