Memory

Team Group T-Force Vulcan Z DDR4 Review

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August 13, 2019 7 Min Read
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For those of you who aren’t a fan of the RGB craze, today we look at the Vulcan Z DDR4 memory from Team Group, clocked at 3200MHz and in a fantastic red colour.


Product on Review: Team Group[ Vulcan Z DDR4
Manufacturer: Team Group
Street Price: £79.99 / $84.99

Team Group are a Taiwanese company, founded in 1997, who specialise in the R & D and manufacturing of DRAM and Flash Storage products. In recent years they’ve emerged out of the Eastern market and begun to offer products in the West where their popularity has grown thanks to professional overclockers like Ian 8-Pack Parry who has his own Team Group range.

Team Group love to throw around gaming keywords as part of their marketing exercise but don’t let that detract from the performance their DRAM modules typically offer. The kit we’re looking at today is a much less in-your-face affair than we’re used to.

The metallic heat-spreaders are anodised to inhibit conductance and corrosion over time, while also adding a touch of colour, with a choice of red or grey.


Modules are available in capacities of 4GB, 8GB and 16GB with kits of 8GB (2x 4GB), 16GB (2x 8GB) and 32GB (2x 16GB). Frequencies range through 2666MHz, 3000MHz and 3200MHz, with the latter being the focus of today’s review.

Thanks to the lack of any RGB lighting or extensive heat-spreaders, pricing is competitive, with a 3200MHz CAS16 kit being available for £79.99/$84.99. A lifetime warranty comes as standard with the modules, for additional peace of mind.

Team Group on the Vulcan Z:
T-FORCE VULCAN Z’s all new cooling module is designed for complete protection and enhanced heat dissipation. The heat spreader is formed by punch press process with a 0.8mm thick, one-piece alloy aluminum to reinforce the body structure. In addition, coloring with electrolytic anodizing process can enhance corrosion resistance and make it non-conductive. Moreover, with superconductivity – thermally conductive adhesive, it can quickly transfer the heat on IC chip through heat conduction to aluminum alloy cooling module for better heat dissipation. Therefore, the gaming memory can be maintained within operating temperature, and offering the finest and smoothest gaming experience and an extreme performance without any lag.


Technical Specifications

Module Type:
288 Pin Unbuffered DIMM Non ECC

Capacity:
4GB / 8GB / 16GB / 4GBx2 / 8GBx2 / 16GBx2

Frequency:
2666 (21,328 MB/s)

3000 (24,000 MB/s)

3200 (25,600 MB/s)

Latency:
CL18-18-18-43 (2666)

CL16-18-18-38 (3000)

CL16-18-18-38 (3200)

Voltage:
1.2V (2666)

1.35V (3000 & 3200)

Dimensions:
32(H) x 140(L) x 7(W)mm

Heat Spreader:
Aluminum heat spreader

Warranty:
Lifetime warranty

Packaging & Product

The packaging is a simple blister pack with a security seal at the top, making this easy to open. The DRAM modules are locked into place at either end and the specifications of the included kit is printed on the small white label.


The reverse of the packaging gives a brief summary of Team Group and some information about the DRAM modules.


Our sample, finished in the gorgeous red, looks fantastic. The glossy finish will look excellent if you’re aiming for a splash of red in your theme.
Team Group have also included a small T-Force case sticker.


The front and back of the DIMMs is almost identical apart from the warranty/specification sticker. Fortunately, the label will face towards the rear of the case in a standard system so it shouldn’t be too visible.

Test Setup & Software

Our test system is formatted and a fresh version of Windows is installed with just drives in place – no additional applications. Windows is then updated to the latest release and the drivers are installed.

Included in the list of benchmarks are the following applications:

Benchmarks
Anvil Pro
AS SSD
ATTO Disk Benchmark v2.46
Futuremark PCMark 8
AIDA64


Test system
CPU: Intel Core i7 7700K
Motherboard: MSI Z270 Gaming M7
Graphics: EVGA GTX 1070 SC
Memory:
Samsung 970 EVO 1TB
PSU: BeQuiet Straight Power 11 650W
OS: Microsoft Windows 10 Pro 64-Bit
Monitor: ASUS ROG PG279Q

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

Team Group have made inroads into a very competitive market where, for many people, price is key and that has traditionally been dominated by one or two key manufacturers for a while now. It’s refreshing to see a manufacturer introduce performance kits for budget prices.

As our testing has proven, the Vulcan Z dances in the graphs with the best of them, trading blows with other kits at the 3200MHz frequency range – no surprises there.

Appearance considered, the lack of RGB lighting will go down well with many. Not only does that help reduce the cost, it also allows users to go with a non-tempered glass case and not worry about what’s going on inside, just like the old days.

While the timing is advertised as CL16, that is only for the first, and arguably most important, of the timings. The rest are clocked in at 18 and 38. These could be tighter at stock which would help performance somewhat, however, having said that, there are more expensive kits available if outright performance is what you’re after.


All things considered, for the very reasonable price, the Vulcan Z gets a massive thumbs up from us. No-nonsense appearance and competitive performance.

Pros
+ No RGB
+ Good pricing
+ Beautiful red colour

Cons
– No RGB
– Relatively slack timings


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