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G.Skill's extensive range of Ripjaws memory kits has always covered the requirements of a wide user base. With that trend continuing to the present day, we will be taking a look at one of the company's high-capacity kits that targets mid-range users and gamers.
While 8GB DIMMS are more affordable than ever before, G.Skill has taken the opportunity to provide memory-lovers with a kit that will whet their appetite. Optimised for dual-channel platforms, the 32GB RipjawsX memory kit utilises a frequency of 1600MHz to make a good trade-off between performance and affordability.
Has G.Skill given its 32GB RipjawsX (F3-1600C9Q-32GXM) 1600MHz memory kit that touch of magic that will allow it to survive in a hotly-contested market?
Specifications:
- PC3-12800 (1600MHz).
- Timings: 9-9-9-24-2.
- Voltage: 1.50V
- XMP Ready.
- 32GB (4x 8GB) kit.
- Compatible with dual-channel platforms.
- Lifetime warranty.
- Model number: F3-1600C9Q-32GXM.
G.Skill ships the 32GB RipjawsX memory kit in a simple plastic ‘clamshell' style package. A pair of sticks is located on the packaging's front side, with the other pair housed at the rear. Information regarding the kit's specific speed, timings and voltage is listed on the packaging's rear face.
The bundle consists of the four 8GB memory sticks, in addition to a G.Skill case sticker which reads “G.Skill – Go Beyond Limit”.
Located on the bottom-right corner of the ‘RipjawsX' sticker is information regarding the memory kit's frequency, timings and voltage.
Attractive sky blue heatsinks are used to cool the 8GB DIMMS. The RipjawsX heatsinks follow G.Skill's traditional design which has proven its effectiveness many times in the past.
We are very pleased to see G.Skill using a black PCB, rather than green.
With a height of 40mm, the attractive RipjawsX heatsink makes each module around 9.5mm taller than a standard DIMM PCB.
The RipjawsX modules' light blue colour scheme is a perfect match for blue-themed motherboards such as our Asus P8Z77-V.
At around 9.5mm taller than a standard memory module, it is unlikely that interference with a large CPU cooler will be a regular problem for the G.Skill RipjawsX sticks, but it could present issues for certain users.
We are using the Asus P8Z77-V motherboard to test today's memory kit. It supports RAM from many manufacturers and gives us a large amount of flexibility to tinker with memory multiplier, base clock and timings settings.
Thanks to the fully-functioning XMP profile, we had no problems configuring the memory kit for use at its 1600MHz frequency and correct timings.
CPU-Z gives visual confirmation that this 32GB RipjawsX memory kit supports an XMP-1600 configuration.
Our system's CPU-Z validation can be found here.
We increased the memory voltage to a BIOS setting of 1.700V and relaxed the timings to 11-11-11-30-3T before aiming to improve the memory frequency. Increasing the motherboard’s ‘DRAM Current Capability’ to 130% and ‘DRAM Power Phase Control’ to Extreme allowed us to push the memory as far as possible.
Our initial attempts gave much success as we breezed through the 1,800MHz and 1,866MHz memory dividers. 2,000MHz was a step too far for the 1,600MHz RipjawsX memory kit, so we had no choice but to aim for more precise tweaks.
Backing down to the 1,866MHz divider and increasing the base clock by 1MHz increments gave no luck; the kit wouldn't post once its frequency passed 1,866MHz.
With our stable overclock frequency achieved, it was time to see how tight we could get the timings.
We were able to achieve complete stability with timings of 10-10-10-27-2T, but anything tighter and the system wouldn't post.
Increasing this high-capacity memory kit's frequency by an entire divider left us impressed with our overclocking attempts, especially given the fact that only a small relaxation of the timings was required.
Our final overclocked configuration was 1866MHz with 10-10-10-27-2T timings and a voltage of 1.700V.
You can view our overclocked CPU-Z validation here.
We are using an Intel Core i5 3570K processor with an Asus P8Z77-V motherboard.
We will be testing the G.Skill RipjawsX (F3-1600C9Q-32GXM) 1600MHz 32GB memory kit at:
Stock speed – 1600MHz 9-9-9-24-2T @ 1.500V
OC Speed – 1866MHz 10-10-10-27-2T @ 1.700V
Test System:
- Processor: Intel Core i5 3570K.
- Motherboard: Asus P8Z77-V.
- CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Seidon 120M.
- Graphics card: Radeon HD 6870 1GB.
- Power supply: 1000W Seasonic Platinum-1000.
- Storage drives: 128GB Kingston V100 (OS), 1TB Samsung F3, 320GB Seagate 7200.12.
- OS: Windows 7 Professional 64-bit.
Asus P8Z77-V system comparison memory:
- 8GB ‘generic' 1333MHz CL9.
- 8GB Patriot Viper 3 Intel Extreme Master Limited Edition 2133MHz.
- 16GB ADATA XPG Xtreme Series 2133MHz.
NOTE: We haven’t tested many memory kits on this Z77-based test system, so we felt it would be worth including results from our Dual Channel Z77 system featuring the 3770K processor. Obviously these results shouldn't be used as a direct comparison, but more to highlight a wider overview of performance levels between the various Intel platforms.
Gigabyte Z77X-UD5H Z77 comparison system:
Processor: Intel Core i7 3770k.
Motherboard: Gigabyte Z77X-UD5H motherboard.
Cooler: Arctic Cooling Freezer 13.
Power Supply: ADATA 1200W.
Optical Drive: Asus BluRay Drive.
Chassis: Cooler Master Cosmos 2.
Monitors: Dell U3011, 3x Ilyama ProLite E2472HDD.
Boot Drive: Kingston SSDNow V+200 90GB.
Storage Drive: Patriot 240GB Wildfire.
Gigabyte Z77X-UD5H Z77 system comparison memory:
Software:
- SiSoft Sandra 2012
- MaxxMem 2
- Super Pi
- WinRar
SiSoftware Sandra (the System ANalyser, Diagnostic and Reporting Assistant) is an information & diagnostic utility. It should provide most of the information (including undocumented) you need to know about your hardware, software and other devices whether hardware or software.
Sandra is a (girl’s) name of Greek origin that means “defender”, “helper of mankind”. We think that’s quite fitting.
It works along the lines of other Windows utilities, however it tries to go beyond them and show you more of what’s really going on. Giving the user the ability to draw comparisons at both a high and low-level. You can get information about the CPU, chipset, video adapter, ports, printers, sound card, memory, network, Windows internals, AGP, PCI, PCI-X, PCIe (PCI Express), database, USB, USB2, 1394/Firewire, etc.
Native ports for all major operating systems are available:
- Windows XP, 2003/R2, Vista, 7, 2008/R2 (x86)
- Windows XP, 2003/R2, Vista, 7, 2008/R2 (x64)
- Windows 2003/R2, 2008/R2* (IA64)
- Windows Mobile 5.x (ARM CE 5.01)
- Windows Mobile 6.x (ARM CE 5.02)
All major technologies are supported and taken advantage of:
- SMP – Multi-Processor
- MC – Multi-Core
- SMT/HT – Hyper-Threading
- MMX, SSE, SSE2, SSE3, SSSE3, SSE 4.1, SSE 4.2, AVX, FMA – Multi-Media instructions
- GPGPU, DirectX, OpenGL – Graphics
- NUMA – Non-Uniform Memory Access
- AMD64/EM64T/x64 – 64-bit extensions to x86
- IA64 – Intel* Itanium 64-bit
The performance of G.Skill's 32GB RipjawsX memory kit slots in exactly where we would expect it to do so.
Aided by the kit's high – 32GB – capacity, a chart-topping Sandra Cache Bandwidth score is achieved when the memory is overclocked to 1866MHz.
A 6.3% performance increase is achieved by overclocking the 8GB DIMMS from their rated settings of 1600MHz 9-9-9-24-2T to 1866MHz 10-10-10-27-2T.
MaxxMem2 PreView is a handy, free program to rate memory performance. It can be downloaded over here.
A worthwhile performance boost, coming about via overclocking, is observed in the MaxxMem2 test.
Super Pi is used by a huge audience, particularly to check stability when overclocking processors and memory. If a system is able to calculate PI to the 2 millionth place after the decimal without mistake, it is considered to be stable in regards to RAM and CPU. This program will also allow us to outline performance gains created by overclocked CPU and RAM frequencies.
When the G.Skill sticks are overclocked, Super Pi shows a small performance increase which allows the memory to compete closely with 2,133MHz parts.
WinRar is one of the most popular archive manager programs available. It can backup your data and reduce the size of email attachments, decompress RAR, ZIP and other files downloaded from Internet and create new archives in RAR and ZIP file format. You can try WinRAR before buy, its trial version is available in downloads.
WinRar's built in benchmark and hardware test can help us indicate performance gains experienced by overclocking our memory.
WinRar shows a worthwhile performance boost of around 5.6% which is achieved from overclocking. This boost indicates that real-world performance benefits can be obtained from increased memory frequency and tightened timings.
The G.Skill RipjawsX (F3-1600C9Q-32GXM) 1600MHz 32GB memory kit is a rock-solid product that has an excellent amount of overclocking headroom.
We would call the out-of-the-box performance average due to the fact that 1600MHz is the baseline for today's performance memory kits, even those with high-capacity DIMMS. The 1600MHz RipjawsX modules are no different to any other 1600MHz 9-9-9-24 sticks.
Overclocking the kit past its 1,600MHz rated frequency was simple. We had no problems adjusting the frequency up to 1,866MHz with just a slight reduction in the timings and safe increase in voltage.
Additional tweaking may lead to even higher frequencies or tighter timings, but 1,866MHz from a mid-range, high-capacity memory kit is respectable.
Appearance is one of the main selling points for G.Skill's Ripjaws product line. The blue RipjawsX heatsink used on today's kit is no different – it's very attractive and will look excellent in most, if not all, systems. While the heatsink can't be faulted for its aesthetic appeal, its 40mm height has the potential to interfere with large CPU coolers.
Currently available for £140 from Ebuyer, G.Skill's RipjawsX (F3-1600C9Q-32GXM) 1600MHz 32GB memory kit is priced very competitively. It is actually one of the cheapest 4x 8GB kits on the market, with many of the slightly more affordable options offering looser timings.
Pros:
- Respectable amount of overclocking headroom.
- Priced competitively.
- Attractive design.
- Tight timings in the default configuration.
Cons:
- 40mm heatspreaders may cause some interference issues.
KitGuru says: A rock-solid memory kit that offers a respectable amount of overclocking headroom and is set apart by its competitive retail price.
