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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 base clock and timings settings.
We have updated the board to Asus' latest BIOS which is 1504. This BIOS features all of the memory compatibility updates from previous BIOS.
Enabling XMP allowed us to boot directly into the correct frequency, timings and voltage settings for Patriot's memory kit. Our motherboard's ‘auto' settings were correct, but other boards may increase RAM voltages or timings, so we would recommend that you check the settings to avoid system instability.
CPU-Z highlights various timings from the memory. Our Asus P8Z77-V motherboard loaded the 2133MHz XMP profile instantaneously.
Our system validation at stock frequencies can be found here.
We increased the memory voltage to a BIOS setting of 1.7V and relaxed the timings to 14-14-14-33 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.
Increasing the base clock by 1MHz at a time got us up to the 106MHz mark resulting in a 2261MHz memory frequency with complete stability.
With our stable frequency achieved, it was time to see how tight we could get the timings.
The first step was to tighten the kit back to its original 11-11-11-27 timings which proved a step too far with our overclocked frequency. We worked backwards from our slack 14-14-14-33 timings and managed to grasp complete stability at a setting of 12-12-12-27-3T. Decreasing the Cas Latency, RAS Precharge or RAS to CAS Delay any further provided instability during boot and the OS environment.
12-12-12-27 timings are a good achievement for such a high-speed and overclocked memory kit. We were pleased to compromise only a small amount of tightness on the timings for the extra frequency which was attained.
CPU-Z shows the 1130.8MHz DRAM Frequency which provides a Double Data Rate speed of 2261MHz.
You can view our system's validation when overclocked here.
