Performance
Our test platform contains the AMD Ryzen 9 5900X processor, MSI X570 Unify motherboard, and ASRock RX 6800 XT Phantom Gaming OC graphics card. All tests were performed on Windows 10 Pro x64 with the latest updates.
Our comparison includes overclocking results and settings at which the Ballistix MAX DDR4-4000 was stable. The maximum stable frequency for the Ryzen 9 5900X processor was DDR4-4800 CL18-21-20 1.50V. Considering that memory scaling is the same as for the previously reviewed Ballistix MAX DDR4-4400, I assume that a stronger memory controller will let it work above DDR4-5000. Most users, however, won’t need such high frequencies.
As usual, we will start with AIDA64 Cache and Memory benchmark, which is probably the best software for synthetic memory speed tests.
Memory bandwidth is scaling well with memory frequency. If we could pass DDR4-5000 on this processor, then we would see about 72GB/s. The XMP profile looks good, but how AMD Ryzen works at a non-synchronous infinity fabric ratio makes it perform below its potential. Below you can see the difference between DDR4-3733 at a 1:1 ratio and DDR4-4000, and everything higher at a 1:2 ratio.
On the other hand, the Ballistix MAX memory is one of the first memory kits showing the same or better performance at higher frequencies but 1:2 infinity fabric ratio as at synchronous ratios DDR4-3733. Most competitive memory kits have to run at much more relaxed timings what affects latency.
PCMark 10 is showing us high performance in mixed load tests. The best results are at lower frequencies, where timings are quite tight and next at the highest frequencies, where is a quite good balance between memory latency and bandwidth.
In Cinebench series benchmarks, results are similar. These tests are not using much data, so results are based more on the CPU speed. The XMP looks well in these tests.
It’s time for some 3D benchmarks from UL(previously Futuremark).
3DMark and VRMark benchmarks show us performance differences mostly at the lowest settings, so tests that use the CPU performance more. In all these tests, the XMP performs well, but all manual settings are slightly better. It’s mostly related to how AMD Ryzen acts, so lower performance is on the memory controller side than RAM.
In the Final Fantasy XV benchmark, we can see that higher memory frequency helps while both Superposition tests are almost reacting to memory settings.
As usual, the highest differences we can see in modern games. As far as Tomb Raider and FarCry 5 show up to 8FPS difference between various memory settings, then Assassins Creed Valhalla performs almost the same as all our settings. All our results are high, and even though we can see a couple of FPS more, the user’s experience won’t change.
The same as with the previously reviewed Ballistix MAX memory kit, I’m sure that everyone who decides on this product will be satisfied. The MAX RGB looks not only great but also offers high performance.
In the comparison, I’ve used various overclocking settings that were fully stable on our test setup. On the next page, I will tell you some more about these settings.
