G.Skill Trident Z 16GB DDR4-3000 CL14 Memory Kit Review

Performance

G.Skill Tridnent Z 16GB DDR4-3000 CL14 memory kit has been tested on a really popular platform which contains Intel Skylake i7 6700K processor set to 4.2GHz ( disabled power saving features ) and ASUS Maximus VIII Hero with the latest BIOS. There were no stability issues as I already mentioned earlier and we could perform all our tests.

In graphics benchmarks has been used ASUS GTX980 Strix graphics card. All applications were tested on Windows 10 Pro x64 operating system installed on Samsung 840 Pro SSD.

AIDA64 Memory and Cache Benchmark 

AIDA64 built-in benchmark is one of the best tests we can perform to compare memory performance. It includes raw bandwidth which is not always saying full story about whole PC performance but is good base to check which memory kit is faster at rated settings.

As we already know, Intel Skylake loves high memory frequency and is scalling really good. Trident Z DDR4-3000, even though at lower frequency than Geil memory, is performing not much worse in AIDA64. At the same time it performs much better than Kingston memory kit at the same frequency. Memory timings are clearly affecting memory bandwidth and latency what depends from other settings may give better effect than higher frequency of the memory. 

HyperPi 32M

Now we can see what I mentioned about balance between memory latency and frequency. Trident Z DDR4-3000 memory is performing great in HyperPi 32M. There is clear win over all other memory kits, even Geil DDR4-3333.

It’s probably one of the reasons why many overclockers decide on these new G.Skill memory kits while trying to achieve the best results in benchmarks.

Cinebench R15

In rendering benchmarks like Cinebench R15 performance is also great. Result of Trident Z DDR4-3000 is about as good as Geil DDR4-3333. Even though differences in this benchmark are not big then we can say that G.Skill made good work designing XMP profile on new Trident Z memory kits. 

3DMark 2013

In gaming benchmarks like 3DMark we can’t see big difference as memory performance affects mainly one part of the benchmark which is related to physics calculations. However we can still say which memory offers the best performance and in this case lower frequency G.Skill memory is matching the performance of higher frequency Geil.

About the same situation as in 3DMark we can see in PCMark 8 which is testing whole PC based on popular applications. Trident Z is performing great in all presets. In most had achieved the best results.

Since we know that Trident Z 16GB DDR4-3000 memory kit is performing great on a declared settings and I know that many readers are curious to see how high we can overclock this memory then let’s take a look at our overclocking results.

Overclocking

Overclocking is never guaranteed so the presented results may vary from results on other memory kits. I am not recommending overclocking if you do not know what are you doing. High voltages may damage hardware and it will not be covered by warranty.

In this part of review I wanted to focus mainly on lower voltages as not all feel comfortable to set higher voltages, not to mention it may damage the hardware so it’s recommended for advanced users.

I had to use MSI Z170I Gaming Pro AC motherboard as ASUS Maximus VIII Hero couldn’t run in tests at higher frequency than 3900MHz. On the other hand MSI motherboard doesn’t like high voltages what limited a bit maximum possible settings.

Trident Z DDR4-3000 CL14 memory is overclocking really good. We can count on a DDR4-3466 CL15-15-15 or DDR4-3600 CL16-16-16 at 1.35V what is already standard voltage for all DDR4-3000 and higher memory kits. On our kit I was able to set DDR4-3733 CL16-16-16 1.35V what was stable in all our tests. Below you can see result in AIDA64 which is showing memory bandwidth and latency.

Maximum stable frequency possible on our test platform is DDR4-4133 what is also maximum frequency which we can pick in BIOS. Settings of DDR4-4133 18-18-18 were pretty stable at 1.35V. It’s an amazing result considering all that came from DDR4-3000 memory kit.

Maximum overclocking result is clearly limited by motherboard. On ASUS Maximus VIII Hero I was able to barely pass DDR4-4000 mark while on MSI Z170I Gaming Pro AC I was able to reach DDR4-4257. CPU-Z validation is available here.

Really amazing overclocking headroom. It’s also quite easy to overclock this memory and doesn’t need high voltage.

It’s clearly the best option if we are looking for top performing and top overclocking memory for our challenges.