INTRODUCTION

   Consumers out in the market looking for a brand new RAM kit currently have two types to choose from, models with regular heatspreaders and models with RGB illuminated ones. For some this is actually a serious dilemma because even though RGB illuminated RAM kits look a lot better compared to regular ones (especially if your system also has other RGB illuminated parts) they do tend to cost more so to some people it far makes more sense either to spend less or spend the same amount for a faster regular kit. So as expected even though RAM manufacturers have shifted most of their focus in the design and manufacture of RGB illuminated kits they are not ready to "forsake" regular models just yet. After sending us their very good Viper RGB 3000MHZ DDR4 RAM kits back in early August, Patriot is back again this time with their Viper 4 Blackout Edition 3600MHZ DDR4 RAM Kits (PVB416G360C7K).

   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.

   So far Patriot has launched 6 dual-channel (2x8GB/2x4GB) kits under the Viper 4 Blackout Edition family (for our quad channel test rig we obviously paired two of those) with frequencies all the way up to 4000MHZ (3000/3200/3600/4000MHZ), timings as low as CL16 (3000/3200MHZ CL16 - 3600MHZ CL17 - 4000MHZ CL19) and voltage set at 1.35V for all of the kits. Under the rather low-profile black aluminum heatspreaders of the Viper 4 family of DDR4 kits Patriot has used 8GB single C-Die memory chips by Hynix (at least these were used in our kits). As usual for most DDR4 kits in the market today Patriot covers the entire Viper 4 line of DDR4 memory kits with a limited lifetime warranty.

SPECIFICATIONS AND FEATURES

PACKAGING AND CONTENTS

Just like many other manufacturers Patriot ships the Viper 4 Blackout series inside small cardboard boxes that have clear plastic sections at the front from where you can actually see the modules.

A few words about the kit are printed at the rear in 10 languages and right over contact information about Patriot.

Each package contains two RAM module and two Viper case stickers.

THE VIPER 4 BLACKOUT DDR4 3600MHZ CL17

The black aluminum heatspreaders of the Viper 4 Blackout family look nice even though the lack of RGB LEDs is apparent.

Patriot has placed the brand name on both the front and rear of the heatspreaders (a large sticker located at the rear has the part and serial numbers, barcode and the module size, frequency and voltage requirements).

The entire Viper 4 Blackout line features low-profile aluminum heatspreaders which pretty much guarantees zero clearance issues with CPU coolers.

Measuring just 40.6mm top to bottom (34.8mm for the heatspreaders) the Viper 4 Blackout DDR4 RAM modules are slightly taller compared to even the Turbine RGB modules.

As mentioned earlier just like with every other "regular" kit the lack of RGB lighting just might be a deal breaker for people with RGB mainboards and hardware components in general.

Thanks to Thaiphoon Burner we have access to various information regarding the kit we're testing today.

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

For today's review we managed to raise the frequency of the Viper 4 Blackout DDR4 3600MHZ CL17 modules by Patriot all the way up to a stable 4000MHz CL19 (3800MHZ 1.38V / 4000MHZ 1.4V).

CONCLUSION

   Even though the brand-new Viper 4 DDR4 Blackout 3600MHZ RAM modules by Patriot may not stand out in terms of looks (primarily due to the lack of RGB lighting) it’s clear from our charts that they do more than just stand out in terms of performance, not only at stock frequencies but also when overclocked. Of course, overclock headroom may not seem to be the best we’ve seen to date but this is the only kit with which we’ve managed to hit 4000MHZ without crossing the “safe” 1.4V barrier we’ve set for our tests (the C-Die chips by Hynix are known for their performance so going even higher should result in even higher frequencies, especially in dual-channel systems).

   Currently each Patriot Viper 4 16GB 3600MHZ CL17 DDR4 Blackout Edition Kit retails for just USD79.99 inside the USA (Amazon.com) and for just 82.20Euros inside the EU (Amazon.de) a price tag which is almost just too good for the performance you’re getting in return. This of course means that grabbing two of these kits to use in a quad-channel setup such as our own will set you back roughly USD160/165Euros but again this is a great price compared to the competition (especially RGB illuminated kits) which is also why our Golden Award is in order.

PROS

- Build Quality
- Performance (Up To 4000MHz CL19)
- Short Heat Spreaders (Zero Clearance Issues)
- Lifetime Limited Warranty
- Price (For Some)

CONS

- Dual Channel Kits Only
- No RGB Lighting