Corsair have branched out into many peripheral areas recently but today we take a look at what we know them for the best – performance memory.
Product on Review: Vengeance® 16GB Quad Channel DDR3 Memory Kit(CMZ16GX3M4X1866C9R)
Manufacturer and Sponsor: Corsair
Street Price: £128.59 inc. VAT (At time of review)
Corsair have their fingers in a lot of pies of late and are making some great shakes within the pc industry, particularly that of the enthusiast. Their range of PC enclosures have proven very popular, their PSU’s powerful, SSD’s fast and their cooling range, well, cool! So then it would be easy for Corsair to forget their lineage for it was within the PC memory sector that Corsair gained their reputation as being a quality manufacturer building superior components for the PC enthusiast. Corsair have had to endure the console popularity and have undergone a slight transformation as they now have their own ‘gaming’ range – Vengeance.
Vengeance is the name they have struck upon to reek havoc among the gaming fraternity and while a full line up of gaming peripherals is about to be unleashed under the vengeance umbrella, Corsair have not forgotten their roots and have blessed a range of memory modules with the same title.
The Vengeance DDR3 memory kit we have for review today is clocked at 1866MHz with timings of 9-10-9-27 and comes via 4x4GB modules which for all intents and purposes is pretty much identical to the G.SKILL kit were reviewed here. So then, it will be interesting if the Corsair kit can bring anything new to the table. Or is it the simply same kit clothed in slightly more aggressive garb? Unless you have been living under a rock for the past decade you will already know how fantastic Corsair are, what quality products they have in their line-up and indeed the class leading support they have to back these products up so, rather than wax lyrical about how impressive Corsair have been over the years, we will jump straight into the specifications…
Vengeance is Corsair’s high-performance memory line. Vengeance memory modules are built with DRAM chips specially selected for their high-performance potential. Aluminum heat spreaders help dissipate heat, and provide the aggressive look that you want in your gaming rig. And, the attractive low price will also leave lots of room in your system build budget.
Specification
Warranty: Lifetime
Size: 16GB Kit (4 x 4GB)
Performance Profile: XMP
Heat Spreader: Vengeance
Memory Configuration: Quad Channel Memory
Type: DDR3
Package – Memory Pin: 240
Package – Memory Format: DIMM
Tested Voltage: 1.5
SPD Voltage: 1.5
Speed Rating: PC3-15000 (1866MHz)
SPD Speed: 1333Mhz
Tested Speed: 1866Mhz
Tested Latency: 9-10-9-27
SPD Latency: 9-9-9-24
Packaging & Closer Look
Rather than the plastic blister packs were are used to seeing with memory kits, the Vengeance kit is presented in a neat glossy yet sturdy cardboard box. The product is featured on the front of the package with the associated Intel and AMD logo’s beneath, hinting that it is compatible with X79, Z68, P67 and AMD dual channel DDR3 compatible motherboards. You don’t have to have a quad channel (X79) chipset to run this kits as it will run quite happily in dual channel configuration.
The rear of the package has a small window showing the memory modules, specifically the stickers on the modules which also display the product’s base specifications. Corsair also make a point of telling the prospective purchaser that this kit is made from select DRAM IC’s which are tested for performance and compatibility. Not only that but they are backed up by one of the best limited lifetime warranties available.
The box has a flip open lid so that it reads like a book. Sadly the only reading to be done is that of the same memory module stickers showing the product’s specification. Nevertheless it brought a smile to my face and it’s nice to see a company going that extra yard in terms of packaging – good job Corsair!
The modules themselves are immense. Anyone who has had the pleasure of handling Vengeance modules previously will know just how big these are. Anodised in racing red they will match any red/black colour scheme perfectly (think ASUS ROG & EVGA Classified range). I do worry about the clearence issues some people may have as the modules are quite tall though.
I’m not particularly sold on the yellow Vengeance lettering as I think it takes a little away from the overall aesthetics but they are sure to stand out in any PC system. It is however, good to see that Corsair have used black PCB’s rather than the green they used in our previous Corsair Vengeance review.
The front of the module is not as fussy as the G.SKILL we are pitching them against today with a basic frame emblazoned with a 3 part sticker design. The top of the heatsinks is where it’s all at with the Vengeance though as those fins almost double the height of the module. I would be surprised that at this speed and voltage the modules needed this much cooling but there can be no doubt, they certainly look menacing.
As explained previously, the rear of the module has a sticker which displays the product code and more importantly the rated speed, timings and voltage required.
The modules stand at 52mm in height at the centre, 50mm at the edge but will fall just under this when in-situ. Those who intend using large heatsinks should be wary as these heatsinks will most likely clash with the fins of the CPU heatsink unless orientated perpendicular to the memory kit (vertical on X79). Thankfully, we had no such problems due to the Corsair H100 enclosed watercooling cpu kit in use our test setup.
The integrated chips used on the Corsair Vengeance 1866MHz CL9 kit come courtesy of Micron D9 which are renowned for being good overclocking chips. How far we manage to push this kit remains to be seen but we will see how much success we get later in the review.
Test Setup
Some of the components for our test bench were kindly donated by CORSAIR who provided the majority of components without whom we would not have been able to bring you this review so a big thanks to them. Thanks also go to MSI who donated their NVIDIA GTX560Ti.Memory kits on test:
Corsair Vengeance 16GB 9-10-9-27 1866MHz
G.SKILL RipjawsZ 16GB 9-10-9-28 1866MHz
X79 Test Setup
Motherboard: ASRock Extreme4-M X79
CPU: Intel Core i7-3960X Extreme Edition
Graphics Card: NVIDIA GTX560Ti
Power Supply – Corsair TX750M 750W
Hard Drive – Hitachi SATA II 250GB
Samsung F3 1TB
Cooler – Corsair H100
Motherboard: ASRock Extreme4-M X79
CPU: Intel Core i7-3960X Extreme Edition
Graphics Card: NVIDIA GTX560Ti
Power Supply – Corsair TX750M 750W
Hard Drive – Hitachi SATA II 250GB
Samsung F3 1TB
Cooler – Corsair H100
Overclocking
Overclocking on the X79 chipset is made a little easier thanks to baseclock overclocking. Overclocking the baseclock will also increase memory frequency since the two are inherently linked. So for the purposes of our benchmark comparisons we will stick to the tried and tested method of memory divider overclocking along with adjusting timings.
As you can see from the CPU-z screenshots above, the Corsair weighs in slightly quicker than the G.SKILL kit with a none too slow 9-10-9-27 2T set of timings (with X.M.P profile enabled).
We initially tried lowering the timings but despite our best attempts the stock CAS9 setting was the lowest they would go even with a nerve jangling 1.75v. Fortunately, we faired better with the memory multiplier as all was needed was a slight (0.1v) increase in vDIMM to surpass the 2GHz mark reaching 2133MHz with relative ease. I say relative as the timings had to be slackened back quite a way to 11-12-11 to ensure complete stability. We did try them at the same 10-11-10 settings that proved successfull with the GSKILL but alas at these tighter timings, instability in some of the benchmarks forced us to back off a little.
Let’s see how this kit performs at both X.M.P and overclocked (OC) settings…
SuperPI & HiperPI
In August 1995, the calculation of pi up to 4,294,960,000 decimal digits was succeeded by using a supercomputer at the University of Tokyo. The program was written by D.Takahashi and he collaborated with Dr. Y.Kanada at the computer center, the University of Tokyo. This record should be the current world record. ( Details is shown in the windows help. ) This record-breaking program was ported to personal computer environment such as Windows NT and Windows 95 and called Super PI. In order to calculate 33.55 million digits, it takes within 3 days with Pentium 90MHz, 40MB main memory and 340MB available storage.
The HiperPI front-end is basicly a program which allows selecting multiple threads of SuperPi to be run at the same time so you can test the stability and performance on multi-core machines.
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.
Sisoft Sandra 2012
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.
Futuremark 3DMark 2011
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.
Crysis 2, Metro 2033 & DiRT 3
Crytek took an internet beating from its loyal fans due to the fact that they pandered to the console masses and dumbed down the graphics to DirectX 9. Fortunately, fans of the PC version of Crysis managed to force Cryteks hand and they have since developed a DX11 patch and have also enhanced the textures with added tesselation. It is for this reason that we have decided to include it in our suite of benchmarks.
Based on the novel by the same name, Metro 2033 is a first person shooter with elements of survival horror. As Artyom, you trawl through the mutant infested metro systems of post-apocalyptic Moscow. The game delivers presents a grim ambience that reflects on the overall atmosphere of the underground setting. Metro 2033 uses the setting as a back drop to showcase some of the best visuals of any games out now, making it the ideal benchmark for those looking for the best graphics card.
As players race to elevate their global standing, DiRT 3 is back delivering mud, sweat and gears world over: from the intense weather-beaten rally stages of Europe, Africa and the US, to executing performance driving showcases and career challenges where car control is pushed to spectacular limits.
Conclusion
The Corsair Vengeance 1866MHz 4x4GB DDR3 memory kit is a solid performing piece of hardware, of that there can be no doubt. There are however a few little niggles that prevent it from being ‘excellent’.First off, let me begin by addressing the price issue. At £128.59 it is by no means cheap. Sure it’s not particularly expensive either and is perhaps on par with Crosair’s own triple channel Vengeance 12GB (3x4GB) kit which equates to around £30 per module. Considering that the kit we have reviewed today has a higher bandwidth then you would be forgiven for thinking that the kit is fairly priced. You would of course be right to think so however, the G.SKILL kit we pitched the Corsair kit against weighs in slightly cheaper and performs ever so slightly better when overclocked. The Corsair kit was by no means a slouch you will understand, it’s just that to overclock the kit to any working degree of stability we had to slacken the timings right back to CAS 11-12-11 which for all intents and purposes negated any speed difference the increase in bandwidth afforded. The kit did however slightly out perform the G.SKILL kit at stock settings…just. With a smidge of a difference in timings (tRAS27 vs tRAS28) the Corsair kit just squeezed the G.SKILL out of the stock performance stakes but the Corsair kit couldn’t quite keep up the same perfomance when overclocked so it’s all square there then.
Aesthetically speaking, the two kits we have reviewed also look very similar. The Vengeance do however look a little more aggressive with their taller heatsink fins and it has to be said that the packaging is leagues ahead of the G.SKILL. During testing the Vengeance kit also seemed a little cooler in comparison to the G.SKILL although this was only measured by touch. Both memory kits come with lifetime warranties yet it has to be said that Corsair are class leaders in this department so should this kit fail you anytime in the future, you can be assured of excellent support and RMA service from Corsair.
Overall then, given the choice which kit would I spend my hard earned on? Truth be told I could not choose from one kit from the other. If raw overclockability was my bag then I would perhaps be swayed toward the G.SKILL as this was the one area which clearly separated the two kits. You have to remember however that while the Vengeance is Corsair’s high-end brand, it is not the pinnacle. That mantle belongs to the awesome Dominator GT range which we hope to have up for review shortly. Running the Vengeance out of the box ‘as is’ and if you have a watercooled setup rather than an over-sized aircooler then maybe Corsair’s time served support service will appeal most as out of the two kits, the Corsair looks to edge it in the visuals department and also has an amazing warranty service. So I’m going to act the politician on this one I’m afraid and answer a question with a question: What do you value most? Overclocking, looks, price, out of the box performance or support? Both kits offer everything but each kit is stronger in alternative categories. Whichever appeals most to you will decide which kit you should opt for.
Pros:
+ Fantastic looks
+ Good bandwidth overclocking
+ Great Packaging
+ Cool running
+ Excellent Support
Cons:
– Timings slackened too much for any worthwhile overclock
– Unable to tighten timings at stock bandwidth
– High profile design (52mm)
+ Fantastic looks
+ Good bandwidth overclocking
+ Great Packaging
+ Cool running
+ Excellent Support
Cons:
– Timings slackened too much for any worthwhile overclock
– Unable to tighten timings at stock bandwidth
– High profile design (52mm)
Click here for an explanation of our awards at Vortez.net. Thanks to Corsair for providing today’s review sample.
