Visiontek Ultimate Performance 8GB PC3-12800 CL8 1600mhz Memory review

1. Introduction2. Visiontek Ultimate Performance 8GB Kit3. Overclocking & System Configuration4. Kitguru Photoshop Benchmark5. AIDA 646. SiSoft Sandra7. 3D Studio Max 20118. MaxxMem 29. Closing Thoughts10. View All Pages

Visiontek are well known as one of AMD's US partners and have released a series of HD6000 series cards for entry level, mid range and high end markets. They are expanding their product portfolio and today we are reviewing their latest 8GB DDR1600mhz memory kit targeting both Intel Sandybridge and AMD platforms.

The memory we are reviewing today is a 2x4GB DDR3-1600mhz kit (12800) with CL8 timings. Visiontek are also offering a full lifetime warranty with the product for added peace of mind.

Specifications:

• Capacity: 8GB (2 x 4 GB)
• Speed: DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800)
• CAS Latency: 8
• Timings: 8-8-8-24-2T
• Buffered/Registered: Unbuffered
• Multi-channel kit: Dual Channel Kit
• Features: supports both AMD and Intel Sandybridge platforms.

The kit ships in a predominately black box with a red strip and the company name across the top. There is a window at the side of the box so the product can be seen in a retail store.

The headspreaders are oversized and may cause problems for some enthusiast users who have adopted the largest CPU heatsink designs, such as the Noctua NH D14. They are attached with thermal tape which is adhered to the individual chips on the PCB.

Today we are using the excellent Asus P8P67 Deluxe Motherboard.

The Visiontek 1600mhz memory is rated at 8-8-8-24 @ 2T timings when running at 1600mhz. We did however manage to get it set to 1T by adjusting the settings in the Asus bios.

Increasing the memory speeds to 1866mhz proved painless, as the Asus bios booted without trouble on the ‘auto settings'.

Timings were loosened to 9-9-9-24. We did force the bios manually to 1T DRAM command mode and the system posted fine.

We tried to set the Visiontek memory to 2133mhz, but the system wouldn't post.

We manually experimented with timings and managed to get the system posting at 2133mhz with 10-10-10-32 @ 2T timings. Voltage was left on automatic.

We were pleasantly surprised with these results as many 4GB 1600mhz rated sticks have a problem achieving a stable 1866mhz, nevermind 2133mhz. System validation at these final overclocked speeds is available over here.

Test System:
CPU: Intel Core i7 2600k @ 4.3ghz
Motherboard: Asus P8P67 Deluxe
Cooler: Thermaltake Frio OCK
Chassis: Thermaltake Level 10 GT
Power Supply: ADATA 1200W
Graphics: AMD HD6850
Hard Drives: Intel 128GB SSD (Boot), Samsung 2TB (storage), Crucial 128GB SSD.

Comparison memory:
No Brand DDR3 1333mhz 4GB 9-9-9-24

Software:
SiSoft Sandra
Adobe Photoshop CS5 64 bit
3D Studio Max 2011
Aida 64 Extreme Edition
MaxMemm

This version of the script has been thoroughly tested on Adobe Photoshop CS5 and CS4 and is compatible with Photoshop 7. It is important to document however that different versions of Photoshop give different end results. Adobe have been fine tuning the program over the years and enhancing specific filters and algorithms for better performance (some filters were rewritten during the CS2 time period). This means ultimately that comparing times with users running other versions of Photoshop is not going to give consistent results.

All results were gained from Adobe Photoshop CS5 64bit exe on Windows 7 64 bit ultimate and are marked in seconds. Lower times are better.

KitGuru PS Bench 1(4)	Standard 1333mhz 9-9-9-24	Visiontek Performance 1866 mhz 9-9-9-24	Visiontek Performance 2133 mhz 10-10-10-32
1. Texturiser (1)	1.8	1.7	1.7
2. CMYK	1.9	1.9	1.9
3. RGB	1.8	1.8	1.8
4. Ink outlines	27.1	26.6	26.4
5. Dust & Stratches	2.9	2.7	2.7
6. Watercolor	25.6	25.1	25.0
7. Texturiser (2)	1.8	1.7	1.7
8. Stained Glass	18.9	18.2	18.1
9. Mosiac Tiles	12.3	12.1	11.9
10. Extrude	154.2	153.1	152.5
11. Rough Pastels	10.8	10.4	10.2
12. Smart Blur	88.2	88.0	87.7
13. Underpainting	31.4	31.0	30.8
14. Mosiac Tiles	11.8	11.5	11.2
15. Spherize	2.2	2.2	2.2
16. Palette Knife	18.7	18.3	18.1
17. Sponge	36.5	36.2	36.1
18. Smudge Stick	11.3	11.1	11.1
Total:	459.2	453.6	451.1

Memory bandwidth does have an impact on overall Photoshop performance as can be seen with these results. It would be difficult to notice under real world conditions mind you.

AIDA64 Extreme Edition is a streamlined Windows diagnostic and benchmarking software for home users. AIDA64 Extreme Edition provides a wide range of features to assist in overclocking, hardware error diagnosis, stress testing, and sensor monitoring. It has unique capabilities to assess the performance of the processor, system memory, and disk drives. AIDA64 is compatible with all current 32-bit and 64-bit Microsoft Windows operating systems, including Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2.

Performance grows steadily as we increase the memory bandwidth to 2133mhz.

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) 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

At 2133mhz the memory delivers a bandwidth result of 27 GB/s, which is very impressive indeed.

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 render a KitGuru custom created scene at 1920×1080 and record the time taken, lower is better.

Increasing memory bandwidth helps improve the overall performance of 3D Studio Max. The result differences appear minor, but with larger renders and work loads, the improvements would increase proportionally.

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

Good scaling when moving from 1333mhz to 1866mhz then finally 2133mhz speeds.

We have reviewed many 8GB kits for the Sandybridge platform and have been pleasantly surprised by the performance of the Visiontek 8GB 1600mhz Kit. We were hoping this particular product would be stable at 1866mhz with tight timings, but overclocking it to 2133mhz without any increase in voltage is certainly a good first sign of a quality product range.

Visiontek won't be the first company to come to mind when discussing memory, but they are well known as an AMD partner for graphics cards. That said, they do have experience with memory, as they used to be a player in the market many years ago. We do admire the Visiontek ethos, which is to often release unusual and interesting products, such as the HD5770 with onboard Killer Nic.

Visiontek have assured us that they use premium components and UDIMMS and our testing has certainly proved that this specific product is capable of massive overclocking headroom. There are no concerns with quality control.

We have yet to receive pricing information for this particular kit, but we would assume it would be priced much like the competition. If this is the case then these are some of the best performing 1600mhz rated modules we have tested. Visiontek offer a lifetime warranty which is certainly reassuring.

Pros:

• Massive overclocking potential, reaching 2133mhz on our test system with little effort.
• Lifetime warranty.

Cons:

• Oversized heatsinks might prove incompatible with some large heatsinks.

Kitguru says: Visiontek have certainly made a positive impact with this memory kit for the Sandybridge platform.

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