To settle a class-action lawsuit, G.Skill will compensate customers who bought its DDR4 or DDR5 RAM over the past eight years.
A 2022 lawsuit accused G.Skill of misleading advertising because the company claimed that its RAM could “run at the advertised speed out of the box.” However, “trying to get the advertised speed requires altering the PC firmware,” the lawsuit claimed. “And there is a substantial risk that the memory will not achieve the advertised speed or will not run stably.”
Last year, G.Skill agreed to settle the lawsuit for $2.4 million. An official website for the settlement is now live, allowing affected consumers to submit a claim and receive a payout.
Experienced PC builders know that you need to go into the BIOS settings to configure RAM speeds; otherwise, the memory will run at the slower, default speeds. However, the lawsuit alleged that G.Skill was at fault for failing to disclose the configuration requirement and how overclocking the RAM speeds can sometimes lead to instability and crashes.
(Credit: US District Court for the Central District of California)
Although G.Skill denies all liability or wrongdoing, the Taiwanese vendor decided to settle. However, about $800,000 is expected to go toward attorneys’ fees. Another $295,000 will pay for the settlement’s administration.
That leaves about $1.3 million for consumers. The payout applies to customers in the US who bought DDR4 RAM with rated speed over 2133MHz or DDR5 with rated speeds over 4800MHz between Jan. 31, 2018 to Jan. 7, 2026.
“The amount of this payment will depend on how many of the Class Members file valid claims,” the settlement site adds. “Settlement Distributions will be paid on a per-product basis, with a maximum of five (5) qualifying purchases paid per household, without proof of purchase. Households that purchased more than five (5) products must provide proof of purchase upon request.”
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The settlement still needs to receive final approval from the US District Court for the Central District of California. A final hearing is slated on June 5. In the meantime, eligible customers must submit their claim by April 7, 2026. The settlement’s administrator plans on reaching out to affected customers to notify them as well.
As part of the settlement, G.Skill will include a disclosure on its products that will say: “Requires overclocking/BIOS adjustments. Maximum speed and performance depend on system components, including motherboard and CPU.”
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I’ve been a journalist for over 15 years. I got my start as a schools and cities reporter in Kansas City and joined PCMag in 2017, where I cover satellite internet services, cybersecurity, PC hardware, and more. I’m currently based in San Francisco, but previously spent over five years in China, covering the country’s technology sector.
Since 2020, I’ve covered the launch and explosive growth of SpaceX’s Starlink satellite internet service, writing 600+ stories on availability and feature launches, but also the regulatory battles over the expansion of satellite constellations, fights with rival providers like AST SpaceMobile and Amazon, and the effort to expand into satellite-based mobile service. I’ve combed through FCC filings for the latest news and driven to remote corners of California to test Starlink’s cellular service.
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