Mushkin Blackline Ridgeback 2000 MHz DDR3 8GB review - Final Words & Conclusion

Final Words & Conclusion

Dual-channel memory performance with the second generation Sandy Bridge processors just rocks. Well, rocks extremely hard. With the Mushkin kit we tested we were able to run at 1866 MHz, for whatever reason 2000 MHz is not supported in our MSI BIOS. The motherboard BIOS might be a missing memory divider, I still need to look into that. Going over 2000 MHz towards 2133 MHz did not work. Clocking the Mushkin kit at 1866 MHz at CAS 8:8:8:24 unfortunately was a bit too much as well. However at advertised CAS9 at 1866 MHz in the XMP profile setting ... well that worked straight out of the box and the results did not disappoint at all.

The performance is great and you'll gain heaps of bandwidth with this kit. At 1866Mhz CAS9 it performs roughly similar to the GSKILL Sniper kit at 1600 with CAS7. Both kits are equally expensive. But dual-channel on a Series 6 Intel chipset motherboard in combo with any Nehalem based processor including Sandy Bridge, well that just hauls massive ass on any type of DDR3 memory.

The DIMMs we tested today are high-density 4GB DIMM modules. Yep, 4GB crammed onto one DIMM. And as such it is impressive to see that this kit can easily keep up with competing DIMMs thanks to it's high frequency and okay latency timings. Ideally on X58, you should go for a triple channel 4GB DIMM kit, Mushkin offers these kits as well.

The kit tested today is targeted at the latest series 5 and 6 Intel chipset motherboard solutions that allow 2000 MHz on that memory, and that's where this 8 GB kit really is golden. Overclocking wise you can take the memory to roughly 2000 MHz at CAS 9 on the same 1.65 Volts, unfortunately overclocking with a Sandy bridge processor is a no-go of course so that remains a bit of a subjective statement. For that you'll need a 1st generation Nehalem processor like say a Core i7 975/960/950/940/920 etc as these can be tweaked on the bus speed better. That's a no-no for Sandy Bridge where you can only overclock on the processor multiplier.

In modern day PCs with a dual-channel configuration 4 Gigabyte of memory is the new norm. But just look back say three of years, 1 GB was the norm then. Our PCs have an excruciating thirst for memory and at the prices offered in today's hardware climate, my advice is simple; chuck and load that PC full with memory. Even if you don't really need it right now, you will definitely need it say a year maybe two from now. It is the wise investment to make at very little cost. The folks that benefit from more memory right away are the ones focused at content creation, transcoding and overall work with software like Adobe Premiere and Photoshop, and this where 8GB already really is recommended.

All in all for you as a gamer, 1333/1600/1866/2000 .. really the difference in memory clock frequency will mean very little if you are using a Nehalem family based processor. That Intel memory controller just squeezes every ounce of bandwidth out of any memory DIMM and gaming wise it will be very hard to notice a difference. Our advise stands at it is: 1600 MHz DDR3 kits we feel offer the best bang for buck on these setups. But with prices dropping towards 125 USD for 2x4GB at 2000 MHz as Mushkin offers here, well it's hard to not acknowledge that either. But sure, real-world performance wise I can not justify higher-frequency memory over more memory. This 2000 MHz kit however at 125 USD offers the best of both worlds. We certainly enjoyed testing the kit and on our MSI Z68A-GD80 motherboard, it remains what it is a lovely kit to use for a really fair price, and that's where Mushkin has a winner on their hands.

• Leave/read comments on this product
• Sign up to receive a notice when we publish a new article
• Or go back to Guru3D's front page