Review: Crucial 32GB DDR4-2133 (CT8G4DFD8213)

by Tarinder Sandhu on 27 October 2014, 09:30

Tags: Crucial Technology (NASDAQ:MU)

Quick Link: HEXUS.net/qackpb

Add to My Vault: x

Testing methodology

Comparison Memory

  G.Skill Ripjaws 4 3,000
Corsair Vengeance LPX 2,800
Crucial DDR4-2,133
Model F4-3000C15Q-16GRR

CMK16GX4MA2800C16

CT8G4DFD8213
Capacity 16GB (4x4GB)
16GB (4x4GB)
32GB (4x8GB)
Speed 3,000MHz
2,800MHz
2,133MHz
Timings 15-15-15-35-2T
16-18-18-36-2T
15-15-15-36-2T
Voltage 1.35V
1.20V
1.20V
Price* £380
£295
£300
Cost per GB* £23.75
£18.44
£9.37
*Approximate, correct at time of writing

Test Platform

CPU Intel Core i7-5960X
Motherboard Asus X99-Deluxe (5501 BIOS)
Storage Device Crucial MX100 512GB SSD
Graphics Card EVGA GeForce GTX 780 Ti (340.52 drivers)
Power Supply Corsair AX760i
Operating System Windows 8.1 64-bit

Benchmarks

HEXUS.PiFast Our number-crunching benchmark stresses a single core by calculating Pi to 10m places
CINEBENCH R15 Using Cinebench's multi-CPU render, this cross-platform benchmark stresses all cores
HandBrake 0.9.9.1 Free-to-use video encoder that stresses all CPU cores (64-bit)
AIDA64 v4.60.3124 Memory analysis tool supporting Haswell CPUs
3DMark DX11, Fire Strike default test
BioShock Infinite DX11, 1,920x1,080, ultra quality
Batman: Arkham Origins DX11, 1,920x1,080, enhanced quality

Notes

Comparing memory modules of differing speeds on an X99 platform is not as straightforward as it should be.

Motherboards offer a maximum memory frequency of 2,666MHz when using the default 100MHz base clock. The only method of achieving higher speeds, for comparison modules, is to increase the base clock and input XMP parameters. Going via XMP requires the CPU strap and base clock set to 125MHz, pushing the CPU speed out of the default specification.

We want to lock the CPU speed to a a certain frequency and then see what effect memory timings and frequency have on our benchmarks, rather than what effect the CPU imposes. The way to do this is to select a CPU speed - 3.8GHz in our case - and toggle the other parameters to fit.

2,133MHz DDR4 - Crucial

3.8GHz CPU
2,133MHz memory
Automatic timings for Crucial

2,800MHz DDR4 - Corsair LPX

3.8GHz CPU
near-2,800MHz memory
BIOS setup for XMP

3,040MHz DDR4 - G.Skill Ripjaws 4

3.8GHz CPU
3,000MHz-plus memory
BIOS setup for XMP

We need to increase the DRAM frequency a touch to fit into an all-core 3.8GHz CPU speed, with the G.Skill running at 3,042.2MHz.

Overclocking

We've chosen three arbitrary speeds and default timings in order to evaluate the overclocking potential of the Crucial modules. Voltage was kept at 1.35V.

 
2,400MHz
(15-15-15-36-2T)
2,667MHz
(15-15-15-36-2T)
2,800MHz
(15-15-15-36-2T)
Crucial @ 1.35V

Keeping the same shipping latencies shows Crucial's memory scale nicely up to 2,667MHz.