Corsair Vengeance LPX 2 X 8 Go DDR4 2666 MHz : |Specs | CPU | Hashrate | Review | Config

Hi all!

These gentlemen from Intel have finally indirectly kicked off DDR4 to the general public with their latest “Skylake” processors, it is now time for all those who want a new configuration to switch to the latest standard! Admittedly, DDR4 was already available but for the very high end with Intel Core i7 processors on socket 2011-3 but this was reserved for an elite. After a first test of a DDR4 kit from Corsair in 4 x 4 GB 2666 MHz specially designed to operate in “quad channel” on X99 motherboards, here is still a “dual channel” kit from Corsair designed for the latest “Skylake” processors »2 x 8 GB 2666 MHz strips.
The Corsair Veangeance LPX 2 x 8 GB 2666 MHz kit can be found around € 165, which even if it remains higher than the price of DDR3 is down sharply compared to my previous test (as a reminder we were at 270 € for the 4 x 4 GB 2666 MHz kit), DDR4 is therefore becoming more affordable, and it will continue to fall (logically!).

Today’s DDR4 kit is therefore composed of 2 bars of 8 GB each for a total of 16 GB, the heatsinks are black (but there are blue or red, and maybe even white soon!). The kit runs at the base frequencies of the standard specifications, namely 2133 MHz for a latency of 15-15-15-36 and a voltage of 1.2V, once the XMP profile is activated the kit then switches to a frequency of 2666 MHz for a latency of 16-18-18-35 and a voltage of 1.2V.
Offered at a price of around € 165, the Vengeance LPX 16GB kit can very well be used in a configuration dedicated to heavy applications or even in a high-end gaming PC that needs a lot of memory, if the tests are conclusive of course. !

The box takes the colors that we find more and more at Corsair, namely yellow and gray, nothing that is too aggressive however, a photo of one of the profile bars is present as well as the type of memory, the number of modules, the total quantity and the operating frequency. No excessive marketing here apart from the little “Low profile memory for high overclocking performance”, yes it still looks better in English!

At the back a small summary of the strengths of the kit such as the high performance overclocking (the XMP profiles) as well as the “low profile” aluminum heatsinks particularly suitable for micro and mini-ATx configurations, even if in the end it is just as suitable for ATX configurations.

Inside a plastic box containing the 2 bars, this will sufficiently protect the kit during transport, so no problems to report!

And here is the beast! A small “Vengeance LPX” on one side and the model and settings on the other side. The radiator is very well finished and exudes quality, the paint is also applied very well.
Note that unlike DDR3, DDR4 strips do not have a straight PCB at the level of the pins, in the center the pins are longer than on the sides, see instead:

There might be a practical reason for this, like less breakage when setting up, I couldn’t say!

On the top of course the small mention of the brand, it should not go unnoticed 😀

The little label that goes well and that gives all the information necessary for the correct functioning of the bars, in case you need to make the settings manually, the frequency, the voltage, the timings and the model, everything is there!

The test platform

Corsair Vengeance LPX 2 x 8 GB CMK16GX4M2A2666C16 memory kit has been tested with the configuration below:

• Processor: Intel Core i5 6600K
• Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 2 x 4 GB from kit CMK16GX4M4A2666C15R (tested here)
• Ventirad Processor: Noctua NH-D15 (tested here)
• Motherboard: Gigabyte Z170X Gaming 7 (tested here)
• Hard disk: WD Raptor 150 Go
• Graphic cardMSI R9 290
• Ventirad Graphics Card: Prolimatech MK-13
• Food: be quiet! E9 580CM

The software used will be as follows:

Profil XMP et Overclocking

The kit is therefore delivered with a base rate of 2133MHz (latencies of 15-15-15-36 for 1.20V) but also with 1 XMP profile (latencies of 16-18-18-35 for 1.20V). So far nothing abnormal, the voltage for the XMP profile being left at 1.20V this should give way to a nice little overclocking.

As we can see on the 3rd screenshot, the overclocking is indeed nice, we go from 2666 MHz to 3200 MHz! For that, it was enough to change the voltage from 1.20V to 1.35V while keeping the original latencies, not bad! For information, overclocking brings the 2666 MHz kit of the test to the same level as its big brother the CMK16GX4M2B3200C16 (Vengeance LPX 2 X 8 GB 3200 MHz), so we are clearly not going to complain 😉

Aida 64 5.30

Aida64 is a good indicator of maximum throughput and responds very well to ramping up, it stands to reason that the results are skyrocketing with our little Corsair Vengeance kit today!
By going from 2133 MHz to 2666 MHz the reading speed goes from 31.4 Gb / s to 37.7 Gb / s (+ 20%), in writing from 32.5 Gb / s to 40.5 Gb / s (+ 24%) and the copy of 30.4 Gb / s to 36.5 Gb / s (+ 20%), the gain is there and the XMP profile works perfectly.
Once overclocked to 3200 MHz our small Corsair Vengeance strips continue the momentum and go from 37.7 Gb / s to 44 Gb / s in reading (+ 16%), from 40.5 Gb / s to 48.5 Gb / s in writing (+ 20%) and from 36.5 Gb / s to 43.3 Gb / s when copying (+ 18%), a gain almost as high as going from the base frequency of DDR4 to the frequency of the XMP profile!
Now that the maximum bitrate is highlighted, let’s see what this gives in practice, because bitrate doesn’t have to mean huge gains, so let’s see it all right away!

Cinebench R15

We start with Cinebench R15, the increase in frequency shows a gain certainly, but which remains rather marginal, indeed we go from a score of 637 (2133 MHz) to 639 (2666 MHz) to arrive at 646 once the kit is overclocked. (3200 MHz). Cinebench is therefore very clearly not very sensitive to memory overclocking.

Handbrake

Handbrake is a video encoding software and is more representative than the pure and hard benchmarks, here the PC must encode an .avi file of 860MB in .mp4. The gain by increasing the frequency is more significant than on Cinbench R15, in fact we go from 115s to 112s by increasing from 2133 MHz to 2666 MHz to arrive at 109s at 3200 MHz. The gain is there, even if it is only 5% when going from 2133 MHz to 3200 MHz.

WinRAR

WinRAR is also very fond of fast memory, from 5505 to 5929 (+ 7.7%) going from 2133 MHz to 2666 MHz to finish at 6492 (+ 9.5%) at 3200 MHz.

WPrime

Wprime does not react much to the increase in frequency and offers similar results. At 2133 MHz the calculation takes 278.39s, at 2666 MHz 277.19s and at 3200 MHz 277.06, which means that the memory frequency will hardly influence the results.

3DMark and Games

With 3DMark we also do not notice any difference, the results are identical (with a normal variation, there will never be two tests with the same results). On the other hand we can see something quite interesting in games, when the number of FPS is high and the graphics card can express itself as it feels we can see a very slight gain, indeed under Bioshock Infinite we gain 4 FPS going from 2133 MHz to 2666 MHz (from 173.9 FPS to 177.74 FPS) and encpre 4 FPS from 2666 MHz to 3200 MHz (from 177.74 FPS to 181.93 FPS), on the other hand under Crysis 3 which remains very greedy we only gain one small FPS rising to 3200 MHZ.
What can we conclude from this? If the graphics card is not limited by the processor then we can observe a very slight gain (of the order of 1 to 2%), otherwise the gain will be even more marginal.

We have arrived at the end of this test, what about the Corsair Vengeance LPX 2 x 8 GB DDR4 kit CMK16GX4M2A2666C16?
DDR4 is gradually settling on the market and since the release of the latest “Skylake” processors from Intel, a large part of the new machines on the market will soon switch to this new standard, DDR3 is clearly at the end of its life!
Corsair offers us here a kit of great stability, capable of quite extensive overclocking (I remind you that overclocking is neither an exact science nor 100% reproducible from one copy to another) and having very good performance, all at a price that is quite in line with the market average with around 165 €. Regarding the amount of memory, even if today 8 GB is clearly sufficient for any gamer configuration, it is no longer necessarily unthinkable to go to 16 GB like the Corsair Vengeance kit in today’s test, if the budget allows it !
To summarize, if you are looking for a 16GB DDR4 kit in “low profile” format (which is very clearly always preferable, especially when you want to install a large cooler on the processor) then Corsair offers a product which will simply perfectly meet your needs, at a reasonable price!

A big thank you to Corsair and Gigabyte who allowed me to do this test.

Where to find Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB

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