MSI to showcase world's first PC motherboard with CAMM2 DDR5 RAM support at Computex

Two years ago, Dell was launching its first laptops supporting CAMM (Compression-Attached Memory Modules) RAM for the Dell Precision 7000-series laptops. At that time CAMM was only a custom form-factor, but it quickly caught the industry’s eye as a worthy upgrade for the aging SO-DIMM form-factor, so JEDEC proceeded to standardize it as CAMM2 in December 2023. The CAMM2 standard is now available for LPDDR5 memory (not soldered anymore) on the Lenovo ThinkPad P1 (Gen 7) and the upcoming DDR6 and LPDDR6 standards are also expected to launch in CAMM2 form-factor sometime in 2026. Until then though, we have yet to see a desktop PC implementation for DDR5, which is a bit trickier since mobo makers need to modify the standard layout. MSI seems to have figured this out already, as the Taiwanese company is planning to showcase the world’s first PC mobos with CAMM2 DDR5 support at Computex in just a few weeks.

MSI recently teased on X (Twitter) an image of its upcoming Z790 Project Zero Plus motherboard that is compatible with Kingston’s FURY Impact DDR5 CAMM2 prototype modules. This is an Intel motherboard, but hopefully MSI would also implement CAMM2 for AMD mobos, as well. Additionally, the image shows only one CAMM2 module on the motherboard, most likely because the current standard layout could not be modified to support two modules. Now, this should not be regarded as a downgrade, since a single DDR5 CAMM2 can support capacities up to 128 GB. Dual-CAMM2 support will probably require a more drastic layout modification, and that may come with DDR6 modules in a couple of years.

For the moment, only Kingston and ADATA seem to be committing to the CAMM2 form-factor. DDR5 is still available in SO-DIMM form as well, so there is no immediate need to adopt the new solution. However, DDR6 and LPDDR6 will apparently come only in CAMM2 form, which means mobo makers will eventually need to conform to it. MSI is proving that this is already possible without modifying the current standard layout.

CAMM2 is a great upgrade for mobile devices, as it removes the soldering problem from the equation. For desktop PCs, though, upgradability has never been an issue, yet the extra compact nature of CAMM2 could allow increased capacities for mini PCs.