Page 2 - A Closer Look, Test System
Like most memory modules, the Patriot Viper Elite II DDR4-4000 2x8GB comes equipped with a set of medium-profile heatspreaders. The aluminum found on both sides is light and makes for a decent heat conductor. The Viper Elite II is roughly 1cm taller than modules with no heatspreaders at all. With the heatspreaders, the height of the entire module itself is still reasonable, measuring around 3.5cm. Fitting a CPU cooler over top of the RAM modules should not be an issue if you keep in mind the size and design of the heatsink on the cooler you wish to install. Aside from looking slick, the heatspreaders serve an important role in dissipating heat generated by the memory modules. The memory modules are limited in what you can do with the voltage since integrated memory controllers exist on Intel and AMD CPUs. Because of this, removing the heatspreaders will not mean they will suddenly overheat.
The design of the heatspreaders is quite similar to past Patriot memory kits reviewed in the past. The heatspreaders are asymmetrical when viewed from the front, but symmetrical between the sides. The red and black color scheme on the aluminum looks good and gives the Viper Elite II some visual flare. The Patriot logo and brand name are located at the top edges of the heatspreaders. The other side contains a specification label listing the model number, bandwidth, latencies, rated voltage, and memory capacity. The Viper Elite II is manufactured in Taiwan.
Using a bit of heat and a small nylon pry bar to remove the heatspreaders, we can take a closer look at the memory module itself. Here, we can see the Patriot Viper Elite II DDR4-4000 2x8GB has a clean black printed circuit board. The heatspreader pieces are each attached to the memory module by strips of thermally conductive adhesive and are manually aligned rather than being physically locked together.
From the photo above, we can also see the specific design of the heatspreaders. The heatspreaders are bent along the edges at the top and are perfect mirror images of each other when looked at directly. The aluminum pieces do not hold a lot of heat and thus, the heat energy is quickly dissipated into the surrounding environment. Do not let the thin look of the aluminum fool you -- they feel very firm and should not easily bend. If the scenario arises that these RAM modules will not clear the heatsink on your CPU cooler, which is basically non-existent nowadays, it would be better to just find another kit to use in my opinion.
Taking a closer look at the integrated circuit chips, we can read the code “DWDR1133JA”. While it is not immediately clear, I was able to eventually find out these are SK Hynix-manufactured chips identified as H5AN8G8NDJR-VKC, with eight 1GB chips on a single side. This adds up to a total of 8GB on each DIMM for each RAM module. As mentioned on the previous page, these memory modules are programmed to run at a high frequency of DDR4-4000 with 20-26-26-46 latencies. The performance will be covered very soon, which will allow us to see how these latencies affect the Patriot Viper Elite II DDR4-4000 2x8GB when compared to other memory module sets. The stock voltage of the Viper Elite II is 1.4V, which is just above the recommended Intel and AMD maximum safe limit of 1.35V. It should be noted that exceeding this limit by a little bit is still considered within tolerance, so you do not have to worry when inserting the Viper Elite II modules into your system. The specifications for this specific IC chip are listed below from the datasheet found on SK Hynix's website:
• VDD=VDDQ=1.2V +/- 0.06V
• Fully differential clock inputs (CK, CK) operation
• Differential Data Strobe (DQS, DQS)
• On chip DLL align DQ, DQS and DQS transition with CK transition
• DM masks write data-in at both rising and falling edges of the data strobe
• All addresses and control inputs except data, data strobes and data masks latched on the rising edges of the clock
• Programmable CAS latency 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19 and 20 supported
• Programmable additive latency 0, CL-1, and CL-2 supported (x4/x8 only)
• Programmable CAS Write latency (CWL) = 9, 10, 11, 12, 14, 16, 18
• Programmable burst length 4/8 with both nibble sequential and interleave mode
• BL switch on the fly
• 16banks
• Average Refresh Cycle (Tcase of 0 oC~ 95 oC)
- 7.8 µs at 0oC ~ 85 oC
- 3.9 µs at 85oC ~ 95 oC
• JEDEC standard 78ball FBGA(x4/x8), 78ball FBGA(x16)
• Driver strength selected by MRS
• Dynamic On Die Termination supported
• Two Termination States such as RTT_PARK and RTT_NOM switchable by ODT pin
• Asynchronous RESET pin supported
• ZQ calibration supported
• TDQS (Termination Data Strobe) supported (x8 only)
• Write Levelization supported
• 8 bit pre-fetch
• This product in compliance with the RoHS directive.
• Internal Vref DQ level generation is available
• Write CRC is supported at all speed grades
• Maximum Power Saving Mode is supported
• TCAR(Temperature Controlled Auto Refresh) mode is supported
• LP ASR(Low Power Auto Self Refresh) mode is supported
• Fine Granularity Refresh is supported
• Per DRAM Addressability is supported
• Geardown Mode(1/2 rate, 1/4 rate) is supported
• Programable Preamble for read and write is supported
• Self Refresh Abort is supported
• CA parity (Command/Address Parity) mode is supported
• Bank Grouping is applied, and CAS to CAS latency (tCCD_L, tCCD_S) for the banks in the same or different bank group accesses are available
• DBI(Data Bus Inversion) is supported(x8)
Our test configuration is as follows;
CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 3600 @ 3.6GHz
CPU Cooling: AMD Wraith Stealth Stock Cooler
Motherboard: MSI MAG B550 Tomahawk
Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060
Chassis: Fractal Design Focus G
Storage: Western Digital Blue SN550 NVMe SSD 1TB, Samsung 970 EVO 1TB
Power: Corsair CX650M 650W
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Pro
Compared Hardware:
- Patriot Viper Elite II 2x8GB @ DDR4-4000 20-26-26-46
- G.Skill TridentZ RGB DDR4-3600 2x8GB @ DDR4-3600 18-22-22-42
- Thermaltake TOUGHRAM XG RGB 2x8GB @ DDR4-4000 19-23-23-42
- XPG Spectrix D50 DDR4-3600 2x8GB @ DDR4-3600 18-20-20-42
Page Index
1. Introduction, Packaging, Specifications
2. A Closer Look, Test System
3. Benchmark: AIDA64 CPU
4. Benchmark: AIDA64 FPU
5. Benchmark: AIDA64 Memory
6. Benchmark: PCMark 10
7. Benchmark: 3DMark
8. Benchmark: PassMark PerformanceTest 10
9. Benchmark: SuperPI 1M, Cinebench R23
10. Overclocking and Conclusion
