ADATA XPG V2 Series 8GB DDR3 2400MHz Memory Kit Review
ADATA XPG V2 Benchmarking
I started off benchmarking with the stock Extreme Memory Profile (XMP), which was 2400MHz at 11-13-13-35 timings running at 1.65v. I then ran the same benchmarks to the highest frequency the GIGABYTE Z87X-UD4H would let me, which came to 2600MHz at 11-14-14-36 timings and still at 1.65v. I could not find a sweet spot (voltage and timings) to let the system POST and get even more out of the memory, but Im sure there has got to be more give, I just appear to be ill-equipped.
SiSoftware Sandra 2013 SP4
Sandra needs no introduction as it is the most popular memory performance benchmark available.
ADATA XPG V2 8GB (2x 4GB) Memory at 2400MHz 11-13-13-35
ADATA XPG V2 8GB (2x 4GB) Memory at 2600MHz 11-14-14-36
Benchmark Results: Running the XMP Profile #1 at 2400MHz, we saw an aggregate memory performance of 26.7 GB/s. When overclocking to 2600MHz, it was quite stunning to see this number drop to 26.17 GB/s. To ensure there wasn’t a flaw, we re-ran the test on both frequencies and got similar results.
AIDA64 Extreme Edition 3.0 Beta
AIDA64 Extreme Edition 3.0 software is an excellent benchmarking tool for looking at memory performance on any desktop PC.
ADATA XPG V2 8GB (2x 4GB) Memory at 2400MHz 11-13-13-35
ADATA XPG V2 8GB (2x 4GB) Memory at 2600MHz 11-14-14-36
Benchmark Results: Running AIDA64 Extreme Edition, we found the read and write scores to be 34089 MB/s and 35279 MB/s at 2400MHz with CL11 timings. When bumping the speed to 2600MHz with the same CL11 timing, and the read dropped to 30214 MB/s while the write jumped up to 38239 MB/s. It was very interesting seeing the read speeds drop by nearly 13%, while the write jumped a little over 8% just by an overclock. Everything else was pretty much a wash.
Why the big difference between the AIDA64 and Sandra memory bandwidth scores? The higher scores are due to the fact that AIDA64 uses extreme optimizations in all its cache, memory, CPU and FPU benchmarks.
MaxxMEM v1.99
MaxxMEM is another memory benchmarking tool that is starting to become quite popular as of late.
ADATA XPG V2 8GB (2x 4GB) Memory at 2400MHz 11-13-13-35
ADATA XPG V2 8GB (2x 4GB) Memory at 2600MHz 11-14-14-36
Benchmark Results: Following a similar trend with the other benchmarks, MaxxMEM came up with similar results showing the overclock actually hurt the performance.
Metro Last Light Benchmark
Metro: Last Light is a first-person shooter video game developed by Ukrainian studio 4A Games and published by Deep Silver. The game is set in a post-apocalyptic world and features action-oriented game play with a combination of survival horror elements. It uses the 4A Game engine and was released in May 2013.
I ran Metro at settings that arent GPU intensive to help show a better impact of the memory.
Benchmark Results: Despite the previous synthetic benchmark numbers showing decreased performance, I was astonished to see my average FPS went up by 2 FPS with the 2600MHz settings. It isn’t really much to brag about, but it was a gain none-the-less.