G.Skill TridentZ 3866 MHz 2x 4GB DDR4

[cadaveca]

Intel's Skylake loves high-speed DDR4. G.Skill loves making it. The G.Skill F4-3866C18D-8GTZ is one of those high-speed kits, topping out at a crazy 3866 MHz, a whole 1733 MHz above the Skylake base memory specification. Can our CPU make it that high? Does your motherboard even support such speeds? G.Skill's 3866 MHz TridentZ kit definitely pushes the limits.

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[Athlon2K15]

Nice kit! Any reason you are not doing all the playing with timings and overclocking anymore?

 

[Enterprise24]

Nice kit! Any reason you are not doing all the playing with timings and overclocking anymore?

Probably limit by motherboard or IMC or both. Not many motherboard support that high frequency with easily tightening timing.

 

[basco]

i too think that since sandy bridge you cannot reproduce reached frequenzy or timings on for example 2x different 2600k.

 

[cadaveca]

Nice kit! Any reason you are not doing all the playing with timings and overclocking anymore?

I push as far as I can go, usually hitting some limit outside the sticks. And OC is guaranteed, so no benchmarks, but CPU-Z is there. I must run all the benchmarks at those OC'd speeds, or I won't report the clocks.

on this kit I hit 4000 MHz as well as lowering some of the timings. couldn't go higher at all, couldn't go tighter.

Probably limit by motherboard or IMC or both. Not many motherboard support that high frequency with easily tightening timing.

That greatly affects high-end DDR4 at the moment for sure. Some memory goes crazy fast on specific boards, and the point of the reviews isn't to cover the rare cases where you got all the right parts, its to cover what anyone can get.

 

[qurotro]

hm....$160 for a 2x4 kit...

 

[xkm1948]

Will you be able to test one of these kits?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820232334

 

[Folterknecht]

2x 4GB or even 4x 4GB - nope

Stick size below 8GB is just wasted money/RAM slots nowdays. With my next system I ll probably go 2x 16GB.

 

[cadaveca]

Will you be able to test one of these kits?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820232334

....


That's a huge kit. I do have another Trident-Z kit for X99 with same timings, but only 32 GB.

I'mma have to try asking for it tho...

2x 4GB or even 4x 4GB - nope

Stick size below 8GB is just wasted money/RAM slots nowdays. With my next system I ll probably go 2x 16GB.

Most people I talk to don't even use 16 GB yet, but it's close. 8GB isn't enough though.

 

[xkm1948]

I wonder if I can do a review on my 128GB kit. Do I just follow your exact format?

I have a lot of good things to say about big ram size at high speed. Going 128GB saved me big amount of time for bioinformatics.

 

[Folterknecht]

....




Most people I talk to don't even use 16 GB yet, but it's close. 8GB isn't enough though.

I m currently on a Z77 system that is 3.5 years old which will be good enough for the next 1-2 years. Currently running 4x 4GB and I often see 10+GB RAM usage with dozens of browser tabs and 2-3 other programms open.
When I buy a new system I usually go for double the amount of RAM that currently is standard - thats why I went with 16GB last time. It payed off - no need to upgrade later and deal with potential problems from mixed sticks.

 

[FR@NK]

Will you be able to test one of these kits?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820232334

I just picked up the four stick version:

They booted right up after setting XMP mode. I haven't tried to overclock them yet as with such tight timings they are fast enough.

 

[basco]

@FR@NK
is this on haswell-e or broadwell-e?

 

[FR@NK]

is this on haswell-e or broadwell-e?

Broadwell-E

 

[Farmer Boe]

Great RAM review as always Dave. I'd echo your sentiments in the intro about G.Skill's products. I've used many kits over the years and G.Skill always strikes that balance right with price and performance.

 

[erixx]

Excellent Dave. I have this very kit, but the 4x4=16 one.
I would like to question but don't know what, as I am running them in a X99 (Rampage5 Edition 10) box.
My experience is that *with my parts* you can clock them nearly "as you like", get monster fast benches, and then after a week or something you can't boot and have to reset the BIOS, after which you can crawl back to overclocking. This may be IMC/CPU (i7 5930K) related...

 

[cadaveca]

Excellent Dave. I have this very kit, but the 4x4=16 one.
I would like to question but don't know what, as I am running them in a X99 (Rampage5 Edition 10) box.
My experience is that *with my parts* you can clock them nearly "as you like", get monster fast benches, and then after a week or something you can't boot and have to reset the BIOS, after which you can crawl back to overclocking. This may be IMC/CPU (i7 5930K) related...

I'd say CPU. Some Haswell-E CPUs won't even do 3400 MHz easily. So for 3866 MHz rams, you are really pushing it unless you've got Broadwell-E, and even then I'm not that sure how much better the newer chips are yet... only had a few so far.

I've had these sticks for quite some time and they actually clocked better afterwords, since BIOSes have matured quite a bit.

 

[gazzyk1ns]

"Cons: Limited board support"

Well... surely either your board is compatible, or it isn't? That's not really a con.

 

[erixx]

Just for those interested, I have been tightening the timings and got this (clock is 3200, borderline on X99). RealBench stable. (I have had an over 70.000 GB/S Copy result but not stable).

 

[cadaveca]

"Cons: Limited board support"

Well... surely either your board is compatible, or it isn't? That's not really a con.

The Z170 boards that support this memory properly are less than 10. When there are well over a hundred boards for this platform, and the majority does not support over 3600 MHz officially, to me it a con. The board I used for testing, even, required a BIOS update before it worked right.

So, I think most boards CAN support this memory, actually, but like 80-90% will at least need a BIOS update. That's not a con for the memory, but for the boards, for sure, but you can't use memory without a board to put it in!

Just for those interested, I have been tightening the timings and got this )

My OC aida64 on Z170 (stable in anything):

this Z170 dual channel is getting pretty close to X99 quad bandwidth!

 

[erixx]

Indeed, I am terrified!

 

[Enterprise24]

My Trident Z 3600 never boot beyond 3800 on ASUS Z170-A. But if I adjust BCLK in Windows then it can go all the way to 3900. I think this is limit by motherboard or BIOS for sure. I try both official BIOS from ASUS and non K OC BIOS from Elmor.
Anyway this is entry-level motherboard so I will not complain. ASUS state that this m/b can handle 3466 not 3800+
Maximum stable is probably 3796. (3800 give many error).

 

[erixx]

With a 5930K processor (haswell) and its IMC limitations, you can't go sky high with RAM, but still this Tridentz are amazing, you can tweak'em in many ways.
The default timings are 16-15-15-35 (2122mhz)! look at these (3200 and 2666)!
LATENCY is where the battle with Z110 is!

 

[Riza Guntur Prakoso]

I get this result on Asus Z170i Pro Gaming DDR4 4000Mhz. But as of now it won't boot, not even post.

 

[cadaveca]

Nice result!

Does that board have POST display? Would help figure out the cause of the boot fault.