G.Skill RipjawsX DDR3 1866MHz 8GB Memory Kit Review

We’re currently at a time where the selection of memory available to a consumer is at its highest peak ever which makes buying a tough decision. G.Skill have tried to make things a little bit easier, by offering great performance sets for low prices to give something to the consumer that other brands can’t come close to.

This has been the case for the entire G.Skill product catalogue with memory ranging in size and speed but having one very similar point in common; the price. That’s why you’ll now find 8GB G.Skill kits priced so competitively that it rivals other brands and their slower 4GB module kits.

Today we’re taking a look at a 1866MHz 8GB kit which should be more than ample for the majority of users, so lets get stuck in and see what this particular RipjawsX memory module kit can do.

Just like the RipjawsX kit we’ve seen before, these are sporting the red low profile heatspreaders which should look great when installing into some of the top AMD or Intel boards on the market, such as the Maximus IV Extreme-Z or Crosshair V as the colours will match up extremely well, especially with the black PCB of the modules too.

Taking a closer look at this sticker we find the kit is a 14900 speed kit, consisting of 2x4GB modules which run at 1866MHz with timings of 9-10-9-28 and operate at 1.5V. This sticker also acts as your warranty and if removed will void any warranty that the modules may have.

Test system:

• Asus Maximus IV Extreme-Z
• Intel Core i7 2600k
• Gigabyte GeForce GTX 580 SOC
• Corsair H80
• Corsahir HX1050W
• Kingston V+100 128GB SSD
• Lian Li T60

Looking at the stock performance of this memory, we were quite surprised with the figures for an 1866MHz kit. AIDA64 gave us a read speed of 19824 MB/s, whilst the write speed was 17945 MB/s, copy speed was 21387 MB/s and a memory latency of 44.6ns.

The figures that we received at stock were very impressive and we were keen to see if it lived up to the hype that other RipjawsX kits have received in the past, in terms of overclocking.

As said, G.Skill modules have always been quite delectable when raising the speed and performance so we were very keen to see if this kit could follow suit for those wanting a little bit more performance from their purchase.

We managed to get this memory from its stock speed of 1866MHz to a stonking 1978MHz  which is fantastic considering we kept the timings and voltages at their default stock levels. We then continued to run AIDA64 to see how the overclock had impacted the memory in terms of read, write, and copy speeds including latency.

Going back to AIDA64 to see how things have changed, we found the read speed has increased to 20252 MB/s, the write speed had jumped ever so slightly to 17982 MB/s and the copy speed showed up with 21578 MB/s. Taking a look at the memory latency, the overclock helped bring it down to 43.2ns.

So it seems that G.Skill has done it again. The overall performance speaks for itself and when looking at the way the set overclocked and the performance afterwards, it’s clear that this is definitely a kit to buy. When overclocking, it seemed that this memory didn’t want to stop and found us anxiously waiting to see where it would end up.

1978MHz seemed to be the golden number when using stock timings and voltages, and we find that overclocking in this way is the best way to gain extra performance. From increasing the voltage and loosening the timings, we’re sure that 2000MHz + is achievable but the majority of users are uncomfortable in increasing voltages.

The bottom line is that we can’t fault this particular set of modules, as they offer an extreme look, extreme performance but a value price tag and who can really grumble at that? Having the close neck performance to 2133MHz kits and having some headroom for overclocking shows that G.Skill are still as good as ever and will continue to be as they slowly take the market by storm.