XPG Hunter DDR4 3000 Memory Review
Benchmarks
So this is where the core of the review is. If you skipped just to this point, I’d not blame you. Honestly, this isn’t a SPECTRIX series kit so there’s not much to it. Either way, as I had suspected you really want to overclock this memory if you can. The difference in performance is sizeable and definitely something you’ll appreciate in your gaming. This is especially true when you consider that a system with such memory is likely going to have a matching entry level CPU and perhaps GPU. Overclocking the memory might lead to greater gains than what the graphs depict here.
That said, low end Samsung B-die memory on the AORUS Z490 Master, seems to hit a hard limit at DDR4 3600. I can confirm this because another DRAM kit from G.SKill I reviewed, also hit a similar limit. Albeit, the Hunter kit can validate DDR4 4000, while the other kit could not. Oddly enough, I found this additional 200MHz when switching to another AORUS motherboard, but this time the AORUS B550 PRO. It was not stable at DDR4 4000, but on a two DIMM board it could very well be.
As I had mentioned earlier, the heat sinks on this memory while adequate, aren’t great at all. To achieve DDR4 3600, one needs roughly 1.4v and I can see this being 1.45v on some motherboards. Even at 1.4v however as I tested, the memory became warm to the touch. Not enough to sacrifice stability (I have zero airflow over the memory precisely for testing overclocking limits against challenging, but realistic thermal constraints) but definitely could be cooler. In your particular system they will probably run cooler.
As I had mentioned earlier, the heat sinks on this memory while adequate, aren’t great at all. To achieve DDR4 3600, one needs roughly 1.4v and I can see this being 1.45v on some motherboards. Even at 1.4v however as I tested, the memory became warm to the touch. Not enough to sacrifice stability (I have zero airflow over the memory precisely for testing overclocking limits against challenging, but realistic thermal constraints) but definitely could be cooler. In your particular system they will probably run cooler.
XPG might not encourage this, but I truly believe that there’s absolutely no point in operating this memory at the default settings. Just an additional 50mV, resulted in a 300MHz overclock, with only a slight change to tRCD and tRP ticks. You can do this while maintaining a CAS latency of 16 and a matching tWCL of 16 or 14 if your board can take it. XPG’s SPECTRIX D50 remains my most favourite and most competent overclocking kit but for the price the HUNTER memory is good.
No memory review is complete without a Spi32M result, so there we go. Not that I’d use this memory for any SuperPi competition though.
