Overclocking and Benchmarks
DDR4 memory has a JEDEC standard of 2133Mhz, that means that the lowest speed a stick of RAM can be is 2133Mhz. Almost all modern RAM sports an X.M.P profile which is programmed into the RAM itself and when activated overclocks the RAM past the JEDEC standards, the Mushkin Enhanced Redline DDR4-2667 is set to have a X.M.P profile of 2667 MHZ. Typically, setting a X.M.P profile is a two minute job within the BIOS but I had a bit of trouble setting the Mushkin Enhanced Redline DDR4’s X.MP profile without completely messing up my previous CPU overclock and voltage settings. Mushkin’s X.M.P profile attempts to do some automatic overclocking on the CPU, setting the core clock of our Intel i7 5960X at 2.8GHz and the BCLK to 125. We actually had to avoid using the X.M.P profile to keep data consitent among other DDR4 kits that were tested. A manual overclock was done to achieve an overclock of 3000MHz and base data was recorded with the Mushkin Redline at 2667 MHz.
Overall I was please with the 3000 MHz overclock the Mushkin Redline DDR4-2667 achieved, coming from 2667MHz using a X.M.P profile it is a decent boost in performance. Below you will see how much of a difference our overclock made and how well this kit compares to Crucial’s popular Ballistix DDR4.
Test Setup
- Intel i7-5960X at 4.5Ghz
- Mushkin Redline DDR4-2667 Quad Channel Kit Memory
- Asus X99-A Motherboard
- XFX R9 290X Video Card
- Corsair RM850 Power Supply
- Custom Watercooling Setup
- Windows 8.1
Aida 64 does a great job in testing RAM in a quick and easily re doable benchmarks that deliver consistent results. Our Mushkin Redline DDR4-2667 was able to stay at 2667MHz while only utilizing 1.2 Volts! Even with that feat it was able to deliver whopping performance well over the Crucial Ballistix at 2400MHz. When overclocked the Mushkin RAM shows its true color with incredible performance in Copy, Write, and Read leaving everything else in the dust.
We will go to the SiSoftware Sandra benchmark which is another all-in-one tool capable of testing virtually every part of the machine. We are going to focus on memory bandwidth again to see how results vary between different bench-marking software. Again, we see the Mushkin Redline overclocked to 3000MHz take the crown and the stock clocks of 2667MHz not too far behind.
As generations of DDR arrive there is always a signficant performance boost when compared to a previous generation, one aspect where performance actually dwindles is Column Access Strobe Latency or CAS Latency. In short, CAS Latency is the time it takes a memory controller to interact with memory module and this latency increased in DDR4 due to jump in bandwidth. So how badly affected is the CAS Latency for the Mushkin Redline DDR4-2667? It actually surpassed the previous generation by 2ns when overclocked. Not only does DDR4 have faster speeds than DDR3 but it also has lower latency when overclocked. The Mushkin Redline DDR4-2667 is the first kit we have tested to achieve this.
