Overclocking

Timing and Frequency Scaling

I also test modules for voltage requirements at different CAS settings and speeds to show how well a manufacturer has binned their modules and how well they've optimized them for the best possible performance. Would tighter timings and a lower speed make this module perform better? Can we increase or decrease voltage to get more performance? When overclocking, there are many different considerations that must be taken and this test helps with a few of those choices. For this test, I start with the default timings and a voltage of 1.50 V before figuring out the maximum speed I can achieve. I then go through the procedure with each working CAS Latency setting and each voltage interval. Different sticks are rated for different voltages, so the range I use depends on the stock voltage and how high each voltage takes me. With this set, I used a range of 1.5 V to 1.75 V.


Kingston, like some other companies, programs their SPD profiles with a lot of information, which makes testing for scaling a bit redundant. First, there are several different JEDEC profiles, as you will find on pretty much any stick out there. You can view this information easily by running AIDA64. I found the profiles listed above at the top of the listing.


Then there is the 2400 MHz XMP profile, labeled as the "Enthusiast" profile in AIDA64. Not only does it contain settings for 2400 MHz; it also has settings for lower dividers, which on some motherboards will have timings adjust automatically as you change the divider.


The third set of timings, the "Extreme" profile, starts with 2133 MHz as the main profile and has many more below that.

Both XMP profiles also have configurations for higher CAS settings, to enable those options should your board support it. I could also boot them easily since there are CAS 6 settings in the XMP profile, although the actual scaling was a bit small. As you can see above, quite a few possible timings are already set for you to explore, and each stick should be able to run these timings at the above posted speeds without much issue. What you can get above and beyond that is going to change from set to set.


I tried to keep timings as close to the 2133 MHz XMP listings as possible with my set, since those offered the best performance. I loosened the timings as required once I went up and ultimately landed in the same spot as on my test for maximum frequency. Without even being able to run 2600 MHz, there's not a lot of overhead, but there is a lot of flexibility that is matched by those tight tertiary timings for pretty decent performance no matter how you want to run your system. I also managed to run the stock JEDEC 1333 MHz timings @ 1.25V, so if low power use is your thing, these sticks are capable of that as well. ;)

Maximum Overclock

When testing for maximum overclocks, I could not reach 2600 MHz with a boosted voltage or loosened timings, so I, instead, focused on tightening primary timings, which also proved fruitless. However, I was able to change the Latency Boundry setting on my ASUS Maximus V Extreme to "5" without any problems, which resulted in similar tertiary timings to what I got when enabling the XMP profile. Increasing voltages afterwards resulted in a fully stable 1234.6 MHz - no more.

You'll find a bunch of benchmarks that illustrate the overclocked performance boost on the following pages. They are, again, broken into System Performance and 3D Performance sections. This section includes the XMP results of the HyperX 10th Anniversary 2400 MHz kit at the maximum overclock posted above, the previously tested G.SKill TridentX 2666 MHz kit with its overclocked numbers, and a reference JEDEC 1600 MHz set of numbers. As always, I'll let the numbers do the talking.