G.Skill DDR3 PC3-16000 Triple Channel memory review

Posted by Hilbert Hagedoorn on: 03/15/2009 02:00 PM [ 0 comment(s) ]

Final Words & Conclusion

The Verdict

This is the second G.Skill memory kit we are reviewing and it's hard to not be impressed. We do face one dilemma though, we find it very hard to justify the extra money you have to pay for high-frequency memory, as in the end the overall performance of the PC will not be much higher. In fact even if you compare 1333 MHz memory towards 2133 MHz as we tested today, you need to synthetically measure the performance difference.

This fact by itself is a testament of how fascinating superior the Core i7 memory controller and it's new approach are. Yet get so much performance and bandwidth at default already that there is no memory bottleneck to begin with, and therefore that makes a premium product like shown today hard to justify in terms of money. On average the difference between a 1333 Mhz DDR3 kit and 2133 MHz like show today will gain you 3-4% in performance, and that's only in certain situations, yet you pay double the price. But that of course is a decision for you to make. If money is no object and you want the fastest of fast .. then surely we agree to that as well.

Then .. if I had to choose between 3GB DDR3 at 2000/2133 MHz or a nice 6GB kit at 1600 MHz for the same money, I'd definitely choose that 6GB kit, as more memory in the end will get increasingly important opposed to the 3% performance benefit you'll gain with higher-frequency memory.

What we learned is that G.Skill kit works 100% fine and dandy at advertised clock frequency and timings .. and still has more to give. Within 5 seconds we setup the BIOS and ran the memory at 2133 MHz with 1.68 Volts, this was 100% stable. It is just mighty impressive as memory bandwidth is insane at such speeds.

We spotted this 3GB triple channel memory kit for 165 USD, a 6GB version would be roughly 300 USD. At this frequency and offered timings, these are very competitive prices.

So whether not not you'd like to drop a few tenners extra for faster frequency memory is of course totally up-to you. We can tell you that we have had no issues with this memory. In our ASUS X58 Rampage II Extreme motherboard it was merely inserting the DIMMs, select the frequency, set the voltage and we were ready to rock hard. As such we can recommend this kit to you. Though remember, if you are on a 64-bit operating system, a 6GB kit would have our preference.

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