Overclocking
Some RAM won’t go up a multiplier no matter what you do, others require a voltage bump, some require loosening timings and some require both loosening timings and a voltage bump. The Viper Extreme Division 2 RAM is not mind blowing but performs well both at the advanced stock timings but even at higher speeds.
Jumping to 1866 MHz is as easy as loosening to 9-10-9-27 timings. No other changes necessary. No matter what was done, 2133 was not doable as each boot attempt resulted in a 1333 MHz effective speed. More voltage might allow some nice bus clocking at those speeds or timings and these sticks will be tested on other platforms in the future. Check out the forums for frequent updates over the following weeks and give a gentle nudge/reminder to update this review with the information.
No attempt was made to reduce speed and tighten timings more, probably doable but who cares these sticks are designed to work with Intel chips and it is proven that Bandwidth>latency every day of the week.
Overall, overclocking was about what was expected. Decent enough for a 8GB kit, ability to give a 16% increase in speed with only a ~12% decrease in latency. In fact the sticks can be undervolted down to 1.625 at stock speeds and still run very solid.
These overclock results are stability results not bleeding edge. These are results the average user can expect to get for a completely solid, stable system. As fiscally friendly as they are, Any overclocking capability at all is huge.
The Bench System
For testing memory we have moved to the X79 platform. Intel’s latest enthusiast class platform provides BCLK tweaking and sufficient memory multipliers and voltage controls to get the most out of a memory kit.
- Intel Core i7 2nd Generation 3930K 6 core processor with Hyper-Threading Technology
- Gigabyte GA-X79-UD3 rev1 motherboard
- Antec Kühler 920 Heatsink
- Corsair TX-750 Power Supply
- 150GB Western Digital Velociraptor Hard Drive
- EVGA GTX 580 Superclock Video Card
- Custom Built benching station
- Windows 7 x64 Ultimate Edition
All tests are done in an ambient air situation (~65-75F). Any derivation from that in testing will be noted on each test result to provide better home user compatibility in testing. No reviews are ever performed in a PC case, and those building PC cases need to be aware that adequate/proper airflow in necessary when using enthusiast level products.
*note: no such derivation from these temperatures exist in this review. No special ventilation is required for use of this product in a standard configuration.
The software used
- SuperPi 1M
- SuperPi 32M
- PCMark Vantage
- BootRacer
- AIDA64
Due to multiplier and bus clock possibilities, only these few apps were used to test memory performance. Gaming typical does not need super fast RAM so once at 1600 MHZ the change is not drastic if even noticeable. Systems have not quite caught up to X79 yet, once software gets updated, AIDA64 will be updated. Maxxmem also does not accurately report results so we will try this again in the future. Patriot quad channel memory will be used in future X79 reviews so compatibility between reviews will be maintained.
