Final Words & Conclusion

Final Words

I have mentioned in many MANY DRAM related reviews that your focus really shouldn't be faster memory yet your focus should likely be more volume. The truth admittedly is a bit in the middle. You can gain a bit of performance with faster clocked low latency memory, but you do need to put logic into place and define what you need the DRAM for. For transcoding videos and movies, faster memory helps and shaves off transcoding time, for content creation multiple cores matter more and for gaming the GPU is the all decisive factor. For gaming, as we have shown today, memory does matter ... up-to the point where your GPU will become the bottleneck, typically at 1080 or 1440P depending on your graphics cards. In CPU or GPU bound situations my advice thus stands, you are better off purchasing more memory opposed to faster memory.

By Design

Team group offers a lovely DDR4 memory series with the Night Hawk kit as tested, not only is it performing very decent it's a series that looks pleasing to the eyes as well thanks to the LED system. I am however not sure if everybody likes the breathing opposed towards on static (on/off) LED. But yeah, aesthetics start to matter more opposed to faster memory. Hey a PC is not 'just a PC' anymore, we call them builds. DDR4 DIMM memory can be found for everybody, cheap, mid-range uber overclockable -- but the fact remains that there is an enthusiast segment in the market that want great performance with no hassle with that one variable, it must look great... something special. The Night Hawks modules certainly have an effect in that, this is a good looking memory kit, no doubt.

 Frequency & Latency

The DIMMs we tested today are two high-density 8GB DIMM modules and as such it is impressive to see that this kit can easily run a 3000 MHz frequency. Our kit does so with what is considered a fast latency timings (CL16) and a 1.35 Voltage. Obviously the kit tested today is targeted at the latest series Z170 and X99 Intel platform solutions with accompanying processor series that allow 3000 MHz on that memory, and that's where this 16GB kit is nice and works nice. Overclocking wise we fooled around with it a little and you will be limited alright, changing CL from results into crashes. Testing towards 3200 MHz also was a no-go. So if you are not an uber enthusiast pro-overclocker, your best bet is to simply use the XMP configured timings. Mind you that at 3000 MHz this kit will enable a multiplier of 32 with a BLCK at 125 MHz.
 

Conclusion

So should you buy a 3000 MHz kit over say a 2133 MHz one? The truth is that on both dual and quad-channel that higher-frequency is a bit harder to justify as you already will have so much memory bandwidth. But these T-Force series DIMMs will be more expensive than your average 2133 MHz memory modules, but not that much. A 2x8 GB kit can go from as low as 90 EUR (2133MHz DIMMs) while the kit as tested today at 3000 MHz was merely 25 euro extra. So that relatively low price difference is very acceptable and you do get a bit of a benefit. The Night Hawk series DIMMs are plenty fast and at a very specific group of people, the people that want the high-end spectrum performance and the ones with terrific looks for their PC, then enthusiast class PC gamer. The kit remains easy to configure and offers nice quality. From an aesthetic point of view the Night Hawk kits honestly are great looking DIMMs. The animated LED could be a bothersome thing as everything inside the PC these days is bling and LED activated it seems. These DIMMs however are subtle enough. The performance is good, but slower clocked memory with slightly faster timings (especially on quad-channel configurations) will get you the very same end-results. High frequency 3000+ MHz kits remain trivial when it comes to actual real-world performance benefits, but the reality is that this kit does run rock solid at that frequency. Keep in mind, volume matters more than frequency - our advise anno 2016 goes a, little somethin' like this; 16GB will be the sweet-spot for a gaming rig, 32GB if you do a lot of content creation workloads on your PC. Team group covers these DIMMs with a limited lifetime warranty, again great. The DIMMs performed incredibly stable, as such we can recommend the Night Hawk DIMM products in your PC as a Guru3D recommended. Remember though, we'd rather see that you purchase 32 GB 2133 MHz then 16GB 3000 MHz. Volume matter more then frequency when it comes to DRAM.

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