Introduction

Founded in 1997, Team Group is a Taiwan-based manufacturer well-known for its "T-Force" gaming-centric DRAM products. Team Group also offers striking designs and high performance across its various flash-based product lineups.

Team Group is no stranger to the DRAM market with its XTREEM and Vulcan lines dating all the way back to DDR3. After releasing a number of highly successful products, Team Group was one of the first vendors to offer DDR5 for the consumer market in 2021. The company continues to innovate as the market changes. By offering a wide range of memory products, consumers can easily find something that matches their needs.


In this review, we will be taking a closer look at the Team Group T-Force Vulcan ECO DDR5-6000 memory kit, marketed mainly towards gamers, but with an ECO friendly vibe. By taking the established long-running Vulcan series, the ECO version has its heatspreaders made from 80% recycled aluminium, which lowers their carbon footprint. Team Group Vulcan ECO series is currently only available in one size configuration (2x 16 GB), with a choice of 5600 MT/s or 6000 MT/s. There are, however, two versions of each frequency with different primary timings. The 6000 MT/s Vulcan ECO sample we received has a more modest primary timings (38-38-38-78), and we will see how it compares to other configurations later on in the benchmarks.

Specifications

Packaging

A quick look at the box, and we can see Team Group has some fairly easy to read packaging. The front has the T-Force branding and a sticker in the top right corner indicating this specific kits bin. In this example, 32 GB (2x16 GB) DDR5 binned to 6000 MT/s when the XMP/EXPO profile is enabled. At the bottom is an ECO badge along with Intel XMP and AMD EXPO badges.

Flip the box around, and we get some tidbits about the product, with a sticker for the SKU, memory kit configuration and primary timings information related to this specific product. If you are still looking for more information, a QR code can be used to access extra details about the Team Group T-Force Vulcan ECO DDR5-6000 memory kit.


The box has some tape to prevent anything from falling out during shipping. Once cut and removed from the outer packaging, the memory sticks are secured and protected from minor damage with a clamshell inside the outer box. Included is a T-Force sticker too! A quick note about the clamshell. It is marked as PET (1), which is a common recyclable plastic.

A Closer Look

A quick look at the Group T-Force Vulcan ECO memory after removing it from the packaging, and it looks very similar to the Vulcan Z DDR4 series that came before it. This ECO edition currently only comes in a silver color hue, whereas the non "ECO Edition" variants are sold in red, black or silver color variations. These modules also have quite a low Z-Height (33 mm) and no RGB elements to speak of.


Team Group has placed the T-Force branding front and center with the Team Group logo above it. On the right of that is the words "recycled aluminium," just in case you missed it before on the packaging.


On one side of each DIMM module is the identification sticker listing the SKU, rated XMP operating frequency at its corresponding voltage of 1.25, and XMP/EXPO related timings. Team Group keeps the information in an easy-to-read format, which is great for those who aren't that tech-savvy and will have a hard time deciphering a block of text into something useful.


Laying the DIMMs on the side, we can see the word "T-Force" written in contrasting white lettering to the (silver color) aluminium.


The Team Group T-Force Vulcan ECO DDR5-6000 Z-Height is 33 mm after rounding up with calipers and weighs in at 35 g on the scales.


After taking the heat spreader off, we see that these are single-sided DIMMs with eight 2 GB ICs. This is as expected for a DDR5 32 GB kit, since densities increased with DDR5. The thermal pad covers all the memory ICs. This particular kit does have coverage for the PMIC and surrounding components.


A closer look at the ICs shows that these are SK Hynix (H5CG48MEBD-X014). Currently, Micron, Samsung, and SK Hynix are the three big suppliers of DDR5 ICs. When it comes to overclocking, SK Hynix ICs provide the highest frequencies and scale better with higher voltage. The kit we have here today is using M-Die (2 GB), which is the predecessor to A-Die (2 GB) and M-Die (3 GB) found in 7000 MT/s+ kits, but is still quite good in regard to tweaking the sub-timings.

This brings up a common argument against buying lower-bin memory to overclock, because it is a much cheaper option. You ultimately are taking a chance of not getting the preferred memory brands and revisions. It is recommended to buy pre-binned to the desired specifications, then do further tuning.


With DDR5, one of the major changes is how the motherboard directly provides 5 V to the memory module's PMIC, which is then stepped down and split accordingly. No longer is the motherboard responsible for regulating the voltages, as with DDR4. The PMIC has the part number "OP=AH FG1," software reports this as Richtek being the manufacturer.