G.Skill Ripjaws V 3600 MHz DDR4 (2x 4 GB)

[cadaveca]

Intel's new Skylake platform comes with DDR4 at increased memory speeds, and the first to help us investigate the benefits of high-performance DDR4 is G.Skill's latest design, the Ripjaws V. Wrapped in a new look, these ultra-fast 3600 MHz modules push the limits of your Skylake CPU.

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[ne6togadno]

taking in account that every stick is assembly with casted parts in it, settling hight at 40.7mm is fully acceptable from engeeniering ponit of view.

 

[Farmer Boe]

Great review Dave! Good to see you're back in the saddle with your RAM reviews as those have been a TPU highlight for a while now. Thanks for putting in the time to get us valid results and I look forward to the next one.

 

[ShurikN]

400 bucks for 8GB... I don't understand how this got any type of recommendation, let alone 9.8.

 

[cadaveca]

400 bucks for 8GB... I don't understand how this got any type of recommendation, let alone 9.8.

High-end memory is always priced like this, so it is normal. I have paid more out of my own pocket for similar many times over the years. As I said in the review, if you don't understand the price, it's not a kit for you.

 

[ShurikN]

High-end memory is always priced like this, so it is normal. I have paid more out of my own pocket for similar many times over the years. As I said in the review, if you don't understand the price, it's not a kit for you.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...231904&cm_re=ripjaws_V-_-20-231-904-_-Product
It's half the price for 100MHz less.
But hey, as long as there's sheep...

 

[Breit]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...231904&cm_re=ripjaws_V-_-20-231-904-_-Product
It's half the price for 100MHz less.
But hey, as long as there's sheep...

According to my calculator 3600-3466 is about 133 and not 100...
Though, paying $210 for DDR4-3466 is fine for you, even when you can have DDR4-3200 for only $80 (which is only another 133MHz slower)?

It might probably be expoentially harder to manufacture faster memory and thus the price has to grow accordingly. But hey, you're free to choose your own limit!

Here are the current RipJaws prices from Newegg (Kit with 2x 4GB modules for Z170):
DDR4-3600 -> $360
DDR4-3466 -> $210
DDR4-3200 -> $80
DDR4-3000 -> $75
DDR4-2800 -> $67
DDR4-2666 -> $63
DDR4-2400 -> $61
DDR4-2133 -> $58

 

[ShurikN]

I don't there's that great increase (if any) in performance going form 3200 to 3600 when considering real life situations and tests.
Which makes that $80 3200 a steal, and the one I would buy.

 

[cadaveca]

I don't there's that great increase (if any) in performance going form 3200 to 3600 when considering real life situations and tests.
Which makes that $80 3200 a steal, and the one I would buy.

Yeah, the best price/performance ratio is lower speeds for sure, and G.Skill does match those lower price brackets. That is why I have no problem with the pricing at all. Had cheaper kits been overpriced, then I would have cried foul.

I have seen 3000 MHz is hard for some board/CPU combos, even, which to me is quite shocking. I figured 3200 would have been average clock for memory when I got my first CPU sample. At least, that's where prices seems decent, too, although for that speed, you really want Hynix-based sticks, IMHO. I did bench with 3000 MHz sticks in there for a reason, after all.

These high-end kits are really only usable for those that like to benchmark or run multiple GPUs (it can increase minimum FPS decently). And for those users, paying that extra is worth having an individual sit there and test memory to ensure the top kits get the top ICs in them.

 

[vega22]

great write up dave

not sure i would agree it is the rams fault for the lax mobo support but i do think it is something which should be a bigger deal on the whole.

same as the lower latency and more efficient timings having a bigger impact on game fps. not something many have touched before as it has been an area where ddr4 has been weak. i think now ddr4 is maturing it will be less of an issue anyway.

 

[cadaveca]

great write up dave

not sure i would agree it is the rams fault for the lax mobo support but i do think it is something which should be a bigger deal on the whole.

same as the lower latency and more efficient timings having a bigger impact on game fps. not something many have touched before as it has been an area where ddr4 has been weak. i think now ddr4 is maturing it will be less of an issue anyway.

I don't blame the rams, but it is a fact of life when you buy them that it is something you may have to deal with, and users need to be aware that with this platform, the other hardware you buy once again matters when it comes time to OC.

 

[RejZoR]

Like I said so many times, RAM quantity over speed. Instead of spending 400 bucks on shitty 8GB kit, you could spend that kind of money on what, 64GB kit and lose basically no performance except gain million tons of it through infinite pools of RAM so everything runs from there and never ever pages to HDD or SSD?

Just look how there is massive diference in synthetic benchmarks, but as soon as you move into the real world, differences even between the fastest and the slowest RAM are almost not worth mentioning.

I got myself 2400MHz kit just because it was actually cheaper than many 2133MHz kits. Otherwise I'd never taken it. Simply not worth it. Especially not since you can overclock with multipliers now and it doesn't even affect RAM as an OC limitation.

 

[cadaveca]

It's now $200. Is that better? LoL.

 

[RejZoR]

For a 32GB kit it would be I've had 18GB of RAM for like one and a half years and it does spoil you. And I only had 1600 MHz RAM...

 

[erixx]

Hey Dave, do you think the G.Skill Trident Z will be better then Corsair Dominator Platinum? (3000 or "sweet spot" Mhz) Looking forward to hearing your recommendation.... Thx!

 

[cadaveca]

Hey Dave, do you think the G.Skill Trident Z will be better then Corsair Dominator Platinum? (3000 or "sweet spot" Mhz) Looking forward to hearing your recommendation.... Thx!

I have a set of 3200 MHz 8 GB Trident-Z sticks (16 GB total in two sticks) that will reviewed soon. Nice sticks, them Trident-Z's. If you are thinking about them and are interested in buying, I'd not hesitate.

Also, G.Skill has some 4000+ sticks coming soon I think (they are listed on their site, anyway). Those have me quite interested, to be honest, since I have seen some screenshots of 4500 MHz at more than reasonable voltages (ie 4250 kit @ 1.45V).

As to what will work better, it depends on which sticks, and which board, and which BIOS. Some boards seem tuned for Hynix, others for Samsung, and some are ready for any sticks you might want to toss in. I haven't played with enough boards to answer that question without being so general, sorry. I finished a Gigabyte review that's gone to editing, got to do both ASRock and MSI boards, with the trident-Z review likely getting stuck between those two boards.

 

[erixx]

Great answer, thanks! I am talking about a Asus X99-s build... in the RAM sheet I see G.skill is mostly Hynix... but the Z series will take 2 weeks to arrive and they are priced WAY below the Dommies.

 

[cadaveca]

Great answer, thanks! I am talking about a Asus X99-s build... in the RAM sheet I see G.skill is mostly Hynix... but the Z series will take 2 weeks to arrive and they are priced WAY below the Dommies.

It might not be the same ICs now, since that list was done some time ago. Many of the same sticks now use different IC. I am not allowed to disclose which IC, as it has and can and will change at any time.

For X99, either IC doesn't matter, really, it's just Skylake boards that are a bit suspect. X99 Express has been out for long enough that BIOSes are quite mature and most issues that might have cropped up have been dealt with (including Windows10 stuff).

 

[erixx]

Good tip Dave! Corsair 3000 RAM Kits arrived with x99-s, actually I am having problems and running in circles... Asus website is so slow I posponed it and forgot it. My BIOS is various versions behind! So first i will update (updates include RAM and "Support NVMe" which I am actually running without seeing it in bios. lol)
XMP profile in BIOS is driving me MAD! (it modifies tons of settings and turns off Turbo and sets a fixed voltage to CPU!)
1st things 1st, said mamma...
I choose Corsair non-Platinums low-profile kits, but they have both the same specs...

 

[Farmer Boe]

Good tip Dave! Corsair 3000 RAM Kits arrived with x99-s, actually I am having problems and running in circles... Asus website is so slow I posponed it and forgot it. My BIOS is various versions behind! So first i will update (updates include RAM and "Support NVMe" which I am actually running without seeing it in bios. lol)
XMP profile in BIOS is driving me MAD! (it modifies tons of settings and turns off Turbo and sets a fixed voltage to CPU!)
1st things 1st, said mamma...
I choose Corsair non-Platinums low-profile kits, but they have both the same specs...

Why don't you just tune your RAM manually? Sometimes the secondary timings via XMP can cause issues that aren't immediately obvious.

 

[Sabishii Hito]

@cadaveca did you ever peep under the heat spreaders for these (or pull up Thaiphoon Burner) to check the IC? I know they use Samsung, but there is a new IC out, Samsung E-die (K4A4G085WE) that is showing even more promise than the D-die (K4A4G085WD).

 

[cadaveca]

@cadaveca did you ever peep under the heat spreaders for these (or pull up Thaiphoon Burner) to check the IC? I know they use Samsung, but there is a new IC out, Samsung E-die (K4A4G085WE) that is showing even more promise than the D-die (K4A4G085WD).

ICs used in sticks can change at anytime, and have in the past, so no, I don't bother, and I don't disclose which are on the sticks I get in case it changes.

 

[erixx]

Why don't you just tune your RAM manually? Sometimes the secondary timings via XMP can cause issues that aren't immediately obvious.

As Dave also said in his MSI X99 review and elsewhere, it is hard to run RAM at 3000 and at the same time OC processor and keep Variable Voltage (not to speak of Adaptive!) and keep Turbo and keep downclocking for idle....this seems coming from limitations in the memory controller of the X99 platform, so it's "High End" label is somewhat dissapointing.
All in all lots of "great" tech and benchies, but little is said (in marketing material and in reviews!) about fully use all features at same time!!