Reviews - ADATA XPG Xtreme 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3-2,133 memory

[HEXUS]

Is it time for high-density modules?

Read more.

[Terbinator]

£180.

Aria are currently ding 2x8GB for £40 - 1333/9-9-9-27.

[Jimbobgod1969]

£180.

Aria are currently ding 2x8GB for £40 - 1333/9-9-9-27.

Can you provide a link? The cheapest 2x8Gb kit I can see on Aria is this one for £76 here.

[Terbinator]

Can you provide a link? The cheapest 2x8Gb kit I can see on Aria is this one for £76 here.

http://www.aria.co.uk/SuperSpecials/...roductId=51963

[Jimbobgod1969]

http://www.aria.co.uk/SuperSpecials/...roductId=51963

Thank you!

[Rimmer100]

Probably an obvious question, but if you have 4 x 4GB modules is there a performance hit over a dual channel kit? The last PC I built was an AMD 3200 XP (almost 10 years ago) and back then if you added more memory it stopped it running in dual channel mode so the performance went down. I was wondering if this is still the same on the modern systems.

[Reyey]

Don't think so...

[Zanny]

Probably an obvious question, but if you have 4 x 4GB modules is there a performance hit over a dual channel kit? The last PC I built was an AMD 3200 XP (almost 10 years ago) and back then if you added more memory it stopped it running in dual channel mode so the performance went down. I was wondering if this is still the same on the modern systems.

Depends on the memory controller and chipset. All DDR3 is run in dual channel mode, and modern platforms just have multiple lanes of channels. The performance hit is more in power consumption, because there are minute tradeoffs like refresh rates improving performance when loads are spread over multiple sticks of RAM vs increased interconnect synchronization and a bunch of other fooey, but on any modern platform the difference would be at most extremely minute. I do want to mention usually 2x8 is often cheaper than 4x4 or close enough that you might as well just get the higher desnity chips because it leaves room for expansion in 3 - 4 years.

[scaryjim]

... All DDR3 is run in dual channel mode ...

Unless you're using 1 stick of course, as proved by this review But yes, modern memory controllers run 2 channels, with 2 slots per channel, so you can run 4 sticks happily in dual channel mode.

The only thing that might alter performance is that sometimes the memory controllers in the CPUs can only manage a certain number of "banks" of memory at full speed, so if your RAM is double-sided it may refuse to run it at full clock speed (certainly this happened with the DDR3 controller in the Phenom II series of CPUs)

EDIT: Incidentally, Hexus, have you considered doing memory gaming tests with an AMD A-series APU set-up? The more powerful graphics processor is more sensitive to memory speed, so it'd be interesting to see the difference between, say, 1600MHz, 1833MHz and 2133MHz memory on that platform...

[shaithis]

Agreed, would love to see results on A6/8/10 APUs......does seem slightly pointless doing the gaming test on an Intel IGP.

[Terbinator]

For purely trivial results, its definitely worth looking into. On the other hand, it would be unfair to use an APU for the gaming tests. The extra cost needed induced by faster RAM would negate the original attraction towards an APU.

Edit: The price difference isn't actually that much now between 1600MHz kits and higher (£25 extra to get some 2133MHz stuff).

[HalloweenJack]

and dont forget the headline limit for windows 7 home premium is 16GB of ram anyway.... pointless getting 32GB

[Rimmer100]

Cheers for the info, it is appreciated. Just need to save up some pennies and decide when to take the plunge!