Patriot Viper RGB DDR4 3200 MHz Memory Review.
As enthusiasts, there is a never-ending need to constantly upgrade our computers to keep up with the rapidly moving tech industry. However, 2018 was a rough year for hardware junkies to get their fix. In early 2018, there was an explosion in cryptocurrency mining that led to a massive shortage of graphics cards from both AMD and Nvidia. On top of that, there were widespread DDR4 shortages which led to inflated RAM prices. Both AMD and Intel launched new processors. Intel with their 9th generation and Skylake refresh, as well as AMD with Zen+ and their flagship R7 2700x. However, if you were trying to build new from scratch, you had a very hard time. It got to the point that if you could find a graphics cards, you were paying sometimes twice the retail cost. As for memory, a 32 GB kit was running upwards of $500 USD. Thankfully, those days are behind us. Nvidia recently launched their 20 series of RTX cards and AMD just released the RX 590. Also, memory prices are finally starting to drop. So, you can finally get that RGB memory you’ve wanted or that second 32 GB kit you desperately need for editing 4k footage. But with so many companies out there, what brand is the best to use? Since 1985, Patriot has been a trusted choice by many consumers and companies. In the past, we’ve reviewed memory, solid state drives, flash drives, and even peripherals. Most recently, we took a look at one of their SD card and both their Viper LED and RGB memory, both being 3000 MHz kits. Today we’re taking a look at yet another kit of Viper RGB memory. This kit is a bit faster at 3200 MHz DDR4 memory with a CAS latency of 16. We ran this 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) kit of DDR4 3200 MHz Viper RGB memory through our usual suite of testing. So, how did it do? Let’s find out. Specifications • Capacity: 16GB (2 x 8GB) • Base Frequency: PC4-17000 (2133MHz) • Base Timings: 15-15-15-36 • Tested Frequency: PC4-25600 (3200MHz) • Tested Timings: 16-18-18-36 • Voltage: 1.35V • Format: NON-ECC Unbuffered DIMM • Pin Out: 288-Pin Features • Series: Viper RGB • Edition: White with Silver Viper logo • Aluminum heat spreader with unique and specific design element • Feature Overclock: XMP 2.0 support for automatic overclocking • Easy to use software application • 5 Customizable RGB zones to add some flare to your PC • Compatibility: Tested across the latest Intel and AMD platforms for reliably fast performance • Compatible with lead motherboard partners' RGB Sync application • Limited lifetime warranty Memory Module Specifications Density 8Gb Org. 1G x 8 Speed 2400 Mbps Voltage 1.2 V Temp. 0 ~ 85 °C Package 78FBGA Product Status Mass Production Packaging The front of the box has the Patriot Viper head logo on the top left-hand corner. To the right, there are several badges from the various RGB software the Viper RGB memory is compatible with. These include RGB Fusion and AURA Sync just to name a couple. Below that is a label with the capacity and speed of the memory. We received a 16 GB (2x8 GB) kit of white DDR4 3200 MHz. Across the bottom, there is a Viper “Gamer Certified” stamp of approval with the Viper head logo. There is also the Viper RGB branding at the bottom as well The rear of the package has a brief description of the Viper RGB memory written in several languages. Near the bottom right, there is a list of Patriots various social media links such as YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. The link to their website is also listed. Below that is the UPC code and I believe the serial number. The top of the box has a reminder to download the Patriot Viper DRAM software from patriotmemory.com. The memory modules come packed in a clear plastic, clamshell style packaging. Other than the memory, there isn't much that comes in the box. There is a leaflet with a disclaimer and a link to download the Patriot Viper RGB Software. There are also a couple Viper head stickers. A Closer Look at the Viper RGB Memory
The memory we received for this review was a 16 GB (2x8 GB) kit of DDR4 3200 MHz CAS 16 with a white heat spreader. The Viper RGB comes with either a black or a white heat spreader. The kit we received, the 3200 MHz kit, is the fastest speed that comes with a white heat spreader. However, kits dawning the black heat spreader advertise speeds of up to 4133 MHz. Across the top is a semi-transparent diffuser with the Viper logo in the center for the RGB lighting on the PCB. The heat spreader on each DIMM is made up of two separate sides, held on by thermal tape. The thermal tape helps the heat spreader to disburse heat and keep the memory modules cooler. Each heat spreader has a metallic Viper head logo in the center of the spreader. We always remove the heat spreaders when reviewing memory. This allows us to get a better look at the PCB. In this case, the PCB is black. The PCB is your standard DDR4 PCB with 288 pins. Across the top of the PCB are 5 RGB LEDs on either side, 10 in all. The diffuser on the top of the heat spreaders gives the RGB lighting a more even look. So, it looks like there are more than just 10 LEDs on the PCB. Removing the heat spreader also allows us to see what brand the memory modules are. In the case of the Patriot Viper RGB memory, they used Samsung memory, model number K4A8G085WB-BCRC. https://www.samsung.com/semiconductor/dram/ddr4/K4A8G085WB-BCRC/. Each DIMM has 8, 1GB memory modules on the PCB. Test System, Testing Procedures and Software Test System Intel Core I7 8700k Z370 Aorus Gaming 7 16 GB (2x8GB) Patriot Viper RGB DDR4 3200 MHz Swiftech H140x 140 mm AIO Cooler Enermax Platimax 1350 Watt 80+ Platinum PSU Toshiba 240 GB SATA 6 M.2 SSD NZXT S340 Elite Benchmarks 3DMARK Time Spy 7-Zip Aida64 Engineer Performance Test 9 ROG RealBench Si Soft Sandra Utilities and Software CPU-Z Viper RGB Although this review wasn’t done on my standard testbench, same rules apply. I keep the ambient temperature in my office below 21°c, or 70°f. In this case, it was rather cold out, so the ambient temperature was below 21°c. At the time of testing, it was about 19°c in my office, or about 66°f. Each of the six benchmarks were run three times each, in some cases even more. I then selected the best of the three results. I always wait between 20 and 30 minutes in between each benchmark I run. This give the system a bit of time to idle and cool down. Viper RGB Software
Although just about ever newer motherboard offers its own RGB software, not all motherboards have RGB support. Meaning not all boards can control RGB lighting on all hardware. For the rare case your motherboard doesn't have its own RGB software, of that it doesn't support the Viper RGB memory, Patriot has developed its own RGB software. The Viper RGB software is very easy to use and gives you several options for customizing the lighting on your memory. The software allows you to select you heat spreader color, either black or white. Next, there are eight different light effects to choose from. These effects are Neon, Dark, Breathing, Viper, Heartbeat, Marquee, Raindrop, and Aurora. The Viper RGB software also allows you to control the speed and brightness of your lighting. If you elect to use a static color, there is a color wheel that allows you to use any one of 16.8 million colors on the color wheel. Benchmarking and Overclocking Overclocking The first thing you should always do when installing new memory is to go into the bios and set your memory to extreme memory profile, or XMP #1. If you're running a Ryzen system, it will be DOCP profile #1. This sets your memory to run at its advertised speeds. After running my first round of benchmarks, all at stock speeds, it's time to start overclocking. This can be a long and tedious process. Especially with memory. With utilities such as Intel's Extreme Tuning Utility, or XTU, you can now overclock your processor from your desktop. With memory, I always just go straight to the bios and start bumping up the multiplier bit by bit. With the last kit of memory I personally reviewed, it wasn't the best overclocking memory. That being the Patriot Viper LED memory. With that kit, the best I got was 3600 MHz at 1.38 volts. So, I hadn't expected too much more than that out of this memory. However, I was wrong. The Patriot Viper RGB memory was able to overclock to 4000 MHz. I used ROG RealBench and Time Spy to validate each clock speed increase. Then, the entire suite of benchmarks to validate my highest, stable overclock. Hitting 4000 MHz stable makes the Viper RGB one of the best overclocking kits I've personally ever worked with. But, let's see how it did with benchmarks. Benchmarking AIDA64 ENGINEER AIDA64 has a set of several 64-bit benchmarks to measure how fast the computer performs various data processing tasks and mathematical calculations. Multi-threaded memory and cache benchmarks are available to analyze system RAM bandwidth and latency. Benchmark pages of AIDA64 Extreme provide several methods to measure system performance. These benchmarks are synthetic, so their results show only the theoretical maximum performance of the system. The AIDA64 suite has various benchmarks for CPU, FPU, GPU, storage and memory testing. The first part of the AIDA64 memory test is the latency test. The latency is measured in nanoseconds. With XMP set to profile #1 and the memory running at 3200 MHz, the latency was 51.4 nanoseconds. On the memory bandwidth test, the Viper RGB kit we tested scored 43831 on the read, 48363 on the write and 42832 on the copy. With the memory overclocked to 4000 MHz, all results went up, even the latency. The latency hit 52.6 nanoseconds. Not much of an increase, but an increase either way. The read score was 49441, the write score was 51684 and the copy score was 44941. For the L1, L2 and L3 cache, the read, write and copy were identical. The results for L1, L2 and L3 cache were very close. The L2 cache was the results with the biggest differences. The results are in the charts below. 7-Zip The 7-zip benchmark shows a rating in MIPS (million instructions per second). The rating value is calculated from the measured speed, and it is normalized with results of Intel Core 2 CPU with multi-threading option switched off. So, if you have modern CPU from Intel or AMD, rating values in single-thread mode must be close to real CPU frequency. There are two tests, compression with LZMA method and decompression with LZMA method. Once the total passes reach 100, the score is taken. 7-Zip gives the resulting score for decompressing, compressing and an overall score. At the memories stock speed, the 8700k achieved a decompressing score of 34846, a compressing score of 35809 and a total rating of 35328. With the memory running at 4000 MHz, the decompressing score went down a bit to 34524. The compressing score went up quite a bit to 37005. The overall rating was close but still went up to 35764.
SiSoft Sandra Lite Sandra Lite is a free version of SiSoft’s Sandra testing suite. Sandra Lite is a synthetic benchmark program that has its own set of system memory specific benchmarks. Aggregated scores of the Memory bandwidth performance in Gigabytes per second and Memory Transaction Throughput in total throughput per second are measured (higher is better). I ran the benchmarks for Si Soft Sandra several times each. Every time I came up with the same results. The Viper RGB did better in Si Soft Sandra running at its advertised speeds of 3200 MHz. At first, I thought if I lower the clock speed a bit from 4000 MHz, that the results would improve. They did, but just slightly. Point being that the higher the speed went, the worse the scores got all around. The best scores I achieved with Si Soft Sandra were with the memory simply running XMP profile #1 at 3200 MHz. ROG Realbench ROG Realbench is an open source program, designed to test your PC as it would run in real-world scenarios. It’s a semi-synthetic testing suite that collects four different programs and can perform controlled runs of each related to image editing (GIMP), video encoding (Handbrake H.264), OpenCL (Luxmark) and Heavy Multitasking (Combination of all three at the same time). For this review, we only recorded the Image Editing result. This is because the Image Editing test in RealBench is very memory intensive. The two charts show both the image editing score, as well as the time the benchmark took to run. From my testing, the ROG Realbench Image editing test benefited from the faster memory speed. Not only was the score higher at 4000 MHz, but it also took less time to complete the benchmark. At its stock speed, the Viper RGB memory took about 30 seconds to complete the image editing benchmark and scored 168404. Overclocked to 4000 MHz, the Image Editing test took about 27 seconds to complete and scored 186558. Passmark Performance Test – Memory Mark – Threaded “Fast, easy to use, PC speed testing and benchmarking. PassMark PerformanceTest ™ allows you to objectively benchmark a PC using a variety of different speed tests and compare the results to other computers.” Performance Test 9.0 is an overall benchmark that tests every area of your PC. With this being a memory review, we decided to not run the entire suite of tests in Performance Test 9. Instead, we only ran the Memory Mark test. However, there are several sections to this test.
As I had expected, the Viper RGB scored better in Passmarks Memory Mark test in Performance Test 9. The biggest difference was in the memory threaded test. At stock speeds, the Viper RGB scored 40118. Overclocked to 4000 MHz, it scored 41994 in that same test. The overall Memory Mark score was also a bit higher while overclocked. At 3200 MHz the memory mark score was 3429. Overclocked, the score was 3460. 3DMARK Time Spy 3DMark is a computer benchmarking tool used to determine the performance of a computer’s 3D graphics rendering and CPU workload processing capabilities. It does this through a series of graphics and CPU tests. For this review, we ran only Time Spy. Usually, I’ll give two results. The first result being with all components at stock. The second results usually have the CPU, GPU and memory overclocked as far as they’ll go. However, for this review, only the memory was overclocked. One result is with the memory on XMP profile #1 running at 3200 MHz and the second with the memory running at 4000 MHz.
There were slight differences between the stock and overclocked results. The CPU score saw the greatest difference with a stock score of 7586 and an overclocked score of 7923. The overall score was very close. The stock score was 10044 and the overclocked score was 10100.
Overall, I had a very good experience with the Patriot Viper RGB memory. I'm not usually one for flashy hardware with RGB lighting. So I really like the simple design of Patriot Viper RGB memory. I love that for the most part, the heat spreader is all one color, be it black or white. I love the use of neutral colors for the Viper RGB memory. This will allow the Viper RGB memory to fit well into any build, regardless of the color scheme. Personally, I tend to go with black and white colors for my personal builds. So the Viper RGB is perfect for me. However, say I decided to go with a pink or a blue theme, this memory would still look great, anyway I may decide to go. The frosted light diffuser does an excellent job at diffusing the RGB lighting on the PCB. It spreads the light so well, you can't pinpoint where the actual LEDs are on the PCB. That's is a great thing. There aren't any areas where the lighting is brighter in spots. The RGB lighting looks great and blends well together.
I was very impressed with the performance of the Viper RGB memory. I personally reviewed a kit of Viper LED memory not too long ago. We also reviewed a 3000 MHz kit of Viper RGB recently. Neither of those kits overclocked as well as the kit used for this review. I've tested a lot of memory over the years form several different companies. The 3200 MHz kit of Viper RGB tested for this review was the best overclocking memory I've personally ever tested. To say I was excited to see it hit 4000 MHz is an understatement. All of the benchmarks with the exception of SiSoft Sandra saw improvements in scores when the Viper RGB memory was overclocked. Some with negligible, but increases either way.
It seems that the beginning of 2019 is a far better time to build a PC than the beginning of 2018 was. Memory prices have come down to reasonable prices finally. Where at this time last year a 16 GB kit of decent DDR4 memory would run you upwards of $250 dollars, at the time of this review, you can get this same kit of white Patriot Viper RGB memory for only $149.99 on Amazon. The Patriot Viper RGB memory not only looks great, but it overclocks like a beast. However, even at its stock speed of 3200 MHz, the Patriot Viper RGB memory offers great performance at an even better value. amzn_assoc_tracking_id = "dewaynecarel-20"; amzn_assoc_ad_mode = "manual"; amzn_assoc_ad_type = "smart"; amzn_assoc_marketplace = "amazon"; amzn_assoc_region = "US"; amzn_assoc_design = "enhanced_links"; amzn_assoc_asins = "B07CX53TKZ"; amzn_assoc_placement = "adunit"; amzn_assoc_linkid = "b90e561634b7b8a4e04aee06c0a3ec22"; Read the full article