Final Words & Conclusion

Final Words & Conclusion

Patriot Viper Steel is another representative of the Viper series. This time it comes without RGB lighting (surprise, surprise). The radiator colour is gunmetal, so it should fit almost all PC builds. The range of available frequencies is broad in the Viper Steel. The slowest module operates at 3000 MHz, and the fastest one reaches 4400 MHz at the very reasonable CL19. For the 4000 MHz variants (and also the 3866 and 4133 + 4400 MHz) the memory chips are the famous B-Die by Samsung.

The reviewed Patriot Viper Steel kit (when tweaked) achieved only slightly more than the stock values (3%), meaning 4133 MHz with the voltage barely increased (1.45 V compared with the standard 1.35 V) and at CL19. That’s still a very, very good result, especially given that we used a mid-range motherboard, and not something dedicated to extreme overclocking (like the Asus Maximus XI Apex/Gene, Asrock Taichi etc.). In some gaming tests, like Watch Dogs 2, tweaking/overclocking the memory did not result in any noticeable advantage. So, it’s not really worth it to put more MHz there, but rather to try to lower the latencies.

Aesthetics

Patriot has managed to make the Viper Steel a very good looking kit. I have no doubts that most users will like it. There are no LEDs, so some users might find this a drawback (but is it one really?)

Conclusion

Patriot Viper Steel provides the features that today’s customers (except fans of RGB) need the most. The default frequency (4000 MHz) is astonishing, and the XMP 2.0 profile comes in handy. If you always strive for more, then you can try to overclock this memory, but this most probably won’t give you any significant improvement. If you have a better motherboard for memory overclocking than the Asus Z390-E Strix Gaming that I used (e.g. an Asus Maximus XI Apex/Gene), it would probably be possible to achieve even 4300-4400 MHz with the reviewed kit at the given latency. However, you need to remember that reproducibility is never guaranteed when it comes to memory, so your result may vary. It’s good to see that RGB is not a must for manufacturers and that they notice the demand for more classic-looking products. The heat spreader is not tall (45 mm) so you likely won’t encounter any clearance problems with your air/liquid cooling (but it’s always good to check the dimensions in your system before you buy a memory module). The memory is covered by lifetime warranty.  We surely can give the Patriot Viper Steel a “Guru3D recommended” award. It is well deserved mainly due to the high frequency and reasonable price. 

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