G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 8GB DDR3-1600 SDRAM PC3 12800, not too long ago, 128 MB sticks of RAM were a big deal and a costly product at that. OK, yeah, maybe it was a few years ago now. Today, the norm is 2 GB sticks and as evidenced by today’s review, 4 GB sticks are slowly gaining ground. This review is on the G.Skill Ripjaws, DDR3-1600 CL9 8 GB (4GB X 2) set of memory rated to run at 9-9-9-24 timings at 1.50v. We will run this memory through the normal suite of OCC benchmarks to see how it performs. I don’t have any other 4 GB sticks available so we will see how they do against the 2 GB sticks I do have. The packaging is just your standard plastic sealed blister pack. The accompanying cardboard face just states “G.Skill Ripjaws, gaming series, designed for Intel i5 & i7 CPUs and AMD AM3 CPUs”. The back states that the memory has a lifetime warranty and gives G.Skill contact information along with the product model number and specs. Price, G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 8GB DDR3-1600 SDRAM PC3 12800 is offered for $89.99 with free shipping.
This memory, part number F3-12800CL9D-8GBRL, is rated to run at 1600 MHz with a timing of 9-9-9-24 @ 1.50v, so, not bad for today’s DDR3 memory offerings. The memory has a medium profile heat spreader that should be capable of removing excess heat to keep this RAM running cool.
Let’s take a look at how this memory performs.
Specifications:
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Product Name
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G.Skill Ripjaws
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G.Skill Part #
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F3-12800CL9D-8GBRL
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Description
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G.Skill Ripjaws DDR3 1600 MHz, 8 GB kit
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Intel XMP
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YES
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Product Warranty
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Lifetime Warranty
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Operating Temperature
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0c to 85c
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Product UPC
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4711148594851
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Features:
- DDR3-1600 @ 9-9-9-24, 1.5v
- Designed for Intel and AMD use
- Medium Profile Heat Spreader
- Lifetime Warranty
Testing:
Testing of the G.Skill memory will include all the standard OCC tests. We will run this memory at the rated frequency and timings specified by G.Skill, make sure that the XMP profile works as expected and finally, push the RAM to see what headroom is available for the overclockers out there.
Testing Setup:
- CPU: Intel core i7 860
- Cooling: Noctua NH-U12P SE 1366
- Motherboard: Gigabyte P55UD4P
- Memory: G.Skill DDR3 1600 CAS 9 8GB Kit
- Video Card: Gigabyte HD 5870
- Power Supply: Enermax Modu-82+ 625W
- HDD: Patriot Torqx 128 GB, Seagate 640 GB 7200.11
- Optical Drive: Samsung DVD-R
- OS: Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
CPU-Z: This application shows us the settings that we have chosen in the BIOS. Items shown in this application include CPU speed and bus settings, motherboard manufacturer, BIOS revisions, memory timings and SPD chip information.
Task Manager: We use this utility to show physical memory, kernel memory, page file and processor usage.
Overclocking:
Overclocked Settings:
- Processor: Intel core i7 860 at 164 X 19
- Memory: G.Skill DDR3-1600 at 1968 MHz 9-9-9-24
The memory kind of surprised me a little bit. I wasn’t expecting these 1600 MHz 4 Gb sticks to go over 1800 MHz, much less almost reach 2000 MHz! Keeping the memory at its rated 9-9-9-24 timings but upping the VDIMM from 1.5v to 1.65v we topped out at 1968 MHz. Pretty impressive for 4 Gb sticks of DDR3-1600 memory and especially considering this is CAS 9 rated memory. This memory also did pretty good at tightening up the timings while at the stock speed. It managed 7-7-7-24 at the rated speed of 1600 MHz.
The maximum memory speed for each set of modules when overclocked is a measure of how well the modules ran on these particular settings and test system. As such, your results may differ in either a positive or negative way based on the capabilities of your hardware. Meaning, that your mileage may vary!
The benchmarks used in this review include the following:
Benchmarks:
- CPU-Z Version 1.55
- Windows Task Manager
- PCMark Vantage
- Geekbench 2.1
- Super Pi 1.5
- SiSoft Sandra 2010
- Batman Arkham Asylum
Testing:
PCMark Vantage: With this benchmark, I will be running the system suite, as well as the memory test suite. The measurement for the system suite will be the total score. The measurement for memory performance is the total memory score.
SiSoftware Sandra 2010: In this program, I will be running the following benchmarks: Cache and Memory, Memory Bandwidth and Memory Latency. Higher is better in all tests, except for Memory Latency, where lower is better.
The G.Skill memory is on par with the rest of the memory we put it up against.
Testing:
Geekbench 2.1 provides a comprehensive set of benchmarks engineered to quickly and accurately measure processor and memory performance. Designed to make benchmarks easy to run and easy to understand, Geekbench takes the guesswork out of producing robust and reliable benchmark results.
Super Pi Mod 1.5 is a program designed to calculate Pi up to the 32nd millionth digit after the decimal and is used as both a benchmarking utility and simple stress test to check your overclock before moving forward with more rigorous testing. The world records for this benchmark utility are hotly contested.
The G.Skill once again is on par with the competing memory.
Testing:
Batman Arkham Asylum is a game that pits Batman against the Joker who has taken control of Arkham Asylum along with a whole load of bad guy prisoners. His task is to rescue various hostages the Joker takes, along with trying to stop the Joker himself and fighting scores of prisoners in the interim.
Settings
- 0 x AA
- 0 x AF
- Global Settings = Low
- Ambient Occlusion = Off
- Resolutions: 800 X 600, 1024 X 768 and 1280 X 1024
The G.Skill Ripjaws are still on par with the rest of the comparison modules we tested it against.
Conclusion:
This 8 GB set of G.Skill DDR3-1600 CL9 did kind of surprise me with the 1968 MHz ceiling at the stock rated timings of 9-9-9-24. Surprised because of the supposed difficulty in overclocking modules of this density. I just wasn’t expecting this RAM to reach that level since the 2 GB Ripjaw sticks gave out at 1780 MHz with the same rated speed, timings and voltage. The XMP profile works just as expected, as does the RAM at its rated 1600 Mhz speed. You can also substantially tighten up the timings at the module’s 1600MHz rated speed to 7-7-7-24, which of course is a nice bonus when you run this memory at 1600 MHz. Price wise, this set is an incredible value at the current pricing of $189 at Newegg for this 8GB set of memory from G.Skill. So, if you are in need of an 8 GB set of dual channel memory that still has some headroom for expansion in both timings and frequency, you may want to consider this G.Skill set.
Pros:
- Very good overclocking
- Medium height heat spreaders
- Timings tighten well at rated speed
- Runs at the JEDEC standard of 1.5v
- Pricing
- 8GB capacity
Cons:
