GEIL POLARIS RGB DDR5 32GB 5200MHz Memory Review

DDR5 is on the rise, as time moves on from the initial launch we are starting to see more and more companies join in on the creation of these cutting edge kits of memory. It's a very competitive market, with companies like G-Skill and Corsair providing a huge percentage of the memory sold. It's safe to say that there is a lot of competition in the memory market, but not much that can rival the bigger companies; so to see a company with a much smaller share of the memory being sold is quite refreshing. When you are willing to get products from smaller manufacturers, you have to acknowledge that you're giving some things up; when we move away from companies like Corsair, we are gaining more RGB compatibility as you have a wider range of software options for control. Another thing to note is that these smaller companies also often come with a smaller price tag, which no one will complain about. GEIL POLARIS RGB DDR5 Geil was founded in 1993, and has been producing DRAM and flash-based memory products ever since. They have a wide range of products, from professional level server memory to more gamer-focused products like the Polaris we have today. Polaris is the name of a star, and not just any star; Polaris is the brightest star in the Ursa Minor constellation and is often referred to as the “north star”; yes, that's right, this memory is named after one of the most well-known stars in our known universe. But unlike the star itself, this kit of memory is very much reachable, and can even be yours. But is this a bright light in the dark? Or is it is faded before it ever got a chance to shine? To learn more about the product, visit the product page here Packaging & Unboxing The front of the box has an almost sci-fi kind of space type theme; an appropriate choice given the name of the memory. The back of the box maintains the same aesthetic and is designed to look like metal panelling. On the back of the box, we can see some information on the Geil themselves as well as product specifications and a small punch out to see the label on the DIMM itself. Inside the box is very simply the memory modules packaged individually from each other; this is actually a good way of reducing the size of the package as opposed to larger, flatter boxes, and by proxy, reduces the amount I waste generated. A Closer Look With the kit out of the box, we can get our first proper look at it. Our kit is the white variant; it has a very clean looking finish and has gone out of its way to remain true to the sci-fi theme, even going so far as to have fake bolts printed onto it. The back of the module has the same plate design as the front; but knowing that you won't see this side, Geil has forgone the printing, someone you'd never see in your PC anyway, especially if you have a large air cooler. From the top-down, you can see how the RGB bar will look in your PC. Personally, I've always preferred a plain straight and featureless light bar, so I can get more flexibility in my choices to customize, but each to their own. With the heat spreaders removed from the module, we can see a simple single-sided design that uses eight 2GB memory chips to get the total 16GB capacity of this single stick. With DDR5, the voltage regulator moved off of the motherboard and onto the DIMMs themselves, this allows for better efficiency and simpler designs. This kit uses Micron memory chips, it has eight 2GB chips per 16GB stick of memory. Unfortunately, there is not much public knowledge on these chips as of yet, so all we can deduce is that with a reliable supplier like Micron we expect a stable experience. On the other side of the DIMM, we get a glimpse of the RGB, we can see that it consists of eight LEDs that are all attached directly to the PCB of the stick. Taking a look at the RGB circuitry, we can see the way traces have been split up into different components and make their way to the LEDs themselves. How We Test Here at eTeknix, we endeavour to disclose vital information regarding the benchmarking process so that readers can quantify the results and attempt to replicate them using their hardware. When it comes to our benchmarks in our reviews, the benchmarks are pretty self-explanatory although there are a few exceptions. Remember that your choice of graphics card, CPU, the silicon lottery, and other factors can yield different numbers, and there's always a margin for error when using any software. Therefore, your experience may vary. Testing Your Own System Links are provided below, as well as the settings we use. We encourage you to not just look at how one product compares to any other, but how it compares to your own. If you're looking to build a new system, you should benchmark your current PC using our benchmarks and settings where possible. You should then look at the percentage improvement from your current hardware to the hardware we tested to give you a ballpark figure of how much an upgrade this will provide you with. Test System ProcessorIntel i9 12900kMotherboardMSI Z690 TOMAHAWK WiFiMemoryChanges Per ReviewGraphicsGigabyte RTX 3080 Gaming OC 10GBStorageSeagate Firecuda 520 1TBPower SupplyCorsair RM850xSoftwareWindows 10 Professional 1909DriversNVDIA GeForce 497.29 DCH Software Used CineBench R23 (download)AIDA 64 Engineer (download)WPrime (download)3DMark (download)HWMonitor (download)CPU-Z (download) Methodology In our RAM reviews, we keep things relatively simple. We put the RAM kit that is being tested into our test system and benchmark it at its first XMP profile using a variety of benchmarks and tests. Once complete, we apply a reasonable overclock where possible and benchmark the same software with the overclocked values. The CPU clock speed is set to default for both runs. AIDA64 I'm going to talk about read speeds, write speeds and copy speeds all in one go here as the results are pretty much the same across the board. The leader on all three tests is our Geil kit here; the results fall very close to the Dominator Platinums from Corsair who just fall behind the Geil kit in each test, not by a significant margin though. Things are a bit different when we look at latency. The Geil kit now falls behind both Corsair kits, but again, is by a very small margin, and when we are talking in the realm of nanoseconds, the difference is imperceivable. Calculation Performance Results in Super Pi show similarities to the latency results from AIDA64, being barely slower than our Corsair kits. In WPrime, all the results are so close that it really makes so major difference; but of course, these differences can add up with longer workloads and in that situation, it would be comforting to know that the Geil kit has the best result here. Rendering Performance Cinebench saw a pretty substantial gain over the other memory we tested at the same speed when compared to the scores of the other kits. Corona was also very good on the Polaris; matching the speed of the Vengeance kit but falling behind the Dominator Platinum. FutureMark Performance 3DMark had strange results; the Polaris was the worst performer in the DX11 based FireStrike Ultra but was the best in the DX12 based Time Spy Extreme. Shadow of the Tomb Raider Experience Lara Croft’s defining moment as she becomes the Tomb Raider. In Shadow of the Tomb Raider, Lara must master a deadly jungle, overcome terrifying tombs, and persevere through her darkest hour. As she races to save the world from a Maya apocalypse, Lara will ultimately be forged into the Tomb Raider she is destined to be. Available now on Steam. Metro Exodus Metro Exodus is a first-person shooter video game developed by 4A Games and published by Deep Silver. It is the third instalment in the Metro video game trilogy based on Dmitry Glukhovsky’s novels, following the events of Metro 2033 and Metro: Last Light. It was released in 2019 for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Stadia and in 2020 for Amazon Luna. A Linux and macOS conversion was released in 2021. An enhanced version of the game was released for Microsoft Windows on May 6, 2021, and was later released for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S on June 18, 2021. Available now on the Epic Game Store and Steam Dirt 5 DIRT 5 is a fun, amplified, off-road racing experience created by Codemasters. Blaze a trail on routes across the world, covering gravel, ice, snow and sand, with a roster of cars ranging from rally icons to trucks, to GT heroes. With a star-studded Career, four-player split-screen, innovative online modes, livery editor and more new features, DIRT 5 is the next generation of extreme racing. Available now on Steam. In all of our gaming tests, the Polaris kit was between both of the corsair kits, while Asgard remained at the bottom of the results until it gained the best score in Dirt 5 out of nowhere. Overclocking When overclocking memory, it can be done in a variety of ways including increasing the frequency, slackening timings and changing the relevant voltages. Of course, a combination of these measures can also be done to get the very best performance. When we overclock memory in our reviews we go for all-out frequency. This is primarily done by tweaking the DRAM frequency within the BIOS. To do this, we take the default clock speed, which we set based on the JEDEC profile, or via XMP if the memory modules allow it, and then increase the DRAM frequency step by step while keeping timings and voltages the same as per the JEDEC or XMP profile. Once we increase the frequency, we boot into Windows and test stability using AIDA64's built-in memory benchmark test. If the overclock is stable, we boot back into the BIOS and further increase the frequency of the modules and re-test for stability. The highest we managed to get the kit was to 5333MHz, not too much overclocking, but it does give is a decent improvement over the base XMP speeds. As you would expect, the results improve in every instance with overclocking. The improvements are just small and wouldn't be very easy to notice on smaller workloads, but could stack up to a noticeable difference in certain tasks. How Much Does It Cost? At the time of writing, the same version of the kit we have, the white 5200MHz 32GB kit can be found for $280.99 on Amazon US; this price actually comes in lower than the Corsair Vengeance memory we tested, and with performance that rivals even the Dominator Platinum at times, this kit seems to be priced low for what it is. Overview On average, this kit performs between both of the Corsair kits, who were fighting among themselves throughout the entire testing process. We did manage to reach higher speeds on the Vengeance kit when overclocking; when we take a closer look at the results, we can see that the overclocking scores we reached on the Polaris were pretty much the same as the higher overclocks on the Corsair kit. In general, this kit performs very well, especially for the price that it's at right now. For less money than some kits that have better brand recognition, we are seeing better performance per dollar across the board. Obviously, when buying a product from a company as large as Corsair, you can expect some creature comforts, like support. And whilst I can recommend this kit of ram based on the performance here and now; I can't tell you how it'll perform after a few years of use, especially if you do plan on overclocking it. Should I Buy One? Evaluating the performance of the memory here and now, I can say that for the money it's pretty amazing. Getting the same performance out of the kit as you can with the higher-priced kits, there is no real reason to spend the extra money if you want nothing but pure performance. That is pretty much how I will decide on if you should buy this kit or not, you need to ask yourself what matters most for you when buying memory; do you want the best performing kit you can get while saving all the money you can or are you more about something that you know will last a long time? If you are after the former, then I don't think I can actually recommend this kit enough; you'll be getting everything you want out of the kit with the added bonus of quite a lot of RGB (if you are into that).