INTRODUCTION

   Demand for RGB/ARGB illuminated PC gaming peripherals and hardware components is on the rise and so pretty much every single manufacturer out there has assigned large parts of their R&D departments in the pursuit of something everyone would like to see and own, especially gamers and enthusiasts. What no one really expected to date however was that the fiercest competition in regards to RGB/ARGB lighting wouldn't be with keyboards, mice, headsets, graphics cards or mainboards but RAM modules. G.SKILL is without doubt the leading high-end RAM manufacturer currently not only in terms of available models, capacities and frequencies (performance) but also design, RGB/ARGB included of course. Their most impressive series to date is probably the Trident Z Royal and today we'll be thoroughly testing two of their 4000MHZ CL17 kits (F4-4000C17D-16GTRS) in both Quad and Dual channel configurations.

   Established in 1989 by PC hardware enthusiasts, G.SKILL specializes in high-performance memory, SSD products, and gaming peripherals designed for PC gamers and enthusiasts around the world. Combining technical innovation and rock solid quality through our in-house testing lab and talented R&D team, G.SKILL continues to create record-breaking memory for each generation of hardware and hold the no. 1 brand title in overclocking memory.

   The Trident Z Royal line of RAM kits is currently available in numerous dual-channel (2x8/16/32GB - for our quad channel test rig we paired two of their 16GB kits) and quad-channel (4x8/16/32GB - 8x8/16/32GB) kits with frequencies all the way up to 4800MHZ (2666/3000/3200/3600/4000/4266/4400/4600/4800MHZ), timings as low as CL14 (3200/3600MHZ CL14 - 3000/3200/3600MHZ CL16 - 3600/4000MHZ CL17 - 2666/3600/4000/4400/4600/4800MHZ CL18 - 3600/4000/4266MHZ CL19) and voltages ranging from 1.35V all the way up to 1.5V (2666/3000/3200/3600/4000MHZ 1.35V - 4266/4400MHZ 1.4V - 4600MHZ 1.45V - 4800MHZ 1.5V). Leaving out the impressive number of available kits G.SKILL has equipped the Trident Z Royal RAM with RGB crystalline LED bars (8 controllable zones with 14 modes/effects - compatible with ASUS Aura Sync, GIGABYTE RGB Fusion, MSI Mystic Light Sync and ASRock Polychrome Sync), CNC-cut aluminum heatspreaders (silver or gold with mirror like finish) and hand-screened 8GB B-Die memory modules by Samsung on 10-layer PCB's for optimal performance. Naturally G.SKILL covers the entire Trident Z Royal line of DDR4 memory kits with a limited lifetime warranty.

SPECIFICATIONS AND FEATURES

PACKAGING AND CONTENTS

The Trident Z Royal 4GHZ CL17 kits arrived in black boxes that just have the G.SKILL logo and the product name at the front.

Company contact information is available at the rear of the box along with the product barcode and serial number.

All modules are placed in black pieces of foam for maximum protection.

Both kits are accompanied by a cleaning cloth (the mirror like finish needs it alright) and a G.SKILL case sticker.

THE TRIDENT Z ROYAL DDR4

These are without doubt some of the best looking ones we've received or even seen to date (primarily due to the CNC-cut aluminum heatspreaders).

The 8 RGB LED crystalline bar (made out of plastic) located on top of the modules is unique and certainly stands out, today at least.

Measuring roughly 44mm top to bottom (almost 38mm for the heat spreaders) the Trident Z Royal is among the tallest RAM we've ever used/tested.

At the front of the modules G.SKILL has placed the model name/line (the top LED bar is even better looking from the front and rear).

A small sticker located at the rear includes things like the module serial number, barcode, frequency, timings, kit size/capacity and voltage.

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

LIGHTING CONTROL SOFTWARE

Via the G.SKILL support page you can download their lighting control software which allows you to change the color and effect for each of the installed modules (or sync them all together), change the color and effect for each of the 8 RGB LEDs (again individual for each module or synced together), adjust the brightness levels, have the LEDs respond to music and turn them off all together (unfortunately even though these modules are compatible with RGB Fusion they weren't recognized by our GIGABYTE X299 Aorus Gaming 9 mainboard).

As mentioned earlier the G.SKILL Trident Z Royal modules look great (they do stand out a lot however and for some people that may not be ideal - you can always turn off the LEDs however).

TEST BED

TESTING METHODOLOGY

   Thanks to XMP (2.0) 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.

* In addition to our Quad-Channel tests since March 2020 we're also using our brand new Z390 test rig (check above) for Dual-Channel RAM tests.

TEST RESULTS - XMP PROFILE / QUAD CHANNEL

TEST RESULTS - XMP PROFILE / DUAL CHANNEL

TEST RESULTS - DUAL CHANNEL / OVERCLOCK

By using our brand new Z390 test rig we managed to push the Trident Z Royal to 4200MHz CL17 just by upping the voltage to 1.37V (unfortunately even at 1.4V the system wouldn't boot at 4400MHZ).

CONCLUSION

   Even though we were able to reach 4200MHZ with our X299 test rig results just weren’t stable enough so instead we decided to include overclocking results of just our new Z390 test rig (unfortunately that system wouldn’t boot with the modules set at 4400MHZ, CL17/18 and at 1.4V). Based on the results we got from both test rigs (dual and quad channel) it’s clear that the Trident Z Royal is the fastest RAM to ever arrive in our lab so not much to say in terms of performance. In terms of looks our opinion is somewhat divided, I happen to like the crystalline LED bar but others who’ve seen it seem to find it a bit over the top so as expected that comes down to personal taste. Also, as many of you might have noticed our Dual-Channel charts have less models compared to our Quad-Channel ones. This is of course due to the fact that we no longer have in our possession every single RAM kit we’ve tested to date (still I did my best to deliver “richer” dual-channel charts).

   Each of the two Trident Z Royal 4000MHZ CL17 kits we’ve tested today (F4-4000C17D-16GTRS) retails for USD266.79 inside the USA (Amazon.com) and for 295Euros inside the EU (Amazon.de) so for a quad-channel system like our X299 one you’d have to pay double. This is the sole drawback of the Trident Z Royal 4000MHz modules since at roughly USD540/600Euros for 32GB they are among the most expensive out in the market today. Still there’s certainly an audience (enthusiasts and gamers come to mind) for such memory modules and since aside their excellent performance and impressive looks these can also be overclocked quite a bit (providing of course that you loosen their timings and are willing to surpass 1.4V) the Trident Z Royal 4000MHZ CL17 modules are definitely worth our Platinum Award.

PROS

- Build Quality (Samsung B-Die / 10 Layer PCB)
- Excellent Performance (Easily Up To 4200MHZ CL17)
- Impressive Looks (CNC Cut Aluminum Heat Spreaders With Mirror Like Finish)
- Crystalline RGB LED Bar (8 Controllable LEDs / 14 Effects)
- Number Of Available Kits (Dual / Quad)
- Limited Lifetime Warranty

CONS

- Price (For Some)