INTRODUCTION

   Believe it or not there was a time when the only two things we needed to have in mind when out to get new RAM for our systems was capacity/size and type/architecture. For good or bad that was it, back then the very few available modules/kits released in the market by a very small number of manufacturers had nothing else going for them, not even different frequencies and/or timings. Today things have changed a lot so aside capacity/size and type/architecture memory modules/kits are available in many different frequencies and timings and sport several interesting features like aluminum heat spreaders, liquid cooled heat spreaders and even RGB lighting. Through their Viper Gaming brand Patriot Memory has released numerous gaming peripherals, SSDs and memory kits in the market and since our brand new test rig has been up and running for over a month, we decided to take a look at their extremely popular Viper RGB DDR4 3000MHZ CL15 RAM kit.

   Viper Gaming is a brand of Patriot Memory LLC, a global leader in performance memory, SSD's and flash storage solutions. Viper Gaming was established in 2007 with the unveiling of the well-known, top-tier line of computer memory. Since then, the Viper Gaming brand has become synonymous with elite performance and reliability among gamers worldwide. In 2015, Viper Gaming decided to expand its product categories to include gaming keyboards, headsets and mice. Offering entry, mid-level and high-end solutions with rich feature sets that won't break the bank, Viper Gaming's award-winning peripherals provide gamers everywhere the best price-for-performance and reliability that enables every Viper Gamer to dominate in their sport.

   The Viper RGB DDR4 modules are currently available in dual-channel 16GB kits (for our quad channel test rig we had to pair two kits) with frequencies all the way up to 4133MHZ (2666/3000/3200/3600/4133MHZ) and timings as low as CL15 (2666/3000MHz CL15 - 3200/3600MHZ CL16 - 3600MHZ CL17 - 4133MHZ CL19). Strangely enough (well perhaps not so strange since white mainboards are scarce today to say the least) even though the Viper RGB modules are available both with black and white heat spreaders the white ones are only available in 3 different kits (2666/3000MHZ CL15 - 3200MHZ CL16). Under the hood of the Viper RGB DDR4 16GB 3000MHZ CL15 kits we find single-rank 8GB memory modules by Hynix and 5 fully customizable RGB lighting zones (8 different effects with adjustable brightness and speed) which are also completely compatible with all the leading mainboard RGB sync technologies like the ASUS Aura Sync, GIGABYTE RGB Fusion, MSI Mystic Light Sync and ASROCK Polychrome Sync. As expected, Patriot covers the entire Viper RGB line of DDR4 memory kits with a limited lifetime warranty.

SPECIFICATIONS AND FEATURES

PACKAGING AND CONTENTS

The black dual-channel Viper RGB DDR4 kits are sold inside black boxes that have large product pictures at the front along with the company logo, RAM capacity/frequency/timings and a sticker which points to the kit’s compatibility with most RGB sync technologies.

Moving at the rear we see a few words about the kit in 9 languages, several social media links and a sticker with the kits serial number.

Each package contains two memory modules, two case stickers and an installation guide.

THE VIPER RGB DDR4 3000MHZ CL15

The Viper RGB modules feature black aluminum heat spreaders (also available in white as mentioned earlier) and the company logo on both sides.

Most of the top is taken by a plastic cover on which Patriot has printed the Viper name.

Measuring 46mm from top to bottom (the heat spreaders are 40mm in height) the Viper RGB modules are roughly 4mm taller compared to the HyperX modules.

A small sticker located at the rear of each module includes the serial number, barcode and of course the frequency, timings and voltages.

This may not be the fastest kit in the market but the Viper RGB modules get high scores when it comes to looks.

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

VIPER RGB SOFTWARE

If you want complete control over your Viper RGB kit you can download the Viper RGB software from the company website seen above.

Here we have a single page/tab software that has two product pictures at the center which showcase the selected colors and effects.

From the left side you can select the model color (black/white) and choose one of the 8 available effects.

Personally, my favourite feature is the 5 fully customizable RGB lighting zones so you can assign different colors, effects and of course also adjust the brightness levels and speed for the effects (also showcased on the two product pictures).

Since we have a GIGABYTE RGB Fusion technology mainboard as you can see, we can also adjust the RGB effects of the modules from within the RGB fusion software (we are missing out on some of the Viper RGB software settings however).

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 two Viper RGB DDR4 16GB 3000MHZ kits all the way up to a stable 3600MHz CL17 (3200MHZ 1.37V / 3400MHZ 1.38V / 3600MHZ 1.4V).

CONCLUSION

   Even though the 3000MHZ dual-channel Viper RGB DDR4 kits that reached our lab couldn’t compete in many tests with the other kits in our charts the good news is that they look just as good or even better (thanks to the 5 fully customizable RGB lighting zones) so if you’re building a new RGB system and the highest possible performance is not your priority these should do the trick. Even if performance is your thing however Patriot has a 16GB 4133MHZ CL19/1.4V kit available which should cover even the most demanding consumers out there. The easy to use and quite rich Viper RGB software along with compatibility for all the major mainboard RGB sync technologies is also a plus and certainly not something we see by every manufacturer in the market. As for overclocking headroom nothing new really, most kits we have here can OC up to 600MHZ with loose timings and so did the Viper RGB kits (performance was slightly better than expected however, for their timings that is).

   At the time of this review each of the two Viper RGB DDR4 16GB 3000MHZ CL15 kits retails for USD96.99 inside the USA (Amazon.com) and for 109Euros inside the EU (Amazon.co.uk). Of course, this means that the quad-channel kit we tested today will set you back USD193.98/218Euros a price tag which is not that much for what you’re getting. True as mentioned earlier 3000MHZ is far from the highest frequency one can come across in the market (even Patriot has a 4133MHZ Viper RGB kit) but in reality, it should cover the needs of most non-demanding consumers. Performance, looks, customization, the Viper RGB DDR4 3000MHZ kits have it all and for that they are certainly worthy of our Golden Award.

PROS

- Build Quality
- Design (Black Or White Aluminum Heat Spreaders)
- 5 Fully Customizable RGB Lighting Zones (Compatible With ASUS AURA Sync, GIGABYTE RGB Fusion, MSI Mystic Light Sync & ASRock Polychrome Sync)
- Viper RGB Software (8 Available Lighting Effects / Individual Zone Customization)
- Overall Performance (3000MHZ CL15 / Up To 3600MHz CL17)
- Short Heat Spreaders (No Possible Clearance Issues)
- Lifetime Warranty

CONS

- Dual Channel Kits Only
- Only Up To 32GB For Quad Channel Mainboards