Performance
Performance has been measured on the Intel Skylake-X platform based on they i9-7900X processor and ASRock X299 Taichi XE motherboard.
For comparison has been used Ballistix Elite 4x16GB DDR4-3000 memory kit which is based on exactly the same memory IC as reviewed Patriot Viper 4. The main difference is that Patriot memory is based on single rank modules while Ballistix on dual rank.
Presented results, except guaranteed XMP settings, are also showing bandwidth after overclocking. We were so lucky that Ballistix memory was able to overclock really high but most 16GB modules which you can find in stores won’t pass much more than DDR4-3200 mark. The Patriot Viper 4 is based on the same memory chips as you can find in really expensive DDR4-4133+ kits and is quaranteed to work at DDR4-3733. What I want to say is that guaranteed high frequency, above 3600 is possible almost only on 8GB modules. As you can see, there are no results past 3733 using whole 64GB of Ballistix memory while Patriot Viper 4 is able to pass DDR4-4100 and if we used Kaby Lake-X processor then it would probably reach 4266+.
In AIDA64 performance of both memory kits is not much different except memory copy test where dual rank memory looks better. On the other hand memory read is what affects performance the most. In next tests you will see that ranks don’t really matter if we play games or use typical home/office software.
As we can see, even in rendering benchmarks like Cinebench R15, there is barely any difference between memory kits if we compare the same frequency and main timings. Again, if we compare guaranteed settings so DDR4-3000 and DDR4-3733 then we will see differences in performance.
There is one benchmark which clearly likes dual rank memory – SuperPi 32M. In dual channel configuration, differences are even higher but if we compare guaranteed settings then Patriot Viper 4 is clearly faster.
Futuremark benchmarks are showing barely any differences at the same settings. I guess we have to find more benchmarks which are reacting good on fast memory kits. All 3DMarks are showing performance improvements almost only in physics calculations while VRMarks and PCMarks are showing similar results at all settings.
If you decide on a quad channel platform for gaming at high screen resolution and details then 4x8GB memory kit is clearly the best option right now. RAM is really expensive while I don’t think there is any game that will use more than ~16GB of memory. Add some more applications, maybe additional cache for drives or other services and it will end below 30GB.
If anyone is a bit confused because of the way how I compared both memory kits then it’s because some users asked me if it’s worth to invest in 64GB of RAM for a gaming computers. Clearly it’s not worth it as RAM prices are really high right now and that difference is better to invest in faster graphics card or other components.
The Patriot Viper 4 memory is showing high performance in all tests. Together with high compatibility and stability it’s really great option for all who are looking for high frequency memory, especially that also current price isn’t high ( at least comparing to competitive memory kits ).
In the comparison tables are various memory settings which were possible to stabilize at standard, 1.35V voltage. You can find couple of words about overclocking on the next page of this review.
