INTRODUCTION

   With this year's CES already up and running there's no doubt that DDR5 modules will be among the hottest attractions for visitors and professionals alike, especially the really high speed/frequency ones. Still since I’ve yet to cover all the dual-channel DDR4 kits I’d like in my Z590 based reviews (not to mention that my Intel Core i9-12900K test rig is not yet complete) and with several arrivals in December alone it seems that DDR5 coverage will have to wait a bit. Patriot has released numerous DDR4 kits over the years (some have landed in the lab) but their Viper Elite II line hasn't really gotten the attention it deserves and so today I’ll be testing the 32GB 4000MHZ CL20 dual-channel kit.

   Viper is a gaming brand of Patriot Memory, Inc, a global leader in performance memory, Solid State Drives (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. 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.

   Patriot currently has numerous kits and modules for their Viper Elite II line of DDR4, from single (8/16/32GB) to dual (2x8GB/2x16/2x32GB) kits at 2666/3200/3600/4000MHz frequencies, timings as low as CL16 (2666MHz CL16 - 3200MHz CL18 - 3600/4000MHz CL20) and voltages ranging from 1.2V (2666Mhz) to 1.35V (3200/3600MHz) and up to 1.4V (4000MHz). Inside the black and red aluminum heatspreaders of this 32GB kit Patriot has placed dual rank, single die 8GB modules by SK Hynix XMP 2.0 certified with timings set at 20-26-26-46-72 at 1.4V (always according to Thaiphoon Burner). As with previous lines Patriot covers their entire Viper Elite II DDR4 line with a limited lifetime warranty.

SPECIFICATIONS AND FEATURES

THE VIPER ELITE II 32GB 4000MHZ CL20

The Viper Elite II are packed inside a black and red box that has a large opening at the front from where you can see one of the modules.

A few words about the kit are printed at the rear in 10 languages.

Just the 2 modules and a Viper Gaming sticker are placed in the box.

The Viper Elite II use low-profile black and red heatspreaders (as expected a sticker at the rear includes information like capacity, frequency, timings and of course the product serial number and barcode).

These heatspreaders are open at the top to allow for heat to exit.

Measuring roughly 38mm in height (top to bottom) the Viper Elite II are some of the shortest DDR4 to ever arrive in the lab (here you can see them right next to the D45 module by XPG and the Ballistix Max by Crucial).

Some people may not like the lack of RGB lighting but black and red has always been among my favourite color combinations.

Thanks to Thaiphoon Burner you can check more details about this kit.

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 – even though most kits can function at higher voltages I don’t recommend doing so / RAM modules that use 1.4V/1.45V/1.5V will be tested up to 1.45V/1.5V/1.55V respectively) and frequencies (200MHZ increments) until i find the maximum achievable stable frequency. I 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 I'll be testing each DDR4 Quad/Dual-Kit to arrive in the 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 I’ve 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 the charts.

* In addition to Quad-Channel tests since March 2020 I’ll also be using the brand new I9-9900K+Z390 DARK test rig (check above) for Dual-Channel RAM tests.
** Since May 2020 three game benchmarks (Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, GEARS 5 and Metro Exodus tested on the X299 system at 1080p resolution and with the ASUS ROG RTX2060 OC set at Gaming Mode) have also been added in the charts.
*** In September 2021 i replaced the Intel I9-9900K+Z390 DARK test rig for a brand new Intel I9-11900K+Z590 DARK one (you can access all the Z390 DARK based tests here).

TEST RESULTS - XMP PROFILE / DUAL CHANNEL

TEST RESULTS - OVERCLOCK / DUAL CHANNEL

With the voltage set at just 1.43V and 1.45V I was able to push the Viper Elite II kit to 4200MHz and 4400MHz respectively so this does have quite a bit of available OC headroom.

CONCLUSION

   If you’re into RGB lighting the Patriot Viper Elite II 32GB DDR4 4000MHz CL20 may not seem like the best looking kit out there right now for you but it’s quite affordable (always compared to other 4GHz kits), features low-profile heatspreaders (less possible clearance issues with CPU air coolers) and offers very good performance levels. On top of that these modules can easily reach 4400MHz CL20 with at just 1.45V so if you enjoy doing a bit of overclocking this should matter as well. Unfortunately, 4000MHz is as high as the Viper Elite II line goes (their Viper Steel and Viper 4 lines go all the way up to 4400MHz if you’d like something faster out of the box) but it still should be more than enough for most consumers.

   So just how much will the Viper Elite II 32GB DDR4 4000MHz CL20 dual-channel kit by Patriot set you back? Well, this kit currently retails for USD232.46 inside the USA (Amazon.com) and for 202Euros inside the EU (Amazon.de) a price which is quite ok for a 4GHz dual-channel kit. All said and done I really have nothing “bad” to say about the Viper Elite II 32GB DDR4 4000MHz CL20 kit, it performs very well, has good OC headroom, looks nice, has low heatspreaders and is priced as expected and so the Golden Award is in order.

PROS

- Build Quality
- Thin, Low Profile Heatspreaders
- Very Good Performance (4000MHz CL20 / Up To 4400MHz CL20)
- Limited Lifetime Warranty

CONS

- Dual Channel Kits Only