Shootouts

The Great DDR3 1600MHz Memory Showdown

By Vincent Chang - 15 Jul 2009

Best of the Dual-Channel Kits

Best of the Dual-Channel Kits

Our dual-channel memory kit shootout made for an interesting comparison, due to the different memory timings and even voltages that were found in our review samples. Pinning down which memory kit was the best was difficult, with no clear favorites, with three brands, Kingston, OCZ and Patriot having that extra edge in our benchmarks, when we could discern some differences. Even then, as our gaming benchmarks showed, the differences hardly mattered in the grand scheme of things.

Hence, we moved to the other criteria, like overclocking and the temperature tests. Unfortunately, we could not extract much from these memory modules, with OCZ notably disliking our attempts to push the voltage higher. Bringing us to the temperature section, where the different thermal solutions finally broke the competitors into two parties. Those with more elaborate heat spreaders, complete with aluminum fins, like Corsair, G.SKILL and Patriot, unsurprisingly performed better than their counterparts which had the classic two-piece aluminum heat spreader design.

That left us with price as the final criteria to determine which memory kit was worth your consideration. But the differences between the most expensive and the cheapest are not as wide as one would think, capping at US$20. Here, Corsair and G.SKILL appeared best placed, with OCZ and Patriot suffering slightly from their higher prices. The Patriot however was able to redeem itself with a decent performance but OCZ's relatively higher asking price together with its poor showing for temperature and overclocking meant that it was not going to do well despite having the best memory timings on paper.

Below is our scoring breakdown for the various memory modules on how they performed in the various sections:

Scoring Breakdown (Dual-Channel)
  Performance Overclocking Temperature Testing Value Estimated Street Price (US$)
Corsair XMS3 DHX 4GB PC3-12800 DDR3 DIMM Memory Kit 4.0 3.0 4.5 4.5 78
G.SKILL Trident PC3-12800 DDR3 Dual Channel Memory Kit 3.5 3.5 4.0 4.5 75
Kingston HyperX 4GB DDR3 1600MHz Non-ECC CL9 4.0 3.5 3.5 4.0 85
OCZ DDR3 PC3-12800 Platinum AMD Edition 4.5 1.0 3.5 3.0 89
Patriot DDR3 Gamer Series for AMD Black Edition 4.5 3.5 4.5 3.5 96

With all that done, we had to find a worthy memory kit to crown as the winner for this shootout and given its excellence in performance and overclocking, we decided that the Patriot Gamer Series DDR3 1600MHz dual-channel memory kit did enough to beat out close rival Corsair in our opinion despite having the highest price. We took in consideration the fact that its current price could be temporary due to it being a recent entrant to the market. In reality, the G.SKILL, Kingston and Corsair all performed very closely and on another day could have been the winner.

Our Final Ratings (Dual-Channel)
Patriot Gamer Series DDR3 1600MHz Dual-Channel Memory Kit - PGS34G1600LLKA.

The Corsair XMS3 DHX DDR3 1600MHz Dual-Channel Memory Kit - TW3X4G1600C9DHX.
G.SKILL Trident DDR3 1600MHz Dual-Channel Memory Kit - F3-12800CL8D-4GBTD.
Kingston HyperX DDR3 1600MHz Dual-Channel Memory Kit - KHX12800D3K2/4G.
OCZ Platinum AMD Edition DDR3 1600MHz Dual-Channel Memory Kit - OCZ3P1600LVAM4GK.

 

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