INTRODUCTION

   If you're out in the market for brand new and affordable PC chances are you're not looking an expensive DDR4 motherboard, let alone one of the latest (and more expensive) DDR5 motherboards. For example, a couple of weeks ago i was building a new PC based on the very affordable B450 Steel Legend motherboard by ASRock (together with the AMD Ryzen 7 3700X) so it made sense to pair it with a rather affordable DDR4 RAM kit (and obviously not one with very high clocks since that motherboard clearly wouldn't support it). At the same time i wanted a good looking DDR4 RAM kit (with RGB lighting if possible) that also featured a lifetime limited warranty. Well, it's as if my friends at ADATA/XPG were aware of that since at around that time i also received their Spectrix D50 16GB DDR4 3600MHz kit.

   XPG (XTREME PERFORMANCE GEAR) was established by ADATA to provide high-performance products to gamers, Esports pros, and tech enthusiasts. We are committed to developing products that deliver extreme performance and therefore work closely with the gaming and esports community to gain insight into the real needs of users. We provide a full range of products from systems, components, peripherals to devices, and create them with the highest standards of stability, reliability, and performance in mind. We also develop products with sheer cool designs that have earned us several prestigious international awards, such as iF Design and Good Design. Beyond products, we play an active role in sponsoring and supporting esports events and teams globally to realize extreme gaming experiences at the highest levels.

   The Spectrix D50 line of DDR4 RAM modules by XPG is available in two colors (tungsten grey and white) and includes single (8/16/32GB) and dual (2x8GB/2x16GB/2x32GB) kits at 3000/3200/3600/4133MHz frequencies, timings as low as CL16 (3000/3200MHz CL16, 3600MHz CL18 and 4133MHz CL19) and voltages set at 1.2V (3000MHz), 1.35V (3200/3600MHz) and 1.4V (4133MHz). As you can all tell from the above intro picture XPG has placed a long diamong shaped plastic bar on top of each module under which we find 5 addressable RGB LEDs (can be configured via their RGB Sync software - 12 available modes). Always according to the popular Thaiphoon burner software the single rank 3600MHz 1.35V 16GB CL18 kit which i have here with me today is based on single E-die modules by Micron and is XMP certified with timings set at 18-22-22-44-66. Finally, as mentioned earlier XPG covers their entire line of Spectrix D50 DDR4 RAM modules/kits with a rather generous lifetime warranty. So, let’s see what the Spectrix D50 16GB DDR4 3600MHz CL18 kit by XPG is capable of.

SPECIFICATIONS AND FEATURES

THE SPECTRIX D50 16GB DDR4 3600MHZ CL18

ADATA packs the kit inside a red box that has a large product picture at the front right under the main product features and next to its capacity and frequency.

A few words about the product along with contact information for ADATA, two openings that reveal the rear module stickers and a large 2D barcode are located at the rear of the box.

The Tungsten Grey color of the aluminum heatspreaders looks very nice.

Typically, a small sticker at the rear includes information about the modules like frequency, timings and voltage.

Beneath the plastic bar at the top of the modules XPG has placed anything between 5 ARGB LEDs.

To have a better understanding about the height of the Spectrix D50 modules (43mm) i placed them right next to the Acer Predator Apollo (51.4mm tall), HP V10 RGB (47.3mm tall) and the Spectrix D45 (45mm tall - review soon).

In terms of looks the Spectrix D50 scores very high as you can see from the above pictures.

Thaiphoon Burner once again reveals in-depth details about the kit at hand.

XPG RGB SYNC

XPG has a somewhat basic RGB sync software available online (search for ADATA Lighting Control to find it) which allows you to switch between 12 different modes (some of which can be configured differently for every one of the 5 LEDs on each module).

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 1.37V and 1.4V I easily pushed this kit to 3800MHz and 4000MHz respectively (CL18 of course).

CONCLUSION

   Even though 16GB (2x8GB) clocked at 3600MHz and at CL18 is identical to the Spectrix D55 kit I reviewed from XPG a while back the fact that this uses Micron E-Die modules as opposed to Samsung D-Die modules actually made quite a bit of difference as you can easily see from my charts. Now, I can’t really be 100% percent certain that the brand of modules used is why the Spectrix D50 kit is surpassed by the Spectrix D55 kit but there’s really nothing else left for me to base that assumption on (same CPU, same overclock, same motherboard, same bios, same bios settings, etc). Still at 4GHz the Spectrix D50 kit does take off in terms of performance and at just 1.4V it should be easy to run it like that 24/7. As for design not much to say there, I do prefer the all-black (anthracite) color of the Spectrix D55 kit but Tungsten Grey looks great too (and don’t forget, the Spectrix D50 kit is also available in white). The RGB Sync software is also very easy to use and as for the 5 ARGB LEDs on top of each module well you can all see how good they look from my pictures.

   Currently retailing for USD115.47 inside the USA (Amazon.com) and for 107.22Euros inside the EU (Amazon.de) the Spectrix D50 16GB DDR4 3600MHz CL18 Dual-Channel Kit by XPG is priced slightly higher than expected, especially after taking into account that the faster Spectrix D55 kit retails for less. So even though I do recommend giving the Spectrix D50 kit a shot if you’re out in the market for new RAM the Spectrix D55 kit clearly represents a better choice.

PROS

- Good Performance (Up To 4000MHz CL18)
- Build Quality
- Looks (ARGB LED Bar)
- Lifetime Limited Warranty
- Available In Black & White

CONS

- Dual Channel Kits Only
- Price (For Some)