Overclocking
Disclaimer: Overclocking is never guaranteed, so the results may vary depending on certain conditions and various hardware configurations. 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.
To check maximum memory potential, for overclocking tests was used a bit different platform which contains ASUS Crosshair VIII Impact motherboard and the Ryzen 7 3700X CPU. However, our final results were about the same as on the platform used for tests on the previous page of this review.
The Prism II is based on Hynix CJR-VKC IC. It’s overclocking much different than the popular CJR-TFC which we could see in our previous reviews and is used in brands like HyperX or Patriot Viper. The main difference is that the CJR-VKC is designed to run at higher frequency but at the same time at more relaxed timings. It works both ways. We can set higher memory frequency but we can’t set so tight timings. In the case of our memory kit, the difference in timings isn’t really big but is still counting.
The tighest timings at default DDR4-3600 that we could set were 16-19-19-36 at 1.35V. Higher memory voltage helps to drop the CL to 14 what doesn’t really help in performance.
Maximum settings with 1:1 infinity fabric divider were DDR4-3800 CL16-20-20-38 1.35V. Higher voltages were also helping to set lower CL but not other timings. In this case, we could set CL15 what also wasn’t helping much in performance. As we can see, the CJR-VKC requires CL16-20-20 timings while the CJR-TFC could run at the same frequency at CL16-19-19. Not a big difference but it may count to some users.
What is impressive is our maximum memory clock which was still limited by the memory controller in our processors. The Ryzen 5 3600 could run at a maximum of DDR4-4866 while the Ryzen 7 3700X at not much above DDR4-4800. On both CPUs, the maximum stable frequency was 2400MHz/DDR4-4800 and quite relaxed timings of CL18-26-26. In popular online stores, we can find memory rated at DDR4-4800 for over $700 while the V-Color Prism II costs as low as $100! Do I have to add something more?
