Corsair, Crucial and G.Skill DDR4 Review (Intel Core i7-5960X and X99)

Today Intel launched their new X99 chipset and Haswell-E CPUs. We took a look at those over here and to accompany that article we now look in a little more detail at the memory they support in our DDR4 Review. Our DDR4 samples for this round-up come from Corsair, Crucial and G.Skill, let’s see what the new technology has to offer when paired with an i7-5960X.

Our DDR4 Review Kits

Corsair Vengeance LPX DDR4

Corsair send out their DDR4 samples in a nice stylish box which gives a basic look at the design of the modules. Inside we find them suspended in plastic protectors along with a short warranty statement. The modules themselves use a black PCB with matching aluminium heat spreader. One side of the spreader features the LPX branding and the other some more detailed information on the specifications.

Corsair rate these DDR4 Review modules for 2800MHz at 16-18-18-36 (XMP) and each offers 4GB of memory. We also note that there is a second XMP profile for 2998MHz with 16-18-18-39 timings. 2800MHz uses 1.2v, 3000MHz uses 1.35v.

Crucial DDR4

No doubt Crucial will release enthusiast styled modules in the near future but for now the DDR4 review samples are supplied with the basic green PCB and no heat spreader. This is no surprise given the 2133MHz speed mixed with the 15-15-15-36 timings at 1.2v. What these modules do offer over the other kits in this test is a larger size, 8GB each for 32GB total in quad channel mode.

G.Skill Ripjaws4 DDR4

G.Skill package their Ripjaws4 DDR4 review samples in a more traditional memory container. We get four modules in this kit, each of 4GB and bundled with them is a case sticker. A cardboard insert gives us a little info on the warranty. The modules themselves use a black PCB with red aluminium heat spreader. It has the usual stand out design from G.Skill and one side features branding with the other listing specifications. Those are 2666MHz with timings of 15-15-15-35 at 1.2v (XMP).

User Experience and Conclusion

Full Performance Figures Can Be Found After The Conclusion

As far as performance goes, lets keep it simple for this DDR4 review. When compared to quad channel DDR3 of decent speeds there is little to be gained in terms of memory experience. We get plenty of bandwidth but with current products it will be hard form anyone to state a case for DDR4 over the older tech. Of course that is only part of the story…

DDR4 allows us to buy into the new X99 platform and its exceptional Intel Core i7-5960X CPU. As a whole the platform performs better than X79 and its CPUs while offering far more future proofing with support for the likes of m.2 and SATA Express. We also need to keep in mind that the DDR4 modules run on lower voltage than DDR3, which is a nice benefit, and that they run cooler too. DDR4 should also scale higher over time which further ensures that we are buying into a future proof platform.

Speaking of scaling, in our limited time overclocking on these modules, the Corsair hit 3000MHz without issue at default timings (1.35v), G.Skill did the same (1.35v) and with 1.2v Crucial were running at 2400MHz. We will update these figures over time.

Which of the three sets in this DDR4 review should you buy? Well they all have some decent selling points, including lifetime warranty across the board. It really depends on what you want from a system. The G.Skill modules for example look great when mixed with a motherboard like the Gigabyte X99-Gaming 5 which we used for testing, while also offering a decent level of performance. Use of the Corsair modules gave a little boost in performance without losing too much on the style front. Then we have Crucial with their no frills approach which will likely maximise stability (lower, less stressful MHz) while providing a larger 32GB limit. Therefore all win our recommended award. Shop round and find out which price and features best suit the needs of your system.

Test Configuration and Performance

Corsair Vengeance LPC DDR4-2800 16GB (CMK16GX4M4A2800C16)
Crucial DDR4-2133 32GB (CT8G4DFD8213)
G.Skill Ripjaws DDR4-2666 16GB (F4-2666C15Q-16GRR)

Intel Core i7-5960X
Intel Core i7-4790K
AMD FX-8350
Intel Core i7-4960X

Gigabyte X99-Gaming 5
Gigabyte Z97X-Gaming 5
ASRock X79 Fatal1ty Champion
ASRock 990FX Extreme

AMD Radeon 295X2

16GB Corsair Vengeance LPX DDR4-2800
16GB Corsair Dominator DDR3-2666
Samsung 840 Evo 1TB
Samsung 850 Pro 512GB (SATA Testing)
OCZ RevoDrive 350 (PCIe testing)
Plextor M6e 256GB M.2 SSD
Corsair AX1500i
Antec Kuhler 1250

Installed on a Dimastech EasyXL Test Bench

Intel Wireless AC 7260
Razer DeathAdder
Razer BlackWidow Ultimate
ASUS 120Hz/3D Display

Windows 8.1 64-bit
AMD Drivers: 14.7 RC

Battlefield 4
SiSoft Sandra
dBpoweramp
Cinebench R15
ATTO
Adobe Creative Cloud

3DMark

The test system was built from scratch, a format of the hard drive was performed (NTFS) and then Windows 8.1 was installed. Following the completion of the installation, the video drivers were installed. All windows updates were then installed as were the latest builds of the benchmarking tools. Finally, the hard drives were de-fragmented (where appropriate). For each test, the video drivers were set to default quality/optimizations (unless otherwise stated).

Good Benchmarking Practice

Where possible, each benchmark was performed three times and the median result for each resolution/setting is shown in the tables that will follow. All applications had their latest patches applied and all hardware features the latest BIOS/Firmware.

Memory Bandwidth DDR3/4 2666

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Memory Bandwidth
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Cinebench R15
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Music Conversion (2CD lossless to MP3)
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Video Conversion 4K to 720p
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GRID Autosport
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Rome 2:Total War
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Module Temperatures
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