Review: Corsair Vengeance Pro Series 16GB DDR3 Memory Kit

by Tarinder Sandhu on 21 June 2013, 14:00

Tags: Corsair

Quick Link: HEXUS.net/qabxv5

Add to My Vault: x

Testing methodology

Comparison Memory

 
Corsair Vengeance Pro
Corsair Vengeance
Model
CMY16GX3M2A1866C9
CMZ16GX3M2A1600C10
Capacity
16GB (2x8GB)
16GB (2x8GB)
Speed
1,866MHz
1,600MHz
Timings
9-10-9-27-2T
10-10-10-27-2T
Voltage
1.50V
1.50V
Price*
£130
£115
Cost per GB*
£8.12
£7.19
*Approximate, correct at time of writing

Test Platform

CPU Intel Core i7-4770K
Motherboard Gigabyte Z87-D3HP
Storage Device Samsung 840 Pro Series 250GB SSD
Integrated Graphics Intel HD 4600 (15.31.3.3071)
Graphics Card Nvidia GeForce GTX 780 (320.18)
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 Built-in benchmark run for five minutes
AIDA64 v3.0 Memory analysis tool supporting Haswell CPUs
3DMark Latest version of industry-standard DX11 benchmark
BioShock Infinite Run at medium quality on IGP, ultra on discrete
DiRT Showdown Run at medium quality on IGP, ultra on discrete

Notes

This is the first time we've tested memory on an Intel Z87 (Haswell) board. We're going to quantify whether it's worth spending extra over a DDR3-1,600 CL10 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 to 1.65V.

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

Our Vengeance Pro set wouldn't Post at 2,133MHz with the default timings. Loosening them off to 2,200MHz enabled us to complete all benchmarks. In contrast, the DDR3-1,600 comparison set wouldn't manage any of the three overclocked presets.