XLR8 Gaming DDR4 16GB 3200MHz Memory Review

There's a lot of great memory products on the market these days, especially with DDR4 pretty having lived a full life now, the prices are good, the performance is maxed out, and it's actually pretty hard to find a poor performing kit. However, PNY look set to do battle in the market today, and while I expect the performance to be perfectly competitive, it comes down to a few simple things for many consumers. Can I afford it, does it look good, is it well made and will it be reliable. XLR8 Gaming The PNY XLR8 range has been with us for years, we've seen memory, storage, and even graphics cards sporting their premium XLR8 Gaming branding. This memory is also part of the EPIC-X RGB series, which comes in 8GB, 16GB, 2 x 8GB and 2 x 16GB packs. It's available in 3200MHz and 3600MHz sets for the RGB model, and 2666MHz and 3200MHz without RGB. The kit is available in a choice of both black and white too. That's not the biggest range of options ever, but for a mid-budget set of gaming memory, it's right on the money and meets the requirements of the majority of PC builds these days. Features 16GB (2x8GB), RGB DDR4 3200MHz desktop memory module, CL16, 1.35VExtreme overclocked performance DDR4 Desktop Memory designed for PC enthusiasts and gamers and supports Intel XMP 2.0 SupportCustomize you PC’s color and lighting effects, without the need for additional cables or connectors using the supported Asus Aura Sync, Gigabyte RGB Fusion, MSI Mystic Light Sync and ASRock Polychrome Sync softwareExceptional performance with a frequency speed of 3200MHz (PC4-25600), and backwards compatible with: 3000MHz, 2933MHz, 2800MHz, 2666MHz, 2400MHz, 2133MHzEPIC-X RGB Sync with mainstream motherboards to enhance your visual adventure What PNY Had to Say "A PNY XLR8 Gaming EPIC-X RGB Memory Upgrade offers a brilliant RGB design combined with extreme overclocked performance, taking your PC to the extreme. Not only can you destroy the competition, but your system can look good while doing so. PNY’s premium XLR8 modules combine top-tier components and select ICs for aggressive speed, low latency, bullet-proof reliability, and the extreme overclocking capabilities that serious gamers demand. Overclocking is made easier with Intel® XMP compatibility. Customize your PC’s colour and lighting effects, without the need for additional cables or connectors using the supported Asus Aura Sync®, Gigabyte RGB Fusion®, MSI Mystic Light Sync® and ASRock Polychrome Sync® software." DDR4 3200MHz PERFORMANCE PNY’s premium XLR8 memory features our most aggressive speeds, highest bandwidth, lowest latency and power consumption, and most advanced thermal performance for maximum PC stability and responsiveness during memory-intensive gaming and application use. PNY XLR8 DDR4 memory modules are rigorously engineered and tested to ensure peak performance in even the most challenging gaming environments. Packaging The box is very cool looking, keeping with that commonplace black and red theme we so often see on PC gaming hardware. You can see the capacity, speeds, and latency in the top right of the box, which is great. Of course, two other major features are well detailed too, such as the Epic-X RGB technology, and the fact that this is the stunning white variant too. Around the back, there is a nicely laid out breakdown of the specifications, as well as small windows to show off those XLR8 logos on the RAM, and I guess confirm they're truly the white ones in this box. In the box, you'll find the two DIMMS come sandwiched between two pieces of durable clear plastic, ensuring they're well protected. A Closer Look The design of the new XLR8 Gaming Epic-X RGB Gaming Memory is simply stunning. Those brilliant white heat spreaders really catch your eye. Even with no RGB turned on right now, the striking design really does look like something I want in my system immediately! The XLR8 logo is beautifully styled too. Their older logo and designs felt a little retro, but this new look is much more crisp and modern, and I love it. The white aluminium finish contrasts perfectly with the tidy looking black PCB of the memory. The modules look larger than most, likely because the heatsink and lighting extend beyond the PCB on each side. This does look cool, but keep it in mind for those running systems that are super tight on space. Around the back, there's the same XLR8 logo and heatsink design. The only main difference being the specifications sticker, which you could remove, but ya know, it'll void your warranty. The lightbar design is pretty cool, is it doesn't have any material over the top to obscure it. This is why the modules are so wide, but it does mean the lighting will look pretty epic as a result. The bar dips in towards the middle, and there's more exposure on the side here too, so it should throw out quite a lot of light when powered up. The aluminium heatspreaders are a two-piece construction, with some steps in the design that increase the surface area over the length of each module. They're not huge heatsinks, but they're more than sufficient to keep these modules cool enough and hit the promised clock speeds. 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 Motherboard – Gigabyte Aorus Pro Z390Processor – Intel Core i9-9900K @ StockCPU Cooler – Noctua NH-D15SPower Supply – Be Quiet Power Zone 1000WMain Storage Drive – Toshiba OCZ VX500 500GBOperating System – Windows 10 64-bit Software Used CineBench R15 (download)AIDA 64 Engineer (download)WPrime (download)3DMark Fire Strike Physics (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. CineBench R15 CPU & OpenGL AIDA64 WPrime 32M 3DMark Fire Strike Custom - Physics 1080p PCMark 10 CPU Profile How Much Does It Cost? The new PNY 16GB (2x8GB) XLR8 Gaming EPIC-X RGB™ DDR4 3200MHz Desktop Memory Kit White Edition is available now on Amazon in the UK for a fairly reasonable £92.99. Perhaps a little more expensive than some, but I think prices are generally up in general at the moment. Plus, it's only around £8 more than the black version, which isn't too bad, and it's actually great news if you wanted the black version. Overview As I suspected, the PNY XLR8 Gaming DDR4 16GB 3200MHz Memory performance is right on the money. It's obviously very competitive too and while not the fastest memory PNY makes, at 3200MHz, it's more than good enough for most PC gaming builds, or any other style of PC build really. While you can get larger capacities and speeds from PNY's other memory products, they'll come at a much bigger premium. I think they've found a great balance here between performance, build quality and aesthetics for under £100. PNY has a good reputation behind them, especially for their more extreme hardware given how much work they do in servers and workstations. Of course, their XLR8 stuff is more consumer-focused, and typically very gamer-focused and I think their new memory fits that bill perfectly. The styling alone is enough to entice many gamers. The RGB is crisp and colourful, and easy to customise from basically all major motherboard manufacturer front ends (Asus Aura Sync, Gigabyte RGB Fusion, MSI Mystic Light Sync and ASRock Polychrome Sync). The new logo design looks great, and the choice of black or white is always welcome too. The build quality is excellent too, with those aluminium heatsinks making easy work of keeping things cool and maintaining the performance levels. However, what strikes me the most is that the light bars aren't held in by folding the metal over the top of the bar, as almost all brands do. Instead the modules flair out at the end and clamp there. This gives you a longer light bar but also leaves it completely exposed on the top, giving you a much cleaner look overall. The performance was right where I expected it to be too, no big surprises really. The kit runs at CL16-18-18-38 and 1.35v, so it's pretty decent for this price range. At 3200MHz, it's not setting world records or anything, but it's certainly not going to be a bottleneck either. Again, at under £100, it's pretty competitive. Should I Buy Them? It's hard not to recommend this memory kit. The super stylish and clean design, the great RGB integration, and a choice of black or white modules make it an easy choice for any system build. The performance, build quality and features on offer are all great and I'd happily have this in my next system build.