Test Setup


We’ll be testing the following DDR4 memory kits in today’s review:

- TEAMGROUP T-Force Xcalibur 16GB 3600MHz CL18
- TEAMGROUP T-Force Vulcan TUF 16GB 3200MHz CL16
- Corsair Vengeance LPX 32GB 3200MHz CL16

The above offers a mixture of smaller capacity with the same frequency and similar latencies. This should present us with a good demonstration as to how capacity can affect performance.

To benchmark these DDR4 kits we’ll be using the following benchmarking applications:

AIDA64 (Memory Tests)
SiSoftware SANDRA
Futuremark PCMark 8 with Adobe Photoshop
Passmark Performance Test9
Futuremark 3DMark
Dawn of War III

OVERCLOCKING

Most users will use their DDR4 under the XMP profile but we can push memory beyond their tested specifications by jumping into the BIOS and modifying some settings. Our memory kit sits at 3600MHz at the factory settings, and we were only able to nudge this frequency up to 3800MHz – just an additional 200MHz. Taking the frequency beyond this, even with slack timings and extra voltage wouldn’t allow successful operation.

So, to achieve a stable result below we modified the CAS timings and nudged up the voltage.

TEAMGROUP T-FORCE Xcalibur RGB 3600MHz
- OC: 3800MHz 20-22-23-43 @ 1.4v

How does this overclock translate? Check out the below results in AIDA64 to see the advantage to nudging up that frequency slightly.