Our first X79 memory kit review comes courtesy of G.SKILL in the form of 4x4GB quad channel RipjawsZ. Can it out perform our favoured kit from Corsair?
Product on Review: G.SKILL RipjawsZ F3-14900CL9Q-16GBZL
Manufacturer and Sponsor: G.Skill
Street Price: £108.40 inc. VAT (At time of review)
Quad channel capability is one of the biggest attractions to Intel’s X79 chipset and so with that in mind we have for review today one such kit from G.SKILL, the RipjawsZ 1899MHz CL9 16GB kit.
Quad channel won’t benefit everyone. Indeed for a lot of people they would be hard pushed to notice the difference between triple channel and perhaps even dual channel memory. The gap in performance for most tasks is small and thus the question has to be posed – why bother? The same could be said for processors, albeit to a lesser extent. Can you notice the difference between 80 and 100FPS other than using a synthetic benchmark? I doubt it. So then if quad channel or indeed triple channel memory was such a necessity why don’t the P67 and Z68 chipsets use them? To put it simply, Quad channel memory is for the extreme performance enthusiast where every second wasted waiting for a task to finish be it video encoding or photo processing is a second of their life that could be best spent elsewhere. After all, why spend so much on a CPU if you can’t get the absolute best from its features?
We’ve seen the RipjawZ before and we were impressed so hopefully this quad channel kit will be equally impressive. While it is the first kit we have reviewed fully on the X79 system, we will be pitching it against a very similar Corsair kit (expect a review soon) but before we get to the testing, let’s take a look at the specification of the G.SKILL kit.
About G.SKILL
“G. SKILL”, established in 1989 by enthusiasts, is a leading memory module Manufacturer based in Taipei, Taiwan.
With traditional strengths, we have built an excellent reputation by meeting market demand and fostering business competitiveness both locally and internationally with our dedications to provide competitive prices, On-Time Delivery, Assured Quality, Customer-Oriented Services and Diversity of Products.
“G. SKILL”, established in 1989 by enthusiasts, is a leading memory module Manufacturer based in Taipei, Taiwan.
With traditional strengths, we have built an excellent reputation by meeting market demand and fostering business competitiveness both locally and internationally with our dedications to provide competitive prices, On-Time Delivery, Assured Quality, Customer-Oriented Services and Diversity of Products.
Specification
System: Desktop
System Type: DDR3
M/B Chipset: Intel X79
CAS Latency: 9-10-9-28-2N
Capacity: 16GB (4GB x4)
Speed: DDR3-1866 (PC3 14900)
Test Voltage: 1.5 Volts
Height: 40 mm / 1.58 inch
Registered/Unbuffered: Unbuffered
Error Checking: Non-ECC
Type: 240-pin DIMM
Warranty: Lifetime
Features: Intel XMP (Extreme Memory Profile) Certified
Packaging & Closer Look
The memory kit is packed in a blister pack with the RipjawsZ product title upper most. Below the title are the words ‘designed for Intel LGA 2011 processors and X79 platforms. While there is no notification of the memory specification on the front of the inlay card, the specifications can be clearly seen on the memory modules themselves. G.SKILL have also included a metallic case sticker with the product.
The other side of the package reveals a further two memory modules and a product sticker attached to the inlay card purveying the product information. Beneath this and behind the modules is an explanation of why you should rely on G.SKILL products with their 5 year warranty and the kit’s X.M.P profile. On the face of it, it may appear cheaper to simply buy two dual channel kits. You cannot however just add two dual channel kits together to make a quad kit. More often than not this will end in difficulties unless the kits are perfectly matched. Each stick in a quad channel kit is rigorously tested to ensure complete compatibility with each other when running in quad channel so buying two separate dual channel kits is ill advised I’m afraid as while you may be fortunate and get them to work together, this isn’t always a successful route to take.
The modules are very attractive with full cover aluminium heatsinks. I still don’t feel that the memory modules get hot enough to warrant such extravagance but the heatsinks will prevent unwanted electro-static damage regardless so it’s not a bad thing and of course they look much more aesthetically pleasing. It’s also nice to see that G.SKILL have opted to use black PCB’s as we often see good looking heatsinks spoilt by using green PCB’s!
The memory specifications are printed on a separate sticker on one side of the kit with the underlying product ‘RipjawsZ emblem printed beneath. The heatsinks look very similar to the Corsair Vengeance range but are perhaps a little more rounded and not so much ‘in your face’. They are anodised red and perfectly match the colour scheme of LianLi red anodised aluminium cases and would also look great in the ASUS ROG range of motherboards.
Here we see a close up of the heatsink design. The heatsinks are ridged throughout to increase surface area to further dissipate heat, which along with voltage is the biggest killer of memory modules. Despite my best efforts, I could not remove the heatsinks and gave up in the end for fear of ripping the IC’s from the PCB. Needless to say, I suspect the G.SKILL RipjawsZ F3-14900CL9Q-16GBZL use Micron D9 modules which are the same type used in the Corsair Vengeance which also happen to have near identical timings.
With timings of 9-10-9-28 only tRAS is slightly relaxed when compared to the Corsair Vengeance kit we will be pitching the G.SKILL against today. 16GB running at 1866MHz is no mean feat especially at a stock voltage of 1.5v but being Micron D9 chips I suspect they might have a little more bandwidth to offer. With 2000MHz now freely available from some manufacturers, including G.SKILL I would hope that this kit overclocks past this level.
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:
G.SKILL RipjawsZ 16GB 9-10-9-28 1866MHz
Corsair Vengeance 16GB 9-10-9-27 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 G.SKILL weighs in with a healthy 9-10-9-28 2T set of timings with X.M.P profile enabled.
As I suspected, the memory easily surpassed the 2GHz mark although the timings had to be slackened off a little (10-11-10-32) to to achieve this. vDIMM also had to be increased to 1.6v which should still be low enough not to damage the memory integrated chips.
Overall then, not a bad showing from G.SKILL. Unfortunately lowering the timings from CAS 9 to 8 resulted in a none boot scenario even with 1.7v being pushed through the DIMM’s which was a shame but I am content that the modules aforded a 14.3% increase which is not to be scoffed at at this level of frequency.
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
G.SKILL are one of those companies that never fail to impress. The packaging, while hardly ground breaking was good enough to protect the modules, provide the information we require and show off the memory kit itself. Keeping the packaging to a minimum has helped G.SKILL keep the RipjawsZ price down to just over £100. Being a brand new product definitive information on retail pricing was scarce but we did find them available for £108.40 inc VAT which is not a bad price at all considering the price of a 12GB triple channel kit of lesser speed weighs in at a similar expense.The memory kit look very attractive and are not so tall that they would prevent the fitment of a large heatsink being 4cm tall when fitted into the socket. The heatsinks kept the memory cool throughout our testing and thus far have been running in an overclocked state without issue. IF the RipjawsZ did encounter an issue then GSKILL’s great lifetime warranty should be enough to calm the nerves somewhat and with reports of good turnaround times there should be very little downtime.
The good news doesn’t stop there though because the RipjawsZ also performed admirably. The overclocked better than the Corsair Vengeance we have in our motherboard test setup with timings being able to be adjusted a little tighter when overclocked. I would have perhaps liked to have seen the timings being a little tighter at stock but considering the 4x4GB module setup it is unsurprising given the stress this would have on the CPU memory controller. With a little more time, effort and BIOS revisions maybe this would be possible but I was nonetheless impressed with the overclocks we achieved.
Overall then the G.SKILL RipjawsZ we have reviewed today look great, perform very well and being quad channel offer a perfect match to anyone looking for a memory kit based on the X79 platform. Let’s not forget that the kit is also suitable for Z68, P67 or AMD platform that make use of dual channel as the kit can easily be split to work in dual channel configurations. With a mid-range kit like the one we have reviewed today we wait with baited breathe to see what high end offerings GSKILL have in the making.
Pros:
+ Great looks
+ Good bandwidth overclocking
+ Mid-Low profile design (40mm)
Cons:
– Timings unable to be tightened even with extra voltage
+ Great looks
+ Good bandwidth overclocking
+ Mid-Low profile design (40mm)
Cons:
– Timings unable to be tightened even with extra voltage
Click here for an explanation of our awards at Vortez.net. Thanks to G.SKILL for providing today’s review sample.
