G.Skill Ripjaws4 DDR4-2800 MHz 32GB Memory Kit Review

When you think of enthusiast-level memory, one of the first names that comes to mind is G.Skill. They’ve been catering to the overclocking and enthusiast crowd since the company was founded back in 1989. That tradition has carried forward to their DDR4 memory line; and today, we’ll have a look at another of G.Skill’s Ripjaws4 offerings in the form of a 32 GB DDR4-2800 MHz kit. We recently published a review on the 16 GB kit of this same memory, so let’s find out what the 32 GB version has to offer.

Specifications and Features

Here are the specifications as provided by the G.Skill product page. Even at 2800 MHz, the kit is still able to operate at a low 1.2 V, which should allow good headroom for overclocking. The timings aren’t bad either at 16-16-16-36, but those are usually able to be tightened up a bit too. Intel’s XMP 2.0 is fully supported, which makes setting the memory to its rated speed a snap to accomplish. As usual with G.Skill, the memory kit is backed by a limited lifetime warranty.

Once the memory is up and running with the XMP Profile set, here is what the UEFI BIOS and CPU-Z show. In order to get the memory speed to land precisely at 2800 MHz, the BCLK defaults to 127.3 once the XMP Profile is enabled. A side effect of this XMP profile is that the CPU, Cache, and DMI/PEG frequencies are slightly overclocked too. You end up with 64 MHz CPU, 55 MHz Cache, and 1 MHz DMI/PEG overclocks. Those minor increases shouldn’t require any voltage modifications on the user’s part, but are something to be aware of.

The marketing folks at G.Skill have a few things to point out as outlined below. The gist being the advantages of DDR4 memory, its overclocking potential, classic styling, and low-power consumption. Below images and descriptions courtesy G.Skill.

Ripjaws 4 – The Ultimate DDR4 Memory for Intel X99 Platforms G.SKILL Ripjaws4 series performance DDR4 memory is designed for the ultimate experience on the latest Intel X99 platform! Whether you are processing large amounts of data or intense gaming, experience smooth system performance with the newest next-generation PC memory technology! All Ripjaws4 memory kits are tested with G.SKILL’s extensive suite of testing software to ensure maximum performance and stability. Make Ripjaws4 the ideal choice for your DDR4 system! 4th Generation Ripjaws Series memory for the latest DDR4 Systems! Ripjaws4 series DDR4 memory are validated for compatibility with most X99 motherboards under a series of rigorous tests in quad channel memory operations. It’s guaranteed to provide the best-in-class performance, compatibility, and stability with the widest range of X99 motherboards. Faster Transfer Speed Starting from 2133MHz as standard frequency, DDR4 memory delivers much higher bandwidth than previous DDR memory. You can enjoy a faster computing experience for gaming, video & image editing, rendering, and other professional applications.

Extreme Speed in Overclocking G.SKILL always strive to break past limitations. Ripjaws4 series is the fastest DDR4 memory in the world, including an exclusive DDR4-3333MHz memory kit. Furthermore, Ripjaws4 is the first DDR4 memory to break the DDR4 4GHz in overclocking, reaching an incredible speed of 4004MHz. Whether you are an PC performance seeker or a overclocker, Ripjaws4 is your best choice.

More Power Efficient Designed with a low voltage of 1.2V at DDR4 standard, this lowers the memory voltage requirement by 20% from DDR3 memory kits! Now your system can perform even faster without becoming an expensive appliance heater.

Timeless Classic Stylish Redesign – Looking Great without Oversized Heatspreaders Confidently knowing your system is a combination of beauty and brawn, Ripjaws4’s new dashingly sleek heatspreader keeps your system cool and well cooled. Looks isn’t everything, but your rig should look great and perform great at the same time. And don’t worry; Ripjaws4 has a module height of 40mm – the same height as previous Ripjaws family modules – and will be compatible with most CPU heatsinks!

Retail Packaging/Product Tour

The retail packaging consists of the usual plastic clam-shell design we typically see G.Skill use. Inside, you find the four modules, a cardboard insert with product information, and a nifty little G.Skill case badge.

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Here are several pictures taken from various angles. Looking at the serial number tells us we’ll likely be dealing with Samsung memory ICs. The kit we have today is the black heatspreader version, but red and blue kits are also available. To further enhance the aesthetic value, G.Skill provides a black PCB that looks great under the heatspreaders. As noted above, the heatspreaders are not overly tall either at just 40 mm. That’s a welcome sight for those of you out there using one of those behemoth air coolers.

Testing for Stability at Rated Speed/Timings

With the memory installed in our test bed, we begin with a stability check at advertised speed/timings/voltage. To perform this task, we use our Ultra-X R.S.T. Premium USB memory tester. The fellas at Ultra-X provided us with the tester, and we’re honored to be one of a handful of review sites that have one. The Ultra-X R.S.T. Premium is a bootable USB device that really pounds on memory during the test sequence and will undoubtedly find if the memory kit is not perfectly stable. Depending on the capacity of the memory kit, it can take many hours to complete the five passes we prefer to run. As you can see by the picture below, it took well over 11 hours to complete the five passes. No errors were found, so we’ve got a perfectly stable set of memory on our hands here.

Our in-OS stability test is performed using a 32M run of HyperPi, which is a pretty darn good stability test in its own right. If you don’t own a tester like the Ultra-X R.S.T Premium, it’s more than likely the next best thing. After passing the rigors of the Ultra-X R.S.T. Premium, we didn’t expect any problems here, and none were encountered.

Benchmarks

Here are the components used in our test bed with all of today’s comparison kits listed just below. The six DDR4 memory kits we have in our comparison group include today’s Ripjaws4 2800 MHz kit and five other previously reviewed kits. The links are to their respective reviews.

The G.Skill DDR4-3000, ADATA, and Corsair kits were tested using the ASUS X99 Deluxe motherboard. The G.Skill DDR4-2666, Patriot Viper4, and today’s sample were all tested on the Rampage V Extreme motherboard. Both motherboards were set to use the memory’s XMP Profile, and the CPU was at stock settings for all tests. Given that all the other components used are identical and both motherboards utilize the ASUS OC Socket, results should be consistent between the two different motherboards.

The graphs below show percentage values with the G.Skill Ripjaws4 2800 MHz kit (today’s review sample) being the basis and therefore, always 100%. For the scored benchmarks, a higher percentage is better, while for timed benchmarks, a lower percentage is better. Below each graph is a table with the raw data used to compile it.

Synthetic Testing

First up is the suite of AIDA64 memory tests. There is a love affair going on between this memory kit and AIDA64 as it threw out some great numbers compared to the other comparison samples. Granted the mild overclock that comes along with the XMP Profile helps, but the Corsair DDR4-2800 kit also benefits from this too. As you can see, the Corsair kit was unable to keep up, except in the latency test. In fact, the G.Skill Ripjaws4 2800 MHz kit scored better in the read/write/copy tests than the two 3000 MHz kits in the comparison group.

The SuperPi and wPrime tests show little difference between all the samples with less than a 3% difference across the board. The G.Skill Ripjaws4 2800 MHz kit did manage to squeak out a win in all, but the SuperPi 32M test where it fell just a tad behind the Corsair sample.

Rendering, Compression, and Video Conversion Testing

Rendering is tested using all three Cinebench versions. It was a clean sweep for the G.Skill Ripjaws4 2800 MHz kit, but there was only slightly over a 2% difference between all the test samples. Still another great showing here.

7zip’s built-in benchmark is used to test compression. Here we see the G.Skill Ripjaws4 2800 MHz kit losing out by the slimmest of margins to the Corsair sample, but it did top everything else in the group. The PoV Ray and x264 benchmarks are used to test video compression and conversion. The G.Skill Ripjaws4 2800 MHz kit and the Corsair sample again topped the field here with almost identical performance.

Unless you win the overclocking lottery with the memory ICs used on a particular DDR4 kit, it’s definitely hard to justify buying a more expensive DDR4-3000 MHz kit with performance numbers like we witnessed above. Absolutely nothing to complain about on the performance front, that’s for sure.

Overclocking

The first thing you should know about overclocking this set of memory is that it’s completely happy running at 3000 MHz. All that was needed was to set the voltage to 1.35 V, just as all other 3000 MHz kits run at. The timings didn’t need change and can be left at 16-16-16-36-2T. The kit proved very stable at these settings as witnessed by the HyperPI 32M test below.

Once past 3000 MHz, the timings had to be loosened up a bit, and the voltage had to be raised. We were able to get up to 3116 MHz at 17-17-17-36-2T, but it took 1.45 V to stabilize. Any overclocking past this point required the timings to be raised to the point where performance took a big hit. Still, a 300+ MHz overclock at a respectable set of timings is pretty good.

Dropping the memory back to its default speed, we went to work on the timings. At 1.45 V, we were able to achieve a stable 14-15-15-15-36-2T set of timings. This resulted in our best HyperPi run of the day.

Conclusion

Anytime you can take a 2800 MHz memory kit and bump it up to 3000 MHz by simply making the voltage match what all other 3000 MHz kits use, you’ve got the makings for one heck of a value. If you’re willing to take the voltage a little further, you can easily get over 3100 MHz or tighten up the timings quite a bit. Keep in mind, we never took the voltage past 1.45 V, so there is likely even more headroom if you are willing to push the voltage into the danger zone. Any way you look at it, the kit overclocked very well and was rock solid stable throughout every phase of our review.

As you probably know by now, DDR4 memory is still rather expensive. When you get to high capacity kits like one (32 GB), you can easily get into the $400+ range in a hurry. This particular kit is available at Newegg for $409, which is a solid price when compared to other manufacturer’s offerings. If you don’t need a full 32 GB, the 16 GB kit can be had for an even better deal at $209.

We have reviewed several different G.Skill Ripjaws4 DDR4 memory kits over the past few months, and each and every one of them have performed great, overclocked well, and are competitively priced. If you’re thinking of building an X99 based system, any of the G.Skill offerings would be a good choice based on our experience. If you’re specifically looking for a 32 GB kit of DDR4-2800 MHz, then the Ripjaws4 should be on your short list.

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–Dino DeCesari (Lvcoyote)