Patriot Viper 3 8GB DDR3-2133 Review - PAGE 2

Patriot's Viper 3 8GB kit will be put to the test on our benchmarking system featuring the following hardware configuration.

Test Setup:

• Processor: Intel i7 2600k overclocked to 4.4GHz
• Motherboard: ASRocks Z68 Extreme3 Gen3
• Memory: 8GB Patriot Viper 2133MHz 11-11-11-27 2T
• Video Card: XFX HD 7970 Black Edition
• Power Supply:Antec TPQ-1200 1200W
• Hard Drive: Seagate ST31000
• Optical Drive: ASUS 24X DVD
• OS: Windows 7 Professional 64-bit
• Case: Cooler Master CM Storm Stryker

Benchmarks:

• Dirt 3
• Battlefield 3
• Handbrake & Winrar
• Sisoftware Sandra 2012
• PCMark Vantage

Comparison Kits:

• Corsair XMS3 2000MHz
• G.SKILL Ripjaws Z DDR3 2133MHz
• Corsair Dominator GT 2133MHz
• G.SKILL Ripjaws + Turbulence II 2000MHz

Overclocking:

To ensure system stability, all memory overclocks will be tested for 1 hour. If any errors occur, the memory will be adjusted and retested until a stable overclock is reached.

Overclocking the Viper 3 series and it's comparison kits proved to be a bit of a challenge, but this may be due to the limitations of the ASRock Extreme3 Gen3 motherboard more than the kits themselves. During overclocking the maximum stable bclk reached was 103.5; any further past this point and the memory kits would begin to deliver errors.

When it came time to overclock the Viper 3 kit, I started by setting the memory for the XMP 1.3 profile with all other settings left at default. I then rebooted with a speed of 2133MHz, and at this point I increased the bclk to 101 and once again rebooted with a memory speed of 2154MHz. This process of increasing the bclk and rebooting was repeated until we hit a 103.5 bclk with a memory speed of 2206MHz, and 11-11-11-27 2T timings. No increase in voltages or changes made to the timings could produce a stable overclock that was higher than these settings.