Memory

G.Skill RipjawsX Sandy Bridge F3-12800 CL7 1600MHz Review

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February 2, 2011 9 Min Read
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G SKILL have recently launched a new DDR3 memory kit designed specifically for Sandy Bridge. Here is the 1600MHz CL7 kit (F3-12800CL7D-4GBXM)


Product on Review: G.Skill Ripjaws-X F3-12800CL7D-4GBXM
Manufacturer and Sponsor: G.Skill
Street Price: £63.94 Inc. VAT (At time of review


With the advent of Sandy Bridge this quarter many enthusiasts will be putting their hard earned cash into building a new Intel Core i5/i7 system. Memory manufacturers have anticipated the launch of the new Sandy Bridge platform by developing ‘Sandy Bridge’ ready kits designed specifically for H67 and P67 chipsets and today we will be taking a look at one such kit.

G.Skill have remained a forerunner in the bid for one of the best memory manufacturers in the marketplace. One of their best sellers in 2009/2010 was the Ripjaws range which offered excellent price : performance ratio, back for 2011 we have the successor to that range – the RipjawsX. Naturally, a product with such high accolade and multi-award winning has a lot to live up to. Today we will be taking a look at their 4GB (2 X 2GB) 1600MHz kit with the timings 7-8-7-24 @ 1.5v. This kit as I have said is designed specifically for Sandy Bridge and with really tight timings I’m anticipating great results and who knows, maybe we can get a decent overclock too. So lets waste no more time and begin our analysis.



G.Skills Take:
Building on the strong success of the first generation Ripjaws brand in performance memory kits, every single RipjawsX memory kit is hand-tested on an Intel Sandy Bridge platform in accordance with G.Skill’s strict internal testing procedure, to ensure the best in class performance, compatibility and reliability across a range of popular motherboards. It is the perfect memory solution for PC gamers, performance workstations, enthusiast power users and anyone who loves the cutting-edge of technology!The following list shows the detail specifications of G.Skill RipjawsX family.


Technical Specifications

CAS Latency
– 7-8-7-24-2N
Capacity
– 4GB (2GB x2)
Speed
– DDR3-1600 (PC3 12800)
Test Voltage
– 1.5 Volts
PCB Registered/Unbuffered
– Unbuffered
Error Checking
– Non-ECC
Type
– 240-pin DIMM
Warranty
– Lifetime

Closer Look


The RipjawsX come in a plastic casing that gives you a sneak preview of the DIMMs. The blue is certainly an eye-catcher. The finer details are listed on the packaging but realistically, all that is needed are the CAS timings, frequency, capacity and voltage. There aren’t a great deal of features to list. Thankfully the packaging doesn’t require you to split or cut the packaging with a knife which is a pet hate of mine. The packaging unclips and unfolds to allow you access to the DIMMs.


RipjawsX packaging – what you would expect from a memory kit


The DIMMs hold a aluminium heatsink that retains the likeness of the original Ripjaws design. There are subtle differences with the fins/teeth though. The DIMMs measure exactly 4cm or just over 1½ inches which measures out at an extension of only 1cm over the modules themselves so you should have little to no problems with CPU cooler compatibility.


Great looking heatsink – DIMMs stand 4cm tall in height


As always, we have the label on each stick to indicate the product code, rated frequency, capacity, CAS timings, voltage and serial number. The kit that I have for review today will go brilliantly with the motherboard on our test bench – ASUS P8P67. It’s almost as though this particular kit is designed with the P8P67 range in mind, co-ordination is spot on. There are 3 different colours to choose from incidentally in the RipjawsX range. Blue, red and black – each having their own frequencies, timings and voltages.





Test Setup & Overclocking


CPU Intel Core i5 2500K (3.3GHz)
Motherboard ASUS P8P67
Memory
4GB G.Skill RipjawsX 1600MHz 7-8-7-24
4GB OCZ Reaper 1600MHz 8-8-8-26
CPU Cooler Alpenfohn Matterhorn
Graphics ZOTAC GTX 460
PSU OCZ Fatal1ty 750W

For the purpose of testing I will be using the G.Skill kit and all subsequent Sandy Bridge memory on the ASUS P8P67 motherboard, using the Intel 2500K . As this is the beginning of our Sandy Bridge memory reviews, I will be testing against an OCZ Reaper kit with similar ratings. Obviously, over time we will have a larger database and more memory to compare against but right now we will concentrate on a versus style comparison.


RipjawsX installed on the ASUS P8P67 / testbench


Overclocking

With BCLK being fixed on the Sandy Bridge platform this has now altered the way we can overclock. Overclocking power with Sandy Bridge is concentrated on the CPU rather than memory. We do not have the flexibility we once had by changing the BCLK in order to move the frequencies in small increments, instead we have a certain margin to move in because of the divider that is set. So available we have 1600MHz / 1866MHz / 2133MHz / 2400MHz. So we have little room to experiment with, but lets see what we can do.

So to begin with I loosened the timings to 9-9-9-24, set the DRAM voltage to 1.6v (from 1.5v) and nudged the memory frequency up to 2111MHz. The system did POST but once in Windows I repeatedly experienced BSOD after BSOD. So this was a distinct no go. I felt that moving the timings to an even looser setting of 10 would be fruitless so I moved to the 1866MHz point with 9-9-9-24 set and this was stable even with 3DMark 11 being run. So from this point I began tightening things up. Ultimately I reached 8-9-8-24 with 1866MHz @ 1.6v. Quite impressive!

With the memory frequency overclock in place I then ran all of the benchmarks, recording the results which you will see over the proceeding pages. Next I set the kit to 1600MHz and worked on tightening the CAS timings even further than they were originally set to. After trial and error I eventually settled at 6-8-6-24 @ 1.5v which again is very impressive. So now over the proceeding pages are the results of all 3 ratings:

Stock: 1600MHz 7-8-7-24 @ 1.5v
Tight: 1600MHz 6-8-6-24 @ 1.5v
OC: 1866MHz 8-9-8-24 @ 1.6v

AIDA64

AIDA64 is the successor to Everest ULTIMATE. This application not only details every component within a system but it also incorporates a comprehensive memory benchmarking tool that will ascertain bandwidth and latency figures.


STOCK 1600MHz 7-8-7-24 @ 1.5v



TIGHT 1600MHz 6-7-6-24 @ 1.5v



OVERCLOCK 1866MHz 8-9-8-24 @ 1.6v

SiSoftware SANDRA 2011

SANDRA isn’t always a benchmark that is included in hardware reviews but I believe it shouldn’t be ignored. SANDRA provides a vigorous package that tests your system in a rather large array of benchmarks. There are many aspects of benchmark that can be executed. We will be considering – CPU and memory tests.

You can really reap the benefits by overclocking the RipjawsX and tightening up those timings. In SANDRA, all of the results show significant improvement in this regard. For those who do buy this kit, its well worth your time tightening those CAS timings to CL6 as there are also improvements to be had without overclocking.





3DMark 11

3DMark 11 is the latest version of the world’s most popular benchmark. Designed to measure your PC’s gaming performance 3DMark 11 makes extensive use of all the new features in DirectX 11 including tessellation, compute shaders and multi-threading. Trusted by gamers worldwide to give accurate and unbiased results, 3DMark 11 is the best way to consistently and reliably test DirectX 11 under game-like loads.

In the ‘Performance’ preset which benchmarks at 720p (1280 resolution) the overclocked results provides a much better score. But when the ‘Extreme’ preset is run 1080p (1920 resolution) the tables are turned and the stock ratings provide the best result in a full stressed situation.



Games: Metro 2033, DIRT 2, UT3, Black Ops

It’s important for us to perform a number of game benchmarks as well as the synthetic tests because the RipjawsX will surely feature in many gaming systems. RipjawsX are designed for hardware enthusiasts and gamers.

The titles used for benchmarking the memory today are each driven by a different game engine, some titles being DX9, DX10 and DX11. So there is a good mixture, allowing us to establish good overall performance.

As you can see from the results below, there is very little improvement to report by overclocking or tightening the timings. There is little to no difference.







Conclusion


With the introduction of Sandy Bridge and the locked BCLK, the way we modify our systems has all changed. Gone are the days when we could manage the memory frequency of RAM using the BCLK and ratio. We now have the ability to only switch between set frequencies on the divider. So 1600MHz, 1866MHz, 2133MHz and 2400MHz is available. Of course, jumping from 1600MHz to 2133MHz is going to be highly significant.

Our G.SKill RipjawsX kit on review today performed great. Whilst they couldn’t rest at 2133MHz you will appreciate that the gulf between 1600MHz and 2133MHz is huge. 1866MHz however was achievable and once we had moved to this the CAS timings were able to be tightened up. At stock, the RipjawsX have impressive CAS timings of 7-8-7-24 CAS at low voltage of 1.5v. Due the fact that the voltage is low we can increase this to push for a higher overclock. With a comfortable overclock of 1866MHz and tight timings I was also able to tighten up the stock timings even further which surprisingly didn’t offer any improvement in synthetic and gaming benchmarks.



If you are thinking about making the move to Sandy Bridge then keep in mind that overclocking the CPU will cause the system to require greater memory bandwidth. It’s worth your while carefully selecting a memory kit, if you do intend to push the CPU into 4GHz and beyond then its advisable to invest in a kit that has greater stock frequencies.

Due to the RipjawsX featuring a heatsink that only extends a further 1cm to the height of the modules you should have little to no problems with CPU cooler compatibility unlike the OCZ Reaper’s that we tested in this review which tower to 8cm in height and cause major problems with installing HSF.

Priced at around £63 Inc. VAT the RipjawsX 1600MHz kit we tested today is a great performing kit that will combine with the ever popular ASUS P8P67 motherboards.

Pros
+ Good performance
+ Tight stock timings
+ Low voltage
+ No problem with CPU cooler compatibility
+ Vibrant colour
+ Lifetime warranty

Cons
– There are none!





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