Potential overclocking disaster
Contents
There is no good review if there isn’t a bit of overclocking to show you what more the memory can do above standard clocks, and we got that here is well. Now, the thing is that the Kingston HyperX Predator 3000Mhz Quad Channel Kit 16Gig came in one kit, the Patriot Viper Elite Series DDR4 3000MHz Dual Channel Kit came in two separate kits, equaling up together to 16Gigs, each was an 8Gig Kit. That is where the problem starts, but it might not be the problem you are expecting.
So the Quad channel kit is tested together, all 4 sticks are tested and benchmarked together at the factory to assure that they work perfectly together, this also insures that they have the same IC’s. Memory IC’s are integrated circuits (IC) in memory, make, model, manufacturer, date and lot codes to make sure there are no incompatibilities, though even then issues can occur but are less likely. Date codes are literally the Date the memory was made stamped on the memory and lot codes are the codes of the actual lots where the memory was manufactured, also stamped on the memory. They don’t always have date and lot codes exactly written out just like that, but they have differentiators to help the manufacturer have a more tight QA process and to determine where faults in the QA process and assembly process might lay.
As you saw above, even though everything is the same, the markings 000019 and 000001 are different as are the 0BM1 and 11E1. Now more than just the numbers written on the memory, there are deeper differences, ones that require we remove the memory heatsinks. I recorded this video after I tested everything, so I let the cat out of the bag a little, but please at least pretend you are surprised OK?
In the video above, I discussed the fact that two Dual Channel kits actually make up Quad Channel. Then I also describe why it is important to buy a Quad Channel kit rather than a Dual Channel kit if you plan on having 4 sticks of RAM. As I mentioned in the video, the reason behind that was the memory IC’s which were different between the two kits, same company, model number and everything but IC’s change frequently.
Looking a little closer, we can see who makes the IC’s.
Above we see that these IC’s were actually made from Patriot, Part number PM512M8D4BU-093. You might think that of course these are made by Patriot, they make the RAM? That is not always the case, all the different memory manufacturers often buy different IC’s since the market is so volatile and prices fluctuate so frequently so in order to keep cost low for both us as consumers and them as the manufacturers, they buy up the IC’s.
Now let’s take a look at the other Dual Channel Kit.
Looking closer we find the manufacturer is SEC, Samsung Electronics Co. Part number K4A4G0B5WE.
All 4 sticks together, I could not overclock the RAM, testing kits individually I found that I was not able to get the PM512M8D4BU-093 set working together, lot code 000001. Luck of the draw I guess but it is not unheard of to get a set of IC’s just don’t overclock well or at all, I could not even get 20Mhz overclock out of these.
Being that I had this issue, I still wanted to provide you comparative overclocking performances between the two. So what I decided to do was reduce the Kingston HyperX Quad Channel Kit to a Dual channel kit. I also brought the overclock settings to be the same, this actually allowed me to provide the Kingston HyperX with a lower voltage than in my previous review, which you can read here if you like.
Now let’s get to the comparisons