In this review, we are taking a look at a 32GB set of memory from a vendor that you perhaps have not heard of, or have little experience with. According to the company’s own information, Goodram and IRDM are brands of memory and storage products manufactured by Polish company Wilk Elektronik. With its factory currently located in Poland, Wilk Elektronik actually started as a distributor in 1991. They then started produced memory products in 2003, before diverging into the gaming market with its Goodram/IRDM brands.
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Fundamentally, IRDM Pro by Goodram represents a set of memory targeting value gaming applications. And to those interested in buying local, this denotes one of the few consumer memory vendors that can highlight stages of production in Europe as one of their unique selling points.
With the company background introduced, let’s take a closer look at the memory that we are testing today.
The specific memory kit that we are looking at is the IRDM Pro by Goodram in Deep Black colour. The rated speed is 3600MHz supporting XMP, timings are 18-22-22-42 at 1.35V, and the 32GB set is 2x16GB using dual-rank modules.
Looking at Thaiphoon Burner, we get an indication of the underlying ICs used by Goodram. These are highlighted as Hynix-based in Thaiphoon Burner, but without an accurate indication of the exact Hynix IC line used.
Given the push for competitive pricing and strong value, it comes as no surprise that a DIMM temperature sensor is not included. This is probably not a significant issue to most buyers of reasonably priced memory modules.
In terms of styling, the IRDM Pro modules in their Deep Black colour are very basic. Other colour combinations including ‘Hollow White’ are also available.
You get a sub-1mm thin metal heatspreader that wraps around the black PCB. At least we do indeed get an 8-layer black PCB – that’s a significant improvement over the green alternative.
Module height is around 33-34mm tall. These sticks are basically a couple of millimetres taller than a bare DIMM PCB. That is absolutely superb for mitigating CPU cooler interference, and thermal problems should not be a worry with the 1.35V XMP voltage.
Clearly, there is no room for an extended RGB light diffuser or any form of illumination. RGB RAM certainly seems to be a very polarising topic within the community; there will certainly be many users who appreciate a clean black appearance of these IRDM Pro modules – especially without the oversized heatspreaders that often cause more hassle than they solve on competing memory modules.
Goodram includes a lifetime warranty, as we have come to expect from RAM.
UK pricing is meant to be around £135 for our specific test kit, but current availability is around £143 at Amazon at the time of writing.
We spoke to our contact at Goodram who confirmed that there is strong coverage in Europe, but they do not currently have official distribution in the US.
- Model Number: IRP-K3600D4V64L18/32GDC
- Capacity: 32GB (2x 16GB)
- Rated Frequency: DDR4-3600MHz
- Rated Timings: 18-22-22-42
- Voltage: 1.35V
- Format: Non-ECC Unbuffered 288-pin DIMM
We will be outlining the Goodram IRDM Pro memory kit's performance with the AMD Ryzen 9 5950X CPU, ASUS ROG Crosshair VIII Hero motherboard, and a Gigabyte RTX 3080 Eagle OC graphics card. The processor is overclocked to a static 4.6GHz to take any clock speed variability from Precision Boost 2 out of the performance equation.
We have significant comparison data from our recent memory round-up review featuring DDR4 kits from Corsair, G.SKILL, Kingston, PNY, and Predator HERE.
Test System:
- Processor: AMD Ryzen 9 5950X overclocked to 4.6GHz all core.
- Motherboard: ASUS ROG Crosshair VIII Hero.
- Graphics Card: Gigabyte RTX 3080 Eagle OC.
- System Drive: WD_Black SN750 SSD.
- CPU Cooler: Fractal Celsius+ S28 Prisma 280mm AIO.
- Power Supply: Seasonic Prime TX-1000 1000W.
- Case: Lian Li Open-air Test Bench.
- Operating System: Windows 10 Pro 64-bit.
Tests:
- 7-Zip – Built-in 7-Zip benchmark test (CPU & Memory)
- Cinebench R23 – All-core CPU benchmark (CPU & Memory)
- Blender 2.93.4 – All-core rendering of the Classroom benchmark (CPU & Memory)
- SiSoft Sandra – Memory bandwidth (Memory)
- AIDA64 – Memory bandwidth, memory latency (Memory)
- 3DMark TimeSpy – Time Spy (1440p) test (Gaming)
- F1 2020 – 1920 x 1080, Ultra High quality preset, DX12 version (Gaming)
- Watch Dogs Legion – 1920 x 1080, Ultra quality preset, DX12 version (Gaming)
Compute and Productivity Tests
7-Zip compression performance starts our strong, as we have come to expect from 32GB of dual-rank DDR4-3600 memory on the AMD platform. Goodram’s kit sits just above the similarly specced Corsair set in terms of compressing performance, and resized a little behind the tighter timings 2x16GB kits.
Decompressing performance is also strong, with the preferential dual-rank configuration and 3600MHz clocks resulting in a chart-topping performance alongside G.SKILL. The differences between top kits here are tight, and within margin of error, but the IRDM Pro is clearly doing well.
Blender performance slots in with the other kits at 207 seconds for the classroom render. There isn’t much focus on differing RAM performance here.
Similar can be said for Cinebench; the Goodram set does technically top our chart by a few points. But when factoring in error margins, it is realistically joint-top alongside some other 32GB 3600MHz sets.
Memory Benchmarks
Memory bandwidth according to the Sandra test sits a little behind the tighter latency Kingston kit. Here, we see a small preference for the Goodram set thanks to its dual-rank configuration versus the Corsair kit with four equally specced single-rank modules.
AIDA’s memory bandwidth test is far more speed and latency biased, as opposed to rank structure. As such, the 3600MHz C18 IRDM Pro set performs just off the bottom spot, only sitting above Corsair’s modules.
We continue to see similarities versus Corsair’s 3600MHz C18 kit in AIDA’s memory latency test. Here, the Goodram sticks roughly match Corsair but sit below the better specced memory at preferential AMD CPU memory controller clock speeds.
Gaming Tests
In 3DMark, Goodram once again sits between Corsair and Kingston 3600MHz kits. The dual-rank configuration proves a benefit here over Corsair’s alternative.
By virtue of a clean game installation as a result of continuous crashing (not as a result of the memory kit, I must add), the IRDM Pro kit now sits slightly above our data from the comparison modules. Realistically, we expect the Goodram kits to offer roughly the same performance as the other dual-rank 2x16GB 3600MHz kits in F1 2020.
Watch Dogs returns the hierarchy to its general trend, with the 2x16GB Goodram IRDM Pro set sitting a little above Corsair’s performance and roughly matching the tighter Kingston sticks.
Clearly, gaming performance on the 2x16GB DDR4-3600 dual-rank Goodram IRDM Pro set of memory is very solid indeed.
Overclocking will understandably be very much dependent upon luck of the draw with your individual kit. As such, we don’t assign too much weight to the overclocking results that we see with a sample size of one. There’s no harm in a quick tinker though.
In terms of overclocking, we got some reasonable success.
Boosting the voltage to 1.45V, we managed to push memory speed up to 4000MHz using the stock XMP timings of 18-22-22-42. This is a decent frequency push, especially if you’re on the AMD platform with a CPU that can do 2GHz FCLK.
Sticking to the preferential 3600MHz memory clock for the AMD platform, we also looked at tightening the timings. With the RAM voltage set at 1.45V, we managed to squeeze down to 16-19-19-42. That’s a decent tightening when maintaining the stock 3600MHz frequency.
It is always interesting to have a first experience with a new brand to us, especially in the form of memory whereby differences between vendors can be subtle and understated.
Our experience with the Goodram IRDM Pro DDR4 set emphasises that point; we see a smartly-designed set of memory that targets a competitive price point with logical specifications. And the underlying Hynix ICs run solidly with the 3600MHz 18-22-22-42 XMP setting. No, these are not the tightest timings on the market, but they do run well and offer stellar performance on the AMD platform thanks to the dual-rank configuration.
In terms of design and styling, the IRDM Pro modules are undeniably basic. You get a thin sheet metal heatspreader that barely extends past the black PCBs. There are no flashy lights or fancy grills and styles. But this is absolutely fine to most users who just want basic memory. And you get the strong side benefit of having basically zero chance of running into clearance headaches with oversized CPU heatsinks.
If we focus on pricing and market competitors, this is where the Goodram IRDM Pro kit currently has some challenges. Around £135-145 in the UK for a kit of this calibre is absolutely fine, and about the going rate we would expect.
However, the likes of Patriot, Corsair, KLEVV, G.SKILL, and Kingston all offer pretty much identical specification kits at this price point. And many of those have superior heatsink designs and/or RGB lighting (which you can turn off if you really dislike it).
The question we have to ask is; how many consumers will pick a relatively small memory vendor like Goodram over a giant such as Corsair or Kingston? Even if the Goodram kit does perform very well – possibly identically – according to our testing. Of course, that’s a debate for you to have, and it very much does get influenced by individual preference and availability in today’s market.
To summarise, the IRDM Pro by Goodram set of DDR4 that we tested offers reasonable specifications for the price point, is wisely basic in terms of styling, and offers a worry-free heatspreader design to those with big air coolers. Pricing and performance are both absolutely fine, but there is plenty of competition from the big boys such as Corsair, Kingston, and the likes at this exact price point. So that will be a tough battle for Goodram to fight in.
We don't yet have a buy-link but Goodram told us the UK MSRP is £135.
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Pros:
- Sensible design choices to hit a competitive price point.
- No worries for CPU cooler interference from the small heatspreader.
- Perfectly competent XMP specifications.
- Stellar performance from the dual-rank modules and Hynix ICs.
Cons:
- Perhaps too basic in terms of design versus the competitors.
- Really tough competition at this price point from basically all other vendors.
- Competing LED-equipped kits at the same price, though you may dislike RGB vociferously.
KitGuru says: Solid performance with decent specifications, the IRDM Pro DDR4 modules by Goodram are perfectly competent, even if there is plenty of tough competition in the market.
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