Corsair Dominator Platinum 16GB (4x4GB) 2666mhz Memory Review

1. Introduction2. Corsair Dominator Platinum 16GB (4x4GB) 2666mhz3. Corsair Dominator Platinum 16GB (4x4GB) 2666mhz (Super High Res Gallery)4. Configuring The Bios5. System Configuration6. SiSoft Sandra7. PCMark 78. MaxxMem 29. SuperPi10. 3D Studio Max 201111. Overclocking past 2,666mhz12. Closing Thoughts13. View All Pages

If you have just built a new system and are using one of the latest high performance Z77 motherboards then it might be time to consider a memory upgrade. Today we are analysing the latest Corsair Dominator Platinum memory, aimed at the upper end of the enthusiast market. These kits are available in speeds up to 2666 MHz with various bundles from 8 GB to 64 GB.

Corsair kindly sent us their flagship kit which is primarily designed for the latest Z77 platform. These 4GB sticks run at timings of 10-12-12-31 at 2,666mhz … which right now is class leading. This kit costs £259.99 inc vat however, so they will need to perform right at the cutting edge to justify the price tag.

That is what we aim to find out today, by pairing it up with the stunning ASUS Maximus V Formula Z77 motherboard. [yframe url='http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mL342NQDDt8′]

The full selection of kits on sale can be seen on Corsair's website here.

Technical Specifications

• 16GB total capacity provides ample headroom for the most demanding user
• Fast 2666MHz performance.
• Ultra-low 10-12-12-31 latency
• Intel XMP 1.3 (Extreme Memory Profile) support
• Limited Lifetime Warranty

We love this packaging. Corsair are aiming to make the customer feel as if they have bought a high end, luxurious product and they have succeeded.

The box splits into two separate sections, with 2x4GB sticks on either side, protected inside a plastic container.

This is a weighty kit of memory, as each stick is built inside a heavy duty metal heatspreader. If you watched the video on the previous page you will have seen that this is not an ordinary heatspreader either. Corsair say that this memory is screened for performance and stability. The sticks use patented DHX (Dual-path Heat eXhange) cooling technology.

An overview of the Dominator Platinum memory. As the cut through diagram highlights, the PCB has a connection point for the Corsair Link Interface, to monitor the IC temperature and activity. This can be used in conjunction with the incredible AX1200i Power Supply which we reviewed in August. If you missed the review, you can click here for a read.

The beautifully designed heatspreaders – up close. One side has the Dominator Platinum name and the speed rating along the side while the other has a sticker with detailed timing specifications.

Above, the Corsair Dominator Platinum 16GB kit installed in a high end Z77 system build, based around the ASUS Maximus V Formula motherboard. An ideal partner for the 2,666mhz memory.

On this page we present some super high resolution images of the product taken with the 24.5MP Nikon D3X camera and 24-70mm ED lens. These will take much longer to open due to the dimensions, especially on slower connections. If you use these pictures on another site or publication, please credit Kitguru.net as the owner/source. You can right click and ‘save as’ to your computer to view later.

Before we used the Asus Maximus V Formula Z77 motherboard for this review today, we tried the Corsair Dominator Platinum 16GB (4x4GB) 2666mhz with the Asus Rampage IV Extreme X79 motherboard. We couldn't get the system to post at the 2,666mhz XMP setting, however 2,400mhz was possible – we know however there are certain limitations with the X79 platform and memory beyond 2,400mhz.

Strangely, we experienced the same issues with the ASRock Z77 Extreme6 and Biostar TZ77E4 using the XMP profile. 2,400mhz was possible, but nothing higher. By this stage we were beginning to wonder if the memory was at fault.

Asus to the rescue …

… We had no problems using the XMP 2,666mhz profile with the Asus Maximus V Formula Z77 motherboard and the latest 0804 bios. The XMP profile of 10-12-12-31-2N was highlighted.

Strangely enough, we checked the timings – and at ‘auto' the board showed 13-13-13-35-2N. We consulted again with the XMP settings listed on the official Corsair site and noticed that they mention '11-13-13-35′ (image above right). We found however that by manually adjusting the timings (disabling XMP) to 10-12-12-31 that stability was achieved at 2,666mhz.

At 2,666mhz with a manual profile setting of 10-12-12-31, CPUz validation still reported 11-13-13-13-35 timings – even though the memory tab of the software highlighted 10-12-12-12-31 timings. You can look at system validation yourself over here.

We look at overclocking, later in the review.

Today we are using an Intel Core i7 3770k processor with the ASUS Maximus V Formula motherboard.

We are testing the memory kit at 2,666mhz with the XMP profile timings of 10-12-12-12-31 @ 1.65 volts.

Test System:

• Processor: Intel Core i7 3770k @ 4.8ghz
• Motherboard: ASUS Maximus V Formula.
• Cooler: Corsair H100 Liquid Cooler.
• Graphics card: Sapphire HD7970 6GB Toxic Edition
• Power supply: Corsair HX850
• Boot drives: Intel 510 120GB
• Storage drives: Patriot Wildfire 240GB & Samsung 2TB Storage drive.
• OS: Windows 7 Professional 64-bit.

ASUS Maximus V Formula comparison memory:

• 8GB Kingston HyperX Predator 2,666mhz
  8GB Patriot Viper 3 Intel Masters Limited Edition 2,133mhz
• 8GB ‘generic’ 1600mhz CL9
• 8GB ‘generic’ 1333mhz CL9

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:

• 8GB Patriot Viper Xtreme Division 2 2133mhz
• 8GB G.Skill TridentX 2400mhz

Software:

• SiSoft Sandra
• PCMark 7
• MaxxMem 2
• Super Pi
• Studio Max

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

In a similar fashion to the Kingston HyperX Predator 2,666mhz kit, these are slightly disappointing results for the Corsair Dominator Platinum, probably due to the looser timings at these speeds.

PCMark 7 includes 7 PC tests for Windows 7, combining more than 25 individual workloads covering storage, computation, image and video manipulation, web browsing and gaming. Specifically designed to cover the full range of PC hardware from netbooks and tablets to notebooks and desktops, PCMark 7 offers complete PC performance testing for Windows 7 for home and business use.

At 4.8ghz, the Core i7 3770k is a very powerful processor, as the scores reflect. The fast Solid State Drive and 2,666mhz memory help to improve the average figure. This is one of the highest scores we have recorded to date from a Z77 system.

MaxxMem2 PreView is a useful, free program to rate memory performance. It can be downloaded over here.

The Corsair Dominator Platinum 16GB 2,666mhz kit delivers our highest ever score, right at the top of the chart, even above the Kingston HyperX Predator 2,666mhz.

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.

The Kingston HyperX Predator 2,666mhz kit previously took our top position in the chart, with a time of 6 minutes and 57 seconds. The Corsair Dominator Platinum 16GB 2,666mhz kit shaves a further 3 seconds from the time, to 6 minutes and 54 seconds.

V2011 is the first release of 3DStudio Max to fully support the Windows 7 operating system. This is a professional level tool that many people use for work purposes and our test will show any possible differences between board design today.

Autodesk 3ds Max Design 2011 software offers compelling new techniques to help bring designs to life by aggregating data, iterating ideas, and presenting the results.

Streamlined, more intelligent data exchange workflows and innovative new modeling and visualization tools help significantly increase designers’ creativity and productivity, enabling them to better explore, validate, and communicate the stories behind their designs.

Major new features:

• Slate: A node based material editor.
• Quicksilver: Hardware renderer with multithreaded rendering engine that utilizes both CPU and GPU.
• Extended Graphite Modeling Toolset
• 3ds Max Composite: A HDRI-capable compositor based on Autodesk Toxik.
• Viewport Canvas toolset for 3D and 2D texture painting directly in the viewport
• Object Painting: use 3D geometry as ‘brushes’ on other geometry
• Character Animation Toolkit (CAT): now integrated as part of the base package
• Autodesk Material Library: Over 1200 new photometrically accurate shaders
• Additional file format support: includes native support for Sketchup, Inventor
• FBX file linking
• Save to Previous Release (2010)

We created a new 6200×2400 scene and recorded the time for the hardware to finalise the render.

Incredible results, taking 2 seconds from the render time when compared directly against the Kingston HyperX Predator 2,666mhz memory kit.

We ran into a wall at 2,750mhz, and increased the memory voltage to 1.68v.

We managed to overclock the memory to 2,849mhz via a 106.9 BCLK/PEG frequency setting, by reducing the multiplier to 45 to achieve a final clock figure as close to the original 4.8ghz as possible. We didn't have to loosen any of the memory timings either which was extremely impressive.

System validation at these timings is available over here.

The overclock reduced the time further, to 4 minutes and 56 seconds. A class leading result.

The overclock helps generate more than 1GB/s of extra bandwidth, to over 26 GB/s. A decent increase.

The increased memory speed helps to improve copy, read and write results. This is actually our highest scores in this benchmark, to date.

A couple of weeks ago we reviewed the Kingston HyperX Predator 2,666mhz memory which ships with 11-14-14-30 timings, and there was no doubt that it impressed us. The Corsair Dominator Platinum 16GB 2,666mhz memory kit ships with the same 2,666mhz clock speed, but Corsair have tightened the timings to 10-12-12-31. At these speeds, there is no better kit available today.

The tight timings translate to noticeable improvements across the board, and we achieved some of the highest benchmark results to date with the Dominator Platinum, made even more impressive by the fact that it is a 16GB kit with four sticks, not an 8GB kit with two sticks.

Before we used the Asus Maximus V Formula Z77 motherboard for this review today, we tried the Corsair Dominator Platinum 16GB (4x4GB) 2666mhz with the Asus Rampage IV Extreme X79 motherboard. We couldn't get the system to post at the 2,666mhz XMP setting, however 2,400mhz was possible. We know however there are certain limitations with the X79 platform and memory beyond 2,400mhz.

That said, we experienced the same issues with the ASRock Z77 Extreme6 and Biostar TZ77E4 using the XMP profile. 2,400mhz was possible, but nothing higher. As we mentioned earlier in the review, by this stage we were beginning to wonder if the problems were something to do with the memory itself.

When paired with the Asus Maximus V Formula Z77 and the latest 0804 Bios, we had no problems, although we did notice that the AUTO memory timings defaulted to 11-13-13-35, as listed at the bottom of this official Corsair page. Manually overriding them to 10-12-12-31 as listed on the memory labels worked fine. We aren't sure if this an isolated glitch with the Asus Maximus V Formula, but its worth mentioning to check the timings if you do invest in a kit.

This is extremely high performance memory, and it comes with a hefty premium of £259.99 inc vat. That said, if you want the best performing kit for an ultra high end system build, then this is the finest you can buy today. Even the Kingston HyperX Predator 2,666mhz is outperformed.

Pros:

• Class leading timings.
• beautiful heatspreader design.
• overclocks to 2,800mhz & beyond with the right motherboard.
• Corsair link interface.

Cons:

• Expensive.
• we ran into some compatbility issues at 2,666mhz.

Kitguru says: If the price isn't important and you want the best memory on the market, then look no further.

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