Performance
Performance has been tested on the Intel Alder Lake-S platform, which contains the i9-12900K processor, ASRock Z690 Extreme motherboard for DDR4 memory kits, and Gigabyte Z690 Master for the DDR5 kit, ASUS Strix RTX3070 8GB graphics card, and Team Group Delta MAX 1TB SSD. The used OS is Windows 11 x64 with the latest updates.
Our comparison includes overclocking results and settings where the Viper Steel LL 16GB DDR4-3600 was stable. The maximum settings on our motherboard were DDR4-4400 CL18-18-18 at still reasonable 1.5V. Even though this specific memory kit offers more, we couldn’t make it boot at a higher frequency. The memory could also run at DDR4-4000 CL14-14-14 1.55V, which the is recommended setting providing the best results.
Considering that users recently have questions about DDR4 vs. DDR5 in games, I added results on a popular Kingston Fury Beast DDR5-5200, which we reviewed some weeks ago. Of course, there are faster DDR5 memory kits, but they cost significantly more.
As usual, we will start with AIDA64 Cache and Memory benchmark, which is probably the best software for synthetic memory speed tests.
Results at the XMP profile are pretty good, but we can clearly see how well the bandwidth is scaling with higher memory frequency. The strength of the LL memory kits makes the balance between memory bandwidth and very low latency. The latency is what many games like the most. Below you can see our results at XMP profiles and manual settings with still not tuned sub-timings (so it can be even better).
PCMark 10 shows that all memory kits are about equal. While the Essentials test favorites lower latency but not necessarily high bandwidth, the Productivity or the Digital Content Creation look better at a higher frequency.
It’s time on some 3D benchmarks from UL(previously Futuremark).
3DMark and VRMark series benchmarks are showing similar results at all settings. These benchmarks show higher CPU and physics tests differences, but it’s a low percentage of the total score.
Easier tests with more FPS better react to lower latency so DDR4 settings, while more demanding tests usually look slightly better at a higher frequency so DDR5.
More demanding 3D tests at the display resolution up to 8K are not much different. In Final Fantasy XV and Superposition benchmarks, results are slightly better at higher memory frequency but nothing that would profoundly affect our gaming experience. DDR4-3600 results at XMP settings are in these tests about as high as at DDR5-5200.
Results in relatively new games like Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla, Shadow of The Tomb Raider, and FarCry 6 at 1440p show up to 3FPS difference between settings where Steel LL DDR4-3600 memory at XMP settings is about 1FPS better than DDR5-5200. The best results are at DDR4-4000 and tight timings, so the Steel LL DDR4-4000 kit or overclocked Steel LL DDR4-3600 kit settings.
The Viper Steel Low Latency series seems like a top option for most gamers. The memory offers high performance at a reasonable price, so exactly what most gamers are searching for. Better would be only higher frequency DDR5 memory which is very expensive, and its availability is limited. You can count that soon we will present you Patriot Viper DDR5 memory kit, which probably won’t be cheap but hopefully beat our already great results on the Steel Low Latency memory.
On the next page, I will tell you a couple of words about the overclocking of the Steel Low Latency memory series.
