INTRODUCTION

   Even though as far back as I can remember RAM has always been about "amount" and "frequency/speed" (and yes even overclocking for some) nowadays there's something else people look for as well when out to get a brand new kit, RGB lighting. Granted this is far from the most important aspect of a RAM kit but since RGB lighting has been added to just about every hardware component type (including mainboards, graphics cards, audio cards, coolers, fans and even SSD drives) it does make sense that many consumers may prefer to "complete" their brand new systems by also adding RAM kits with RGB lighting. Thanks to their very successful Predator line of RAM kits HyperX already has a very strong presence in the DDR4 market and since that specific line did so well, they took back to the drawing board to add RGB lighting and today we'll be taking a very thorough look at their 32GB 3200MHZ CL16 Quad-Channel kit.

   HyperX is the gaming division of Kingston Technology Company, Inc., the world’s largest independent memory manufacturer, with the goal of providing gamers, PC builders, PC, console and mobile power users with high-performance components. For 16 years, the HyperX mission has been to develop gaming products for all types of gamers – high-speed memory, solid state drives, headsets, keyboards, mice, charging accessories for console players, USB flash drives, and mousepads – to the gaming community and beyond. The award-winning HyperX brand in known for consistently delivering products that deliver superior comfort, aesthetics, performance, and reliability. HyperX gear is the choice of celebrity ambassadors, pro gamers, tech enthusiasts, and over-clockers worldwide because it meets the most stringent product specifications and is built with best-in-class components. HyperX has shipped over 60 million memory modules and 7 million gaming headsets worldwide.

   The XMP 2.0 certified Predator RGB DDR4 RAM is currently available in 16/32GB dual-channel and 32/64 quad-channel kits with frequencies all the way up to 4000MHZ and timings as low as CL15 (2933MHz-3000MHZ CL15, 3200MHZ CL16, 3600MHZ CL17, 4000MHZ CL19). Under the short black heat spreaders of the Predator RGB 32GB 3200MHZ CL16 RAM kit HyperX has placed 8GB C-Die memory chips by Hynix, their patent pending HyperX infrared sync technology (basically keeps the RGB effects of all modules in sync - still with a maximum range of almost 2cm between modules that may not be 100% effective with some quad-channel mainboards) and a RGB LED light bar with a total of 8 effects. The Predator DDR4 RGB kits by HyperX are also compatible with several mainboard RGB sync technologies (including ASUS AURA Sync, GIGABYTE RGB Fusion, MSI Mystic Light Sync and ASRock RGB Sync) and are covered by a limited lifetime warranty.

SPECIFICATIONS AND FEATURES

PACKAGING AND CONTENTS

The Predator DDR4 RGB kit arrived inside a black and red box that has the number of modules with their capacity and frequency at the front right next to an RGB circle and an clear plastic opening from where you can see one of the modules.

A few words about the kit are placed at the rear of the box in numerous languages just over a sticker with the product serial and part numbers and barcodes.

The kit is divided into two pairs placed inside plastic clamshell packages.

Along with the 4 modules you will also get two HyperX case badges (only 1 is showcased here, the other was in the guide) and an warranty and installation guide.

THE PREDATOR DDR4 RGB 3200MHZ CL16

The RGB LED light bar placed at the top of each module is what really stands out with this kit.

With a height of just 42.2mm the Predator RGB DDR4 modules are a quite a bit shorter than for example the Dominator RGB DDR4 modules.

As expected on a sticker at the rear of the modules HyperX has placed a sticker with their serial number, barcodes and XMP voltage.

Above you can see some pictures of the Predator RGB DDR4 32GB Quad-Channel kit mounted on our GIGABYTE X299 AORUS GAMING 9 which also happens to be one of those mainboards where the infrared sync technology of this specific kit doesn't behave as it should (you can clearly see that the top modules are not completely synced with the bottom ones).

Still the Predator DDR4 RGB RAM looks great, regardless of whether all its modules are in sync or not.

Thanks to the popular Thaiphoon Burner program you can see detailed information about the kit we’re testing today.

NGENUITY SOFTWARE

Unlike older versions of the NGENUITY software the latest beta version (which is also the one compatible with the Predator DDR4 RGB kits) can only be downloaded from the Microsoft Store as seen above.

Once you launch the software you will see a list of compatible devices on the right side of the screen and the detected devices on the left side (just the memory kit in our case).

Clicking on the memory will open the configuration screen from where you will see a live representation of the current RGB lighting mode and color.

From the top left corner, you can access one of the three available presets (you can link them to specific games) and adjust the brightness levels of the RGB LED light bar.

As mentioned earlier you can choose between a total of 8 available RGB lighting effects and adjust their speed (if you choose the static color effect you can also choose the desired color).

Inside the settings tab you can change the language of the software, enable/disable the Gamelink option, have the software start up with Windows, check the current software version and its release notes, see the exact product model compatible with NGENUITY and get support from HyperX.

HyperX added compatibility with all the major mainboard RGB sync technologies so if you have a Fusion RGB mainboard by GIGABYTE like we do you can use that software (or even via the BIOS in some cases) to sync the Predator DDR4 RGB kit with it.

TEST BED

TESTING METHODOLOGY

   Thanks to XMP profiles the only thing one needs to do in order to run this RAM kit at its advertised frequency, timings and voltages is to choose/enable it from within the Bios and reboot. That being said if you're into overclocking you may not wish to use the main XMP profile but instead to choose your very own frequency, timings and voltages to achieve even higher performance numbers and that's exactly what we'll also be doing during our DDR4 tests. To be more specific aside testing each kit with its XMP profile we will also be upping the voltages (up to 1.4V max) and frequencies (200MHZ increments) until we find the maximum achievable stable frequency. We also thought about upping voltages and reducing timings instead of increasing the frequency of the modules as high as it can go (always stable and without going over 1.4V) but the end results are pretty much identical.

   As for the how we'll be testing each DDR4 Quad-Kit to arrive in our lab well there aren't that many benchmark programs that only test RAM (or at least RAM and CPU without anything else coming into play) but we got most of them and so you will be seeing results from following benchmarking programs, AIDA64 Engineer Edition, Cinebench Release 20, MaxMemm2 (because we are getting low performance numbers this doesn't seem to play well with our test rig - probably because of the X299 architecture - but we decided to include it regardless), Passmark Performance Test 9, Sisoftware Sandra Titanium and WPrime v1.55. All tests are performed on a fresh Windows 10 Pro installation (complete with all updates until the day of this review) and are repeated a total of 6 times after which the average numbers get recorded into our charts.

TEST RESULTS - XMP PROFILE

TEST RESULTS - OVERCLOCK

As you can see from the above screenshots, we managed to raise the frequency of the Predator DDR4 RGB 32GB 3200MHZ Quad-Kit all the way up to a stable 3800MHz CL18 (3400MHZ 1.37V / 3600MHZ 1.38V / 3800MHZ 1.4V).

CONCLUSION

   Even though the infrared sync technology HyperX used with their Predator DDR4 RGB line was obviously not meant for X299 mainboards (due to the longer than 20mm range between the left and right RAM slots) thus all 4 modules can’t sync the desired RGB effect it’s clear both from our charts and our pictures that the 32GB 3200MHZ CL16 we tested today is not only very fast and can overclock extremely well (all the way up to 3800MHZ CL18) but it also looks extremely nice. On top of all the above HyperX made their Predator RGB DDR4 kits compatible with all the leading mainboard RGB sync technologies like ASUS AURA Sync, GIGABYTE RGB Fusion, MSI Mystic Light Sync and ASRock RGB Sync so that too may come in handy to some people. Sure, we would had liked to see more kits like the original non-RGB Predator line of DDR4 kits but the available ones (2933MHz-3000MHZ CL15, 3200MHZ CL16, 3600MHZ CL17, 4000MHZ CL19) should easily cover the majority out there.

   Currently the Predator DDR4 RGB 32GB 3200MHZ CL16 Quad-Channel Kit by HyperX (HX432C16PB3AK4/32) retails for USD238.99 inside the USA (Amazon.com) and for 235Euros inside the EU (Amazon.co.uk) a price tag which puts it in around the same ball park as many other similar kits. At the end of the day the Predator DDR4 RGB 32GB 3200MHZ CL16 Quad Channel kit by HyperX may not be the fastest one out there both in frequency and CAS latency but it does very well in our charts, looks great while doing it and is covered by a lifetime warranty so these are more than just enough for to give it our Golden Award.

PROS

- Build Quality
- Design (Black Aluminum Heat Spreaders)
- Top RGB LED Bar (AURA Sync, GIGABYTE RGB Fusion, MSI Mystic Light Sync & ASRock RGB Sync Compatible)
- NGENUITY Software (8 Available Lighting Effects)
- Overall Performance (3200MHZ CL16 / Up To 3800MHz CL18)
- Short Heat Spreaders (Reduced Possibility Of Clearance Issues)
- Limited Lifetime Warranty

CONS

- Infrared Sync Technology (Incompatibility With Some Mainboards)
- Kits With Capacities Only Up To 64GB