Samsung Green DDR3 8GB 1600mhz 30nm Memory review

Allan 'Zardon' Campbell May 25, 2012 Featured Announcement, Memory

Rating: 9.5.

We have looked at quite a few memory kits already this year but today we have something very special in our labs. The latest Samsung Eco ‘Green' DDR3 built on the 30nm manufacturing process. This memory is true low profile and only demands 1.35 volts. The potential therefore for achieving a good overclock should be strong.

If we were being completely honest, reviewing a 1,600mhz memory kit isn't a very exciting process. There are literally hundreds of different 1,600mhz kits from manufacturers such as Patriot, Kingston and G.Skill.

We would class 1,600mhz memory now as the entry level speed for an enthusiast grade system build. With 2,133mhz memory now widely available at competitive pricing, there seems no reason to save a few pounds for a slower rated memory.

Or is there?

Features:-

– Model Name: MV-3V4G3D/US
– Main Board: INTEL/AMD
– System: DESKTOP/SFF
– System Type: DDR3
– M/B Chipset: INTEL P67, Z68, Z77, X79 & AMD Chipsets
– CAS Latency: 11-11-11-28 1N
– Capacity: 8GB (4GBx2)
– Speed: DDR3-1600 (PC3-12800)
– Test Voltage: 1.25-1.55V
– Registered/Unbuffered: Unbuffered
– Error Checking: Non-ECC
– Type: 240-pin DIMM Low Profile
– Warranty: Lifetime

The Samsung Green DDR3 8GB 1600mhz memory ships in a cardboard packet with the memory protected under a clear plastic window.

The rear of the package details the 2x4GB capacity and the various timings between 800 mhz and 1,600mhz. This memory has a lifetime warranty, which is reassuring.

Inside the package is a little information sheet with basic details on the memory.

The memory is built around a black PCB, and thanks to the 30nm manufacturing process, it is tiny. Samsung are using their own memory modules on the sticks (K4B2G08460), which isn't really a surprise. The memory isn't supplied with heatspreaders.

To give you an idea of just how small the memory is, we decided to take a picture with some other popular memory we have reviewed in the last year. The tiny physical size means it hardly rises above the memory slot locking clip! Ideal for pairing up with an oversized CPU cooler.

On this page we present some super high resolution images of the product taken with the 24.5MP Nikon D3X camera and 24-70mm ED lens. These will take much longer to open due to the dimensions, especially on slower connections. If you use these pictures on another site or publication, please credit Kitguru.net as the owner/source.

Today we are using the Asus Rampage IV Extreme motherboard, one of the best motherboards you can currently buy, regardless of price. We know the Rampage IV Extreme will let the memory reach the limit without a problem.

The memory was immediately detected and correctly configured by the Asus motherboard with timings of 11-11-11-28 @ 1T.

The memory is configured to 1.35 volts at the automatic settings. Ideal for a low powered media server or similar.

System validation at default clock speeds is available here.

Finding the limits of this memory was interesting. it posted at 2,133mhz without a hitch for us, maintaining the same timings and a 1.5 voltage setting. At 2,400mhz we increased the voltage to 1.65v and set the timings to 11-12-12-40 @ 2T.

Even though the system was completely stable at 2,400 at 11-12-12, it failed validation, as shown above. It was perfectly stable however. We have however seen CPUz fail verification on some systems, even at default clock speeds.

We then increased the voltage to 1.69 to see if we could push it any further. At 2,666mhz the memory timings needed to be dropped to 13-13-13 which resulted in a degradation of performance. Any tighter than this and stability was compromised. We achieved a post at almost 2,800mhz however the timings were 14-14-14 (1.72v) which didn't translate to fantastic ‘real world' performance results.

We backed down to 2,400mhz and dropped the timings to 11-11-11 and the system posted fine.

We didn't expect to get complete validation after it failed at 12-12-12, however as before, we ran Memtest+ for several hours and the system passed @ 2400mhz 11-11-11.

I am sure you will agree that these are rather incredible results!

Today we are using an Intel Core i7 3960X Extreme Edition processor with the Asus Rampage IV Extreme motherboard. This is a quad channel board, but it can also run in dual channel. We used it specifically today because it has proven to be one of the best motherboards for overclocking memory. We have achieved almost 3,000mhz via the Rampage IV with some Mushkin memory in our labs.

We will be showing results at 1,600mhz @ 11-11-11 and our highest performing overclocked speed of 2,400 mhz @ 11-11-11.

Our results clearly indicate dual, triple or quad channel in our reviews, so it is easier to ascertain an overview of performance levels between various Intel platforms.

Processor: Intel i7 3960X EE @ 4.4ghz.
Motherboard: Asus Rampage IV Extreme.
Cooler: Antec H20 920.
Graphics Card: Nvidia GTX590.
Power Supply: Enermax Platimax 1200W.
Optical Drive: Asus BluRay Drive.
Chassis: Lian Li PC-A77FR Aluminium Red Full Tower Case.
Monitors: Dell U3011, 3x Ilyama ProLite E2472HDD.
Boot Drive: Patriot WildFire 120GB.
Secondary Drives: 1TB Samsung & 2TB Samsung.

Comparison memory:
Kingston HyperX 2400mhz
8GB Kingston HyperX 2,400mhz
16GB G.Skill 2400mhz
8GB Corsair Dominator GT 2400mhz
16GB GSkill Ripjaws Z 2133mhz
32GB Corsair Vengeance 1600mhz

Software:
SiSoft Sandra
PcMark 7
MaxxMem

Comparison systems:

Processor: Intel Core i7 3770k
Motherboard: Gigabyte Z77X-UD5H motherboard
Cooler: Arctic Cooling Freezer 13
Memory: Patriot Viper Xtreme Division 2 2133mhz
Power Supply: ADATA 1200W.
Optical Drive: Asus BluRay Drive.
Chassis: Cooler Master Cosmos 2.
Monitors: Dell U3011, 3x Ilyama ProLite E2472HDD.
Boot Drive: Kingston SSDNow V+200 90GB.
Storage Drive: Patriot 240GB Wildfire.

Comparison memory:
G.Skill TridentX 8GB 2400mhz
4GB ‘generic’ 1333mhz memory @ 9-9-9-24.
Kingston HyperX Genesis 2666mhz @ 11-13-13-30

We also wanted to include some results with Topower Black Edition memory, running at 1,600mhz @ 9-9-9 timings, on the following system:

CPU: Intel Core i7 2700k
Cooler: Thermaltake Frio OCK
Motherboard: Asus P8P67 Deluxe
PSU: ADATA 1200W
Graphics: Sapphire HD6950 Flex Edition
Chassis: Thermaltake Level 10 GT
Operating System: Windows 7 64 bit Enterprise
Monitor: Dell U2410

SiSoftware Sandra (the System ANalyser, Diagnostic and Reporting Assistant) is an information & diagnostic utility. It should provide most of the information (including undocumented) you need to know about your hardware, software and other devices whether hardware or software.

Sandra is a (girl’s) name of Greek origin that means “defender”, “helper of mankind”. We think that’s quite fitting.

It works along the lines of other Windows utilities, however it tries to go beyond them and show you more of what’s really going on. Giving the user the ability to draw comparisons at both a high and low-level. You can get information about the CPU, chipset, video adapter, ports, printers, sound card, memory, network, Windows internals, AGP, PCI, PCI-X, PCIe (PCI Express), database, USB, USB2, 1394/Firewire, etc.

Native ports for all major operating systems are available:

Windows XP, 2003/R2, Vista, 7, 2008/R2 (x86)
Windows XP, 2003/R2, Vista, 7, 2008/R2 (x64)
Windows 2003/R2, 2008/R2* (IA64)
Windows Mobile 5.x (ARM CE 5.01)
Windows Mobile 6.x (ARM CE 5.02)

All major technologies are supported and taken advantage of:

SMP – Multi-Processor
MC – Multi-Core
SMT/HT – Hyper-Threading
MMX, SSE, SSE2, SSE3, SSSE3, SSE 4.1, SSE 4.2, AVX, FMA – Multi-Media instructions
GPGPU, DirectX, OpenGL – Graphics
NUMA – Non-Uniform Memory Access
AMD64/EM64T/x64 – 64-bit extensions to x86
IA64 – Intel* Itanium 64-bit

At 1,600mhz the memory delivers around 21.5 GB/S of memory bandwidth. When we overclock to 2,400mhz maintaining the same relatively tight timings, the score increases by a whopping 10 GB/s to 31.5 GB/s. This is one of the best overclock results we have ever achieved. It is also our highest ever score from a dual channel memory configuration.

PCMark 7 includes 7 PC tests for Windows 7, combining more than 25 individual workloads covering storage, computation, image and video manipulation, web browsing and gaming. Specifically designed to cover the full range of PC hardware from netbooks and tablets to notebooks and desktops, PCMark 7 offers complete PC performance testing for Windows 7 for home and business use.

5,879 points is a great score from a dual channel enabled system. One of the best yet.

V2011 is the first release of 3DStudio Max to fully support the Windows 7 operating system. This is a professional level tool that many people use for work purposes and our test will show any possible differences between board design today.

Autodesk 3ds Max Design 2011 software offers compelling new techniques to help bring designs to life by aggregating data, iterating ideas, and presenting the results.

Streamlined, more intelligent data exchange workflows and innovative new modeling and visualization tools help significantly increase designers’ creativity and productivity, enabling them to better explore, validate, and communicate the stories behind their designs.

Major new features:

Slate: A node based material editor.
Quicksilver: Hardware renderer with multithreaded rendering engine that utilizes both CPU and GPU.
Extended Graphite Modeling Toolset
3ds Max Composite: A HDRI-capable compositor based on Autodesk Toxik.
Viewport Canvas toolset for 3D and 2D texture painting directly in the viewport
Object Painting: use 3D geometry as ‘brushes’ on other geometry
Character Animation Toolkit (CAT): now integrated as part of the base package
Autodesk Material Library: Over 1200 new photometrically accurate shaders
Additional file format support: includes native support for Sketchup, Inventor
FBX file linking
Save to Previous Release (2010)

We created a new 8200×3200 scene and recorded the time for the hardware to finalise the render.

Quad channel memory delivers better results in 3D Studio Max 2011, due to the enhanced bandwidth. That said, when the Samsung Green 1600mhz memory is overclocked to 2,400mhz, it is only 5 seconds slower than the Corsair 1,600mhz memory in a Quad Channel configuration.

MaxxMem2 PreView is a handy, free program to rate memory performance. It can be downloaded over here.

The scores dramatically improve when we overclock the memory to 2,400mhz @ 11-11-11 timings.

The Samsung Green DDR3 8GB 1600mhz memory has blown us away in the labs. We have tested many 1,600mhz memory kits in recent months and achieving a stable overclock to 2,133mhz with slightly looser timings would be considered a success.

The Samsung Green 1,600mhz kit overclocks easily to 2,400mhz without having to loosen the primary timings! This memory is going to really shake up the enthusiast sector.

We actually achieved a result just shy of 2,800mhz although we needed 1.72 volts and the timings had to be slackened from 11-11-11 to 14-14-14. The sweet spot was 2,400mhz as the relatively tight default timings could be maintained without corruption of data.

Overclockers in the UK are pushing this product hard, and we can see why. The 8GB kit we reviewed today is priced at £53.99 inc vat. If you are looking for a Quad Channel kit, then they also stock 4x4GB for £101.98 inc vat … an ideal solution for the X79 platform.

We do love the G.Skill Trident X memory (10-12-12), however a 16 GB 2,400mhz kit from OCUK costs £199.99 inc vat. This is twice the price of 16GB of Samsung Green memory, which we have shown today will overclock to the same speed @ 11-11-11 settings.

Another added bonus with this Samsung Green memory is the diminutive size of the PCB. When they are installed, they are almost level with the memory clips on the motherboard. This means that even the biggest CPU coolers with 14 cm fans will not get in the way. ‘Fit and forget' really is the nature of the game with these 30nm sticks.

This is clearly some of the best memory on the market, the only downside is that you need some bios knowledge to get to 2,133mhz or 2,400mhz. There is no easy to select XMP profile.