Memory

XPG GAMMIX D30 Review

vortez
March 11, 2019 7 Min Read
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XPG are backed by the might of ADATA, a big player in the DRAM and NAND Flash industry, today we look at a new DDR4 kit featuring fewer bells and whistles than we’re used to, but with a price tag to match.


Product on Review: XPG GAMMIX D30
Manufacturer: XPG
Street Price: GBP £80 / USD $80

XPG, a daughter company of the much larger ADATA, produce high-end gaming-orientated peripherals, SSDs and DRAM. The products often feature stand-out appearance and are geared towards appealing to the young gamer in us all.

The XPG GAMMIX D30 DDR4 kit that we’re testing today features a stylish design, with some fancy heatspreaders which are paired to a translucent top cover; the top cover is available in red or black, we’ve been provided with the black version.

Utilising Intel’s XMP 2.0 standard, XPG offer kits ranging from 2666MHz all the way up to 4600MHz for users that require the absolute bleeding edge of performance. The DIMMs arrive in 8GB or 16GB modules, allowing large capacities to be installed.



Foregoing the RGB lighting of most modules being released, the price is reasonable, with other 3000MHz kits costing roughly the same, or more. However, at the time of writing, DDR4 pricing is trending downwards.

The GAMMIX D30 DDR4 is not yet available in stores with plans in place to see it launched in April. But enough of all of that, let’s take a closer look and see how it stacks up against the competition.

XPG on the GAMMIX D30:
Whether you’re a gamer, PC enthusiast, or overclocker, you’ll appreciate the combination of the GAMMIX D30’s edgy wing-shaped design and excellent speeds of up to 4600MHz. What’s more, it features Intel® XMP 2.0 profiles for hassle-free overclocking when you need an extra boost.

Technical Specifications

Features
Unique heatsink design with edgy wing-shaped
Supports Intel X299 platform and implements 2666MHz
Fast speeds up to 4600MHz
Intel XMP 2.0 – more accessible overclocking
RoHS compliant

Specifications
Speed: DDR4 2666MHz – 4600MHz
Module size: 8GB – 32GB
*8GB: 8GB (8GBx1), 16GB (8GBx2)
*16GB: 16GB (16GBx1), 32GB (16GBx2)
Compatibility: DDR4 2666 CL 16-18-18 at 1.2V
Operating temperature: 0°C to 85°C
Storage temperature: -55°C to 100°C
Operating voltage: 1.2V – 1.5V
Dimensions (L x W x H): 133.3*44.7*8.1mm
Warranty: Lifetime

Packaging & Product

XPG love to keep their packaging clean and simple, using a black and red theme with an image of the module on the front. The speed and capacity are listed on the front, but 8GB x2 could have (16GB) after it to help avoid any confusion. That could mean 8GB in two DIMMs or 16GB in two DIMMs.



Flipping the packet over, the module’s warranty stickers are visible but there’s almost no extra information about the DIMMs here.



Looking at the modules, the PCBs are black, onto which XPG have mounted their wing-shaped heatspreaders with the black plastic insert across the top.



The front and rear of the sticks are identical, apart from the warranty sticker.



We feel they’ve placed the sticker on the wrong side, with it facing to the right when the sticks are installed in your system; this will typically end up facing the user instead of towards the CPU cooler. A minor detail, but something we’ve noticed none-the-less.



Across the top, the design is quite busy with lines and indents but the simple, white XPG logo attracts the eye in the centre.

Test Setup & Methodology

Memory Configurations

XPG GAMMIX D30 – 3000MHz

3000MHz @ 16-18-18 – XMP 2.0

Test Setup
Cooling Corsair H150i Pro RGB
Processor Ryzen 7 2700X
MotherboardMSI X470 Gaming M7 AC
Graphics Radeon RX 480 8GB
Storage Samsung 970 EVO 1TB
PSU Corsair RM 750X 80 Plus Gold Certified PSU

Compared against
Corsair Vengeance LPX 3000MHz (2x 8GB)
Crucial Ballistix Tactical Tracer RGB 3000MHz (4x 8GB)
G.SKILL Sniper X 3400MHz (2x 8GB)
XPG Spectrix D41 RGB 2400MHz (4x 8GB)
HyperX Predator 3200MHz (4x 8GB)
Team Group T-Force Delta RGB 3200MHz (2x 8GB)
Corsair Dominator Platinum RGB 3200MHz (4x 8GB)


Benchmarks
Cinebench R15 – CPU
SiSoftware SANDRA – Memory bandwidth
AIDA64 – Memory Benchmarks
PCMark 8 – Photoshop
Games – Dawn of War III

Memory Transfer Performance – AIDA64

AIDA64 Product Page
Memory bandwidth benchmarks (Memory Read, Memory Write, Memory Copy) measure the maximum achiveable memory data transfer bandwidth. The code behind these benchmark methods are written in Assembly and they are extremely optimized for every popular AMD, Intel and VIA processor core variants by utilizing the appropriate x86/x64, x87, MMX, MMX+, 3DNow!, SSE, SSE2, SSE4.1, AVX, and AVX2 instruction set extension.

The Memory Latency benchmark measures the typical delay when the CPU reads data from system memory. Memory latency time means the penalty measured from the issuing of the read command until the data arrives to the integer registers of the CPU.


Bandwidth Performance – 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.


Processing Power Performance – Cinebench R15

CINEBENCH can measure systems with up to 64 processor threads. This test scene contains approximately 2,000 objects which in turn contain more than 300,000 polygons in total, and uses sharp and blurred reflections, area lights, shadows, procedural shaders, antialiasing, and much more. The result is displayed in points (pts). The higher the number, the faster your processor.


Image Editing Performance – PC Mark 8 Photoshop

PCMark 8 Product Page
Developed in partnership with Benchmark Development Program members Acer, AMD, Condusiv Technologies, Dell, HGST, HP, Intel, Microsoft, NVIDIA, Samsung, SanDisk, Seagate and Western Digital, PCMark 8 is the latest version in FutureMark’s popular series of PC benchmarking tools. Improving on previous releases, PCMark 8 includes new tests using popular applications from Adobe and Microsoft.


PassMark – Memory Mark

PassMark Performance Test. Fast, easy to use, PC speed testing and benchmarking. PassMark PerformanceTest allows you to objectively benchmark a PC using a variety of different speed tests and compare the results to other computers.


Gaming Performance – Dawn of War III

To test out the benefit of faster memory in a real world scenario, we have taken a recent game and created a CPU limited scenario by reducing the resolution and graphics settings to minimum, while setting the CPU dependent settings at their highest.


Conclusion

With DRAM, the speed and timings are all that really matters unless you’re after big heatspreaders or huge overclocking potential, at which point you’d be better off going for something a little more up-market with some true overclocking potential. We’ve omitted an overclocking page from this review because we couldn’t get anything extra from this RAM at all, even trying at 1.45v.

Stock performance, however, using the XMP settings at 3000MHz with CAS timings provided results incredibly similar to the Corsair Vengeance LPX, featuring comparable timings. Showing that XPG haven’t dropped the ball at all here and are keeping up with, arguably, one of the best selling kits on the market.

Appearance considered, we found the contrasting style looked brilliant, with the silver, wing-shaped heat spreaders and black plastic toppers. Having said that, we’d have placed the warranty stickers on the other side so they’re less visible in a typical system. Don’t forget, XPG also offer the same sticks with a red plastic topper, if that will suit your build better.

With the falling price of DDR4, the market is currently volatile, but with plans to introduce DDR5 soon, prices may rise once again; bearing that in mind, it’s currently very difficult to recommend any RAM based on price.



The XPG GAMMIX D30 looks great, performs about on par with kits of a similar price and is currently very reasonably priced.

Pros
+ Look fantastic
+ Decent performance
+ Sensibly priced
+ Available in black or red

Cons
– Wouldn’t overclock at all
– Warranty sticker is on the wrong side


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