Memory

Patriot G2 (GAMER 2) 1600MHz CL9 8GB Review

vortez
April 1, 2011 9 Min Read
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Patriot Memory’s 8GB G2 Division 2 Edition DDR3 kit designed for Sandy Bridge with extrmely low-profile heatspreaders.


Product on Review: Patriot Gamer 2 (PGD38G1600ELK)
Manufacturer and Sponsor: Patriot Memory
Street Price: £89.99 inc. VAT (At time of review


It was at the very end of last year that Patriot Memory announced the commencement of a new series named Gamer 2 (G2 for short). This new series of memory, again, like many of our recent memory product reviews is focussed on the new Sandy Bridge platform. Apart from their attractive price-tag they also have a number of pleasing characteristics – they are extremely low profile, so much so that the heatspreaders are in fact shorter than the modules they cover. They are also said to give impressive performance figures too.

Being the first Patriot review at Vortez we are excited at the prospect of this product review. Hopefully it will be all smiles! Today we will be looking at a 1600MHz 8GB kit with CAS timings of 9-9-9-24 at 1.65v. Lets waste no more time and begin our analysis of Patriot Memory’s Gamer 2 series.


Patriot’s take on the G2 Series:
The Patriot G2 Series, Division 2 Edition DDR3 memory kits are specifically designed for the 2nd Generation Intel Core processors: Intel 6 Series platform. The G2 Series delivers the high-performance PC gamers demand at price tags that are easy on the wallet. The low-profile Patriot G2 series sport sleek air-craft grade extruded aluminium heat-spreaders for enhanced cooling performance that delivers superior stability during long hours of gaming, and adds a touch of style to your 2nd Generation Intel Core powered system. Built using high-quality pre-screened IC’s and vigorously tested these G2 Series modules are available in 4GB and 8GB kits at 1600MHz with 9-9-9-24 timings. Each kit is 100% hand tested for quality assurance and is back by a lifetime warranty and industry leading customer support. The Patriot G2 series memory modules are the best value for PC gamers seeking maximum performance from their 2nd Generation Intel Core processor powered system..

XMP Ready
CAS Latency
– 9-9-9-24
Capacity
– 8GB (4GB x2)
Speed
– DDR3-1600 (PC3 12800)
Test Voltage
– 1.65 Volts
Error Checking
– Non-ECC
Type
– 240-pin DIMM
Warranty
– Lifetime

Closer Look


Being the first Patriot review we aren’t familiar with how Patriot present their products, but from the G2’s packaging its clear to see that they pay particular attention to detail. Colours are eye-catching and information is clearly laid out. The G2 kit is placed within an outer box as seen below and then within a plastic packet found inside the box.


Eye-catching packaging


Removing the DIMMs from their packaging they don’t have the most attractive heatspreaders or design. Considering this kit is targeting the gamer it would have been nice to see something more attractive. Green PCBs are regarded like the pale interior of the case thesedays, people are beginning to speak out about aesthetics and manufacturers are listening. As small and insignificant some may feel this is, the green stands out and detracts away from the design but also merges with the blue to make a distasteful concoction.

Flipping one of the DIMMs over we can clearly see that Patriot have stuck a technical label onto the heatspreaders so that the product code, frequency rating (1600MHz), CAS timings (9-9-9-24), capacity (8GB) and voltage (1.65v) can all be clearly read.


Not the most attractive of designs



Label showing all technical specifications


Although the design might not be to everyone’s taste it will satisfy those who are seeking a kit that will offer maximum compatibility. The heatspreaders on the DIMMs are actually the same height/slightly smaller, meaning that those installing large CPU coolers within their system needn’t worry about heatsinks/fans touching these modules. This is a major concern for system builders, its great to see that Patriot have designed this kit with such a low profile cooling solution.


Excellent compatibility thanks to low profile


Testing Methodologies & Overclocking


CPU Intel Core i5 2500K (3.3GHz)
Motherboard ASUS P8P67
Memory
– 8GB Patriot G2 1600MHz 9-9-9-24
– 8GB G.Skill Sniper 1600MHz 9-9-9-24
– 4GB Kingston HyperX Special Edition 1600MHz 9-9-9-27
– 4GB G.Skill RipjawsX 1600MHz 7-8-7-24
– 4GB OCZ Reaper 1600MHz 8-8-8-26
CPU Cooler Alpenfohn Matterhorn
Graphics ZOTAC GTX 460
PSU OCZ Fatal1ty 750W

For the purpose of testing I will be using the Patriot G2 kit and all subsequent Sandy Bridge memory on the ASUS P8P67 motherboard, using the Intel 2500K. Our database is now growing for Sandy Bridge memory reviews, so over time there will be more memory to compare against. But for now, we will be testing versus OCZ Reaper, G.Skill RipjawsX, Kingston HyperX Special Editions and the recently reviewed G.Skill SNIPER.


G2 kit installed on the ASUS P8P67 / testbench


Overclocking

With BCLK being fixed on the Sandy Bridge platform this has now altered the way we can overclock. Overclocking power with Sandy Bridge is concentrated on the CPU rather than memory. We do not have the flexibility we once had by changing the BCLK in order to move the frequencies in small increments, instead we have only set margins to move in because of the divider that is set. So available we have 1066MHz / 1600MHz / 1866MHz / 2133MHz / 2400MHz. In essence we have little room to experiment with, but lets see what we can do.

So to begin with I overclocked the kit. With the intention of pushing the memory frequency up to the first milestone – 1866MHz. It’s always a good idea to loosen the CAS timings when overclocking so that nothing affects moving up to the specified frequency. So I slackened the timings to 10-10-10-24. I had no problems at all with these settings so with CL10 being quite high for CAS latency I decided to try for CL9 but the G2 kit would not budge, no matter what combination of figures I used. I even tried nudging the voltage up to 1.7v but this would not encourage a CL9 1866MHz overclock, so in the end I had to settle for CL19 at 1866MHz.

The next objective was to modify the CAS timings at the stock memory frequency of 1600MHz. The idea here is to get the timings as tight as possible and the lowest ratings that I could settle on were 8-9-8-24 @ 1.65v. It’s good to see that I was able to improve the CAS latency to CL8.

With the performance modifications being established I was then able to begin benchmarking. So the G2 kit will be tested in CL10 with an overclock of 1866MHz , CL8 at 1600MHz and CL9 at 1600MHz (Stock). The results are on the proceeding pages. To summarise here are the settings we will be testing on the Patriot G2:

Stock: 1600MHz 9-9-9-24 @ 1.65v
Tight: 1600MHz 8-9-8-24 @ 1.65v
OC: 1866MHz 10-10-10-24 @ 1.65v

Synthetic: 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.


STOCK 1600MHz 9-9-9-24 @ 1.65v


TIGHT – CL8 1600MHz 8-9-8-24 @ 1.65v


OC – CL10 1866MHz 10-10-10-24 @ 1.65v



Synthetic: SiSoftware SANDRA 2011

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.






Synthetic: 3DMark 11

3DMark 11 is the latest version of the world’s most popular benchmark. 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.




Gaming: Metro 2033, Dirt 2, UT3, Black Ops

It’s important for us to perform a number of game benchmarks as well as the synthetic tests because the Patriot G2’s will surely feature in many gaming systems, because this kit is specifically targeted at gamers. So here we have a selection of popular gaming titles, critically acclaimed and action-packed.








Conclusion


I have to admit from the outset, looking at the G2 kit I expected below par performance. This was founded on first impressions, the G2 kit isn’t aggressively styled as compared to other kits. I guess the lesson here is taken from that age old proverb – “don’t judge a book by its cover”.

The Patriot G2 kit under review today has presented some fantastic performance in a range of scenarios. The 3DMark 11 and SANDRA benchmarks revealed particular improvements over previously reviewed memory kits. Game performance may have shown nominal improvements but in Unreal Tournament 3 performance was notably better.


Overclocking on Sandy Bridge has its limits as you are probably aware and I think particularly for a 1600MHz kit with CAS timings of CL9 and voltage of 1.65v we are greatly constrained. Had this been a kit with lower voltage and CAS timings we would probably have been able to achieve a better overclock. When the G2 kit was on the test bench 1866MHz was achieved but only by increasing the CAS timings to CL10. It’s generally considered that CL10 is very high and regarded as uncharted territory, yet still, the results yield some interesting results.

Patriot have done a great job with the G2 series, because of the excellent performance out of the box combined with low cost, this makes them great value for money and a recommended buy. They are easily one of the cheapest 1600MHz 8GB kits on the market to date, and what I like especially is the fact this kit is extremely low-profile – compatibility issues with CPU coolers will be a thing of the past!

Pros
+ Excellent performance
+ Extremely low-profile
+ Great value for money

Cons
– Design lacks style
– Restricted overclock (CL10)



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