Kingston HyperX Predator 8GB 2666MHz DDR3 Memory Kit Review

Overclocking Results & Final Thoughts

Overclocking:

No memory review would be complete without overclocking, but no matter how hard we tried we were unable to reach any higher with the Kingston HyperX Predator 8GB DDR3 2666MHz memory kit. When we tried to overclock the memory kit we first tried to use the 2800
MHz divider and found that we were unable to run at 2800 MHz with CL11, CL12,
CL13 or CL14 timings (even with 1.70V). Since the
memory wasn’t able to work at the next divider, we were stuck with
increasing the base clock (FSB) of the processor. We left the memory
timings at their default settings at 2666 MHz and tried to raise the base clock
from 100.00 MHz to 101.00 MHz and found that we were still unable to get a successful post on the Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UD5H motherboard with the Intel Core i7-3770K ‘Ivy Bridge’ processor. On this particular day with the hardware we were using, we were unable to overclock this memory kit any further than 2666 MHz.

Final Thoughts and Conclusions:

At the end of the day Kingston Technology has updated their flagship memory line with a new heat spreader that greatly changes the appearance of HyperX product line. The new Predator heat spreader design looks great and we must agree that it does look more aggressive and with the times than the old HyperX T1 heat spreaders that were released back in 2008. The reduction in overall height was also a nice touch and was something that was desperately needed.

When it comes to performance there doesn’t appear to be much of a change as Kingston had a HyperX T1 kit at 2666MHz and now they have a HyperX Predator kit at 2666MHz. The one thing we did notice is that Kingston did change the PCB and memory IC’s for this new series. If you take a look at the green PCB of the HyperX T1 and HyperX Predator kits below you’ll notice the tracings and components seen are different. On the HyperX Predator module that was used in this review has a PCB made by Samsung along with Samsung DDR3 memory chips. Kingston often changes components though as costs change and newer components come out all the time.

The Kingston Hyper Predator 8GB 2666MHz memory kit (KHX26C11T2K2/8X) that we looked at here today was very impressive on our test system. Compared to your typical 1600MHz CL9 memory kit, we found the HyperX Predator kit at 2666MHz with CL11 timings had nearly 50% more memory bandwidth! Having over 30 GB/s of memory bandwidth available on the Intel Z77 platform with just dual-channel memory is amazing. The hard part now is finding applications that need that much memory bandwidth on a mainstream desktop PC. Kingston Technology has a memory kit here that clearly pushes the limits, so it is up to software developers to fully utilize all the bandwidth that is available to them now!

When it comes to pricing the Kingston HyperX Predator 8GB 2666MHz memory kit that we reviewed here today has an MSRP of $188.00. This is awfully high, but you are buying the very best cherry picked memory that Kingston offers. You pay for what you get! If you are looking for a extreme performance without wanting to break the bank, take a look at the Kingston HyperX Predator 8GB 2400MHz memory kit (KHX24C11T2K2/8X). It costs just $67.00, which is nearly one-third the price and has just 11% less memory bandwidth as we showed you in the performance tests today. All Kingston HyperX Predator memory is backed by a lifetime warranty!

Legit Bottom Line: The Kingston HyperX Predator series is the new flagship line of the HyperX memory family. The HyperX Predator 8GB 2666MHz kit pushed what our motherboard can do and that is what we expect from a high-end memory module!