Review: G.Skill F3-2133C9Q-16GXL (4x4GB) memory

by Tarinder Sandhu on 21 November 2013, 09:00

Tags: G.SKILL

Quick Link: HEXUS.net/qab5gr

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Testing methodology

Comparison Memory

 
G.Skill RipjawsX
Corsair Vengeance Pro
Model
F3-2133C9Q-16GXL
CMZ16GX3M2A1600C9
Capacity
16GB (4x4GB)
16GB (2x8GB)
Speed
2,133MHz
1,600MHz
Timings
9-11-11-31-2T
9-9-9-24-2T
Voltage
1.60V
1.50V
Price*
£140
£135
Cost per GB*
£8.75
£8.43
*Approximate, correct at time of writing

Test Platform

CPU Intel Core i7-4770K
Motherboard Gigabyte GA-Z87X-UD3H (F7 BIOS)
Storage Device Samsung 840 Pro Series 250GB SSD
Graphics Card Nvidia GeForce GTX 780 Ti (330.70)
Power Supply Corsair AX750
Operating System Windows 8 64-bit

Benchmarks

HEXUS.PiFast A number-crunching test run on a single core
CINEBENCH R11.5 Multi-threaded benchmark that stresses the system
WinRAR 5.0.1 Built-in benchmark run for five minutes
AIDA64 v3.20.2656 Memory analysis tool supporting Haswell CPUs
Battlefield 4 Run at 2,560x1,440 and ultra quality
Far Cry 3 Run at 2,560x1,440 and ultra quality
GRID 2 Run at 2,560x1,440 and ultra quality

Notes

We're pitting the four-module G.Skill pack against some low-latency memory from Corsair, rated at DDR3-1,600MHz speeds but with excellent 9-9-9-24-2T timings. We're going to quantify whether it's worth spending extra over a DDR3-1,600 CL9 pack when using everyday applications.

Overclocking

We've chosen three arbitrary speeds and timings in order to evaluate the overclocking potential of the two sets of modules. Voltage was raised from 1.50V/1.60V to 1.65V.

 
2,133MHz
(9-10-9-27-2T)
2, 200MHz
(11-11-11-31-2T)
2,400MHz
(12-12-12-31-2T)
G.Skill RipjawsX 16GB
Corsair Vengeance Pro 16GB

We were pleasantly surprised that the four-module pack managed to pass each of our overclocking tests, albeit with 1.65V running the chips. Zeroing-in on the maximum frequency at the shipping 9-11-11-31 timings, we managed a peak speed of 2,278MHz.