Designed to match up with ASUS TUF GAMING motherboards, Vulcan DDR4 carries digital camo styling and arrives in a variety of different capacties/speeds. Today we’ll be looking at the 16GB 3200MHz RAM kit.
Product on Review: T-Force VULCAN TUF Gaming DDR4
Manufacturer: Team Group
Street Price: £170 GBP – $200 USD
For a DRAM manufacturer, TEAM GROUP are one of the youngest companies around but in recent years they’ve been making a concerted effort to gain traction and prominence, especially in the UK market. As such, the brand has been working closely with Overclockers UK – delivering up some of their latest kits at attractive pricing.
In 2018, it’s rare to see a product unhindered by RGB LEDs, and so today we’re graced by the presence of the modest, yet tasteful T-FORCE VULCAN TUF DDR4 kit. TEAMGROUP has designed this kit to work in conjunction with ASUS TUF GAMING motherboards, marrying up with the overall theme that these boards offer.
Within this series there are 8GB and 16GB kits available, with 2400MHz to 3600MHz. Today, we’ll be looking at the 16GB 3200MHz variant!
TEAMGROUP on Vulcan
TEAMGROUP T-FORCE once again joins forces with motherboard leader ASUS and releases the overclocked gaming memory T-FORCE VULCAN TUF Gaming Alliance. It is certified and strictly tested by TUF Gaming Alliance. The appearance is designed with unique military camouflage pattern. With clock frequency of up to 3600MHz, it offers consumers an experience in high-speed performance and a hardware with unique style. T-FORCE VULCAN TUF Gaming Alliance overclocked gaming memory is definitely your best comrade when you are on the battlefield of gaming or pushing the limits of overclocking.
Technical Specifications
Below are the technical specifications surrounding the Vulcan kit we’re reviewing – obtained directly from TEAM:Warranty
Limited Lifetime
Memory Type
DDR4
Package Memory Format
DIMM
Package Memory Pin
288
Performance Profile
XMP 2.0
Memory Size
16GB Kit (2 x 8GB)
SPD Latency
16-18-18-38
SPD Speed
3200MHz
SPD Voltage
1.35V
Limited Lifetime
Memory Type
DDR4
Package Memory Format
DIMM
Package Memory Pin
288
Performance Profile
XMP 2.0
Memory Size
16GB Kit (2 x 8GB)
SPD Latency
16-18-18-38
SPD Speed
3200MHz
SPD Voltage
1.35V
Closer Look
The Vulcan memory kit arrives in a clear plastic packet which folds into two pieces. The physical appearance of the modules can be easily seen through the packaging, as well as the technical specifications surrounding the capacity, frequency and CAS latencies.
Removing the two DIMMs from their packaging, we can now clearly see the styling of the heatspreaders. This kit has been designed to coordinate with ASUS’ newly released TUF GAMING and as such, bears a black and orange theme to marry up with ASUS TUF GAMING motherboards.
Although this kit would be better suited to those motherboards, it should still match up with a board using neutral aesthetics. Across the heatspreaders we have a digital camo military pattern with specific typography.
TEAMGROUP has angled the heatspreaders to extend beyond the DIMMs to maximize on the cooling potential for complete coverage.
Casting an eye down the profile of the Vulcan modules, we can clearly see that the heatspreaders which TEAMGROUP has utilised do not add additional height.
Test Setup & Overclocking
Test Setup
CPU Intel Core i7-8700K
Cooling Corsair H110i GTX
Motherboard AORUS Z370 Ultra Gaming
Graphics NVIDIA GTX 1080 Ti
Storage OCZ Vector 180
PSU Corsair HX1000 80 Plus Gold Certified PSU
Cooling Corsair H110i GTX
Motherboard AORUS Z370 Ultra Gaming
Graphics NVIDIA GTX 1080 Ti
Storage OCZ Vector 180
PSU Corsair HX1000 80 Plus Gold Certified PSU
We’ll be testing the following DDR4 memory kits in today’s review:
– TEAMGROUP T-Force Vulcan TUF 16GB 3200MHz CL16
– Corsair Vengeance LPX 32GB 3200MHz CL16
The above offers a mixture of smaller capacity with the same frequency and similar latencies. This should present us with a good demonstration as to how capacity can affect performance.
To benchmark these DDR4 kits we’ll be using the following benchmarking applications:
AIDA64 (Memory Tests)
SiSoftware SANDRA
Futuremark PCMark 8 with Adobe Photoshop
Passmark Performance Test9
Futuremark 3DMark
Dawn of War III
SiSoftware SANDRA
Futuremark PCMark 8 with Adobe Photoshop
Passmark Performance Test9
Futuremark 3DMark
Dawn of War III
OVERCLOCKING
Most users will use their DDR4 under the XMP profile but we can push memory beyond their tested specifications by jumping into the BIOS and modifying some settings. Our memory kit sits at 3200MHz at the factory settings, and we were only able to nudge this frequency up to 3600MHz – beyond 3600MHz would result in failure to boot past POST.
To achieve a stable result below we did have to slacken the timings off and increase the voltage.
TEAMGROUP T-FORCE Vulcan TUF 3200MHz
– OC: 3600MHz 18-19-21-40 @ 1.4v
How does this overclock translate? Check out the below results in AIDA64 to see the advantage to increasing the frequency!
Benchmarks: AIDA64
AIDA64 Product PageThis simple integer benchmark focuses on the branch prediction capabilities and the misprediction penalties of the CPU. It finds the solutions for the classic “Queens problem” on a 10 by 10 sized chessboard. At the same clock speed theoretically the processor with the shorter pipeline and smaller misprediction penalties will attain higher benchmark scores. For example — with HyperThreading disabled — the Intel Northwood core processors get higher scores than the Intel Prescott core based ones due to the 20-step vs 31-step long pipeline. CPU Queen test uses integer MMX, SSE2 and SSSE3 optimizations.
Benchmarks: SiSoftware SANDRA
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.
Benchmarks: PCMark 8 (Adobe Photoshop)
Futuremark 3DMarkPCMark 8 combines performance benchmarking with battery life measurement and includes tests based on popular Adobe and Microsoft applications. Whether you are looking for long battery life, or maximum power, PCMark 8 will help you find the devices that offer the perfect combination of efficiency and performance for your needs. It’s the complete PC performance benchmark for home and business.
Benchmarks: Passmark
Measure the read and write speed of your RAM. Parameters include data size (8 bits to 64 bits) and a selection of two test modes. Linear sequential access across various block sizes or non sequential access with a varying step size. This allows both the effect of RAM caching and the optimizations in the memory controller to be investigated.
Benchmarks: Gaming (3DMark & Dawn of War III)
3DMark Time Spy Product Page3DMark Time Spy is a DirectX 12 benchmark test for Windows 10 gaming PCs. Time Spy is one of the first DirectX 12 apps to be built the right way from the ground up to fully realize the performance gains that the new API offers.
Conclusion
For once, it’s refreshing to encounter a product which hasn’t been tainted by the current RGB LED craze which has swept the computer hardware tech. market. And despite TEAMGROUP side-stepping this trend, some may be surprised to know, this DDR4 kit still offers solid performance!
Opting for a specific theme or colour will undoubtedly narrow the prospective purchase of any product and the same can be said of the Vulcan memory kit. The intention is quite obvious, TEAMGROUP has designed this kit to work in conjunction with ASUS TUF GAMING motherboards, and with those boards, this kit will pair up exceedingly well. However, unless the board and other components are neutral in their styling, this Vulcan kit could ruin the overall look.
Visual appearance aside, there is no denying that Vulcan offers rather good performance. TEAMGROUP has been in the business of supplying consumers with memory for over a decade – we’ve reviewed many of their kits over the years, and this one is another which is worthy of our praise.
In our overclocking phase, we weren’t able to reach the soaring heights of 4000MHz but we did settle at 3600MHz, which isn’t too bad for a 3200MHz kit. With an alteration to some variables we’re confident that 3800MHz is achievable.
The kit we’ve looked at today (16GB 3200MHz) arrives with a price-tag of UK: £170 US: $199. Having a quick look at the current pricing for this capacity/speed of memory puts the Vulcan kit into a very good spot in terms of value.
If you’re looking for reliability, solid performance and overclocking headroom then the Vulcan TUF DDR4 kit is a good option to go with. ASUS TUF motherboard owners have the added bonus of being able to uniquely match up their motherboard and RAM.
Pros
+ Stylish looking design
+ Great match for ASUS TUF Gaming motherboards
+ Low profile design
+ Good overall performance
+ Overclock reasonably well
Cons
– Styling may not pair up with some motherboards
+ Stylish looking design
+ Great match for ASUS TUF Gaming motherboards
+ Low profile design
+ Good overall performance
+ Overclock reasonably well
Cons
– Styling may not pair up with some motherboards
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