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FEATURED Corsair Vengeance LPX 4x4GB DDR4-2666 CL15 - CMK16GX4M4A2666C15

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Woomack

Benching Team Leader
Joined
Jan 2, 2005
Today's test will be based on a Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB DDR4-2666 CL15 1.2V memory kit designed for X99 platform.
I don't remember when I was testing last Corsair kit and DDR4 availability is really limited so I picked one of the Vengeance series. There is also higher - Dominator Platinum, but it cost much more.

Let's focus on the memory itself.
Corsair Vengeance LPX 4x4GB DDR4-2666 CL15 is based on a Hynix IC as we can compare version number - 5.29 to the Corsair memory IC list that we can find on the forums. I don't think it was changed comparing to DDR3 list.
Four 4GB modules of this kit are single sided so we can expect that kit based on 8GB modules will be double sided and in the future we will see higher density DDR4.

I had a chance to pick memory in black or red heatsinks. I've decided on a black version. Some photos of the package and memory itself are below. Not the best quality but I bet that most interested readers will check manufacturer's site and some reviews available in the web ( also on Overclockers ).

DSCN1853.JPG
DSCN1858.JPG
DSCN1860.JPG
DSCN1868.JPG

Test platform will be based on i7 5820K CPU and so far the cheapest ( but not the worst ) X99 motherboard - MSI X99S SLI Plus with the latest BIOS/UEFI 1.10. 6 core 5820K CPU will let me compare DDR4 performance directly to DDR3 based on 4930K CPU.

What I wasn't expecting are the XMP profiles ( in 2.0 version ). Vengeance LPX has two XMP profiles:
XMP1: 2666 15-17-17-32 1.20V
XMP2: 2800 15-17-17-32 1.35V
Yes, memory has 2666 clock on the box/label but we can also use 2800 profile at slightly higher voltage. That's quite nice.

Below we can see performance at the XMP1 profile and also readings from AIDA64 and CPU-Z. Both programs are not perfect for X99 platform but in this case CPU-Z has less problems to read profiles and actual memory settings. AIDA64 is not prepared for X99 platform and new CPUs so we have to wait for an update to fix some problems.

XMP.jpg

and XMP2 at 2800 15-17-17-32 1.35V

XMP2.jpg

Overclocking results

3000 16-16-16-38 2N 1.35V

3000.jpg

Performance at 3000 is actually lower than at 2666/2800 even though I've raised CL by 1 but lowered all other timings. On the other hand we see that this Vengeance memory has some potential.

So far I couldn't set much higher clock than 3000 and I think it can be related to the motherboard. However I will for sure try some more later and now will be some lower clocked results at tighter timings.

2800 CL15-15-15-32 1N 1.35V

2800c15.jpg

Looks like at 2800 we can still tighten the timings. I was able to boot and run AIDA64 or Maxxmem at 2800 14-14-14 but it wasn't stable and sometimes board was seeing memory in triple channel. Maybe I will back to CL14 later. Better DDR3 series were running at 2800 12-14-14 so I think that similar settings on DDR4 would be already good.

2666 CL13-13-13-32 1N 1.35V

2666c13.jpg

2666 CL13 is probably best performing setting. Timings are also much tighter than on declared settings - 15-17-17. I will try to tighten timings some more later. 2666 is also the highest setting possible at 100MHz bclk. For some reason this platform has maximum memory ratio of x26.66. I thought it will be higher with declared clocks of 3200+. XMP2 setting is already running at 127MHz bclk which is also in XMP profile.

2400 12-12-12-32 1N 1.35V

2400c12.jpg

2400 seem already low clock but as we see performance isn't that bad comparing to higher clocks. Actually I thought it will be worse.

At the end SPD setting to compare all above results to the standard profile of 2133 15-15-15 1.20V.

SPD.jpg

This setting is also suprisingly good. AIDA64 bandwidth is low but other benchmarks are not looking as bad as expected.


I will try to add some more results later when I play some more with sub timings.
Also as always feel free to comment this thread.

If you can't see what is on the screenshots then try to open pictures in a new window. Maybe someone will fix that as on the old forums it was working good.
 
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Looks good Woomack, had to use fiefox but I got a good look at things. Looking forward to some side by side comparisons.
 
On this platform with your testing experience on X79 what would be the sweet spot for Ram? :shrug: As i have seen and found myself was 2133 with tighten timings and also you could only go so far with the Bclk @ 100. Would the X99 be around the same even though you can go higher up to 3000 etc. The CAS at the moment does not look to great i hope they can lower it down to Cas 9 etc. :attn:

Regards AJ.
 
So far I've tested one DDR4 kit so hard to say what will be best. There is a chance that 1-2 kits will arrive in next 1-2 weeks so will be easier to compare settings.
As you see in my tests, best so far is something like 2666 and tightest possible timings. My kit is from lower series so I bet you will find something better on the market. Still 2666 13-13-13 look good comparing to XMP settings or to even best available DDR4 kits. 3200 kits will be CL16-18 so I'm not sure if we can count on high performance. Even this cheaper kit can make 3000 16-16-16 1.35V but performance isn't good.
So far I've seen only Hynix and Micron based DDR4. Even my cheap board has memory profiles for these both IC and Microns are finishing there at 3000 while max for Hynix is 3333. I couldn't make this memory work at anything above 3000 but maybe I missed something. I have this platform since yesterday so I still have to check some options. Even though this MSI is from "classic" series then in BIOS is a lot of memory timings and some profiles. ASUS RVE is probably better but cost twice as much.
Back to memory , sweet spot for DDR4 depends only from balance between timings and clock and as I already mentioned it's hard to say what will be best after testing 1 memory kit. For Corsair Vengeance best seems 2400 12-12-12, 2666 13-13-13, 2800 14-14-14 ( this one wasn't stable on my kit and voltages up to 1.35V ) so with this scalling 3000 15-15-15 and 3200 16-16-16. These last 2 will be really hard for most kits.

Below is 2666 13-13-13-32 1N 1.35V at tighter sub timings and it looks better. It doesn't change fact that I have over 10GB/s higher read bandwidth on [email protected] and 4x4GB DDR3-2400 9-11-11 what isn't even max for this platform.

2666tght.jpg
 
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So far I've tested one DDR4 kit so hard to say what will be best. There is a chance that 1-2 kits will arrive in next 1-2 weeks so will be easier to compare settings.
As you see in my tests, best so far is something like 2666 and tightest possible timings. My kit is from lower series so I bet you will find something better on the market. Still 2666 13-13-13 look good comparing to XMP settings or to even best available DDR4 kits. 3200 kits will be CL16-18 so I'm not sure if we can count on high performance. Even this cheaper kit can make 3000 16-16-16 1.35V but performance isn't good.
So far I've seen only Hynix and Micron based DDR4. Even my cheap board has memory profiles for these both IC and Microns are finishing there at 3000 while max for Hynix is 3333. I couldn't make this memory work at anything above 3000 but maybe I missed something. I have this platform since yesterday so I still have to check some options. Even though this MSI is from "classic" series then in BIOS is a lot of memory timings and some profiles. ASUS RVE is probably better but cost twice as much.
Back to memory , sweet spot for DDR4 depends only from balance between timings and clock and as I already mentioned it's hard to say what will be best after testing 1 memory kit. For Corsair Vengeance best seems 2400 12-12-12, 2666 13-13-13, 2800 14-14-14 ( this one wasn't stable on my kit and voltages up to 1.35V ) so with this scalling 3000 15-15-15 and 3200 16-16-16. These last 2 will be really hard for most kits.

Below is 2666 13-13-13-32 1N 1.35V at tighter sub timings and it looks better. It doesn't change fact that I have over 10GB/s higher read bandwidth on [email protected] and 4x4GB DDR3-2400 9-11-11 what isn't even max for this platform.

View attachment 153483

From what i have been reading it looks like 2400Mhz @ Bclk @ 100 after this you have to use 125 or 162 which works well on X99. So long as you do not have any Read/Write bugs like the X79 Platform, but i have found a fix for this in the Sub Sections. I hope you can test some more DDR4 later, as i am looking to run this platform in the future as well as my X79 4960X. Which i never really looked at using some really good cooling, so nice to hear from you Woomack. ;) :thup:

Best Regards,

AJ.
 
Two more results at tight timings and 1.50V. Profiles are nearly the same as we can find in DDR3 memory available on the market.
AIDA64 results are on the latest beta version with Haswell-E support released yesterday ( at least system found it yesterday ;) ).


2400 11-12-12-28 1N 1.50V

2400c11.jpg


2666 12-13-13-30 1N 1.50V

2666c12.jpg

1.5V seem high comparing to standard voltage of 1.2V but I've already seen 1.50V DDR4 kits on the motherboard compatibility lists so I bet if they can release memory like that then it has to be safe. Even if not then I would check it anyway ;)
 
Two more results at tight timings and 1.50V. Profiles are nearly the same as we can find in DDR3 memory available on the market.
AIDA64 results are on the latest beta version with Haswell-E support released yesterday ( at least system found it yesterday ;) ).


2400 11-12-12-28 1N 1.50V

View attachment 153549


2666 12-13-13-30 1N 1.50V

View attachment 153550

1.5V seem high comparing to standard voltage of 1.2V but I've already seen 1.50V DDR4 kits on the motherboard compatibility lists so I bet if they can release memory like that then it has to be safe. Even if not then I would check it anyway ;)

I would say the 2400 @ 100 Bclk is looking really good, just above the sweet spot of 2133 on the X79, i think its 1866 that's the listed Freq for X99.

OK on the DDR3 post of mine the point i was trying to make is with that CAS8 and tweaked timings it could be as good as 2400 or 2666, and still work with the IMC and CPU. Its something i have been reading a lot of late due to my set up being in boxes here.

Really nice Read Write numbers with the 2400 mine @ 2133 is abt 58 to 60 range on X79.

Regards,

AJ.
 
Maximum clock so far 3132 17-17-17-36. I couldn't make it run at higher memory ratio as it's jumping onto 3300+. Also memory at 3000+ is harder to stabilize at 167+bclk strap.
CL17-18-18 or 18-18-18 is not booting. I assume I have to wait for some better BIOS to make higher clocks on this memory.

http://valid.canardpc.com/v3jq4a
 
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