A-DATA XPG G Series 6GB DDR3-1600G Kit review

[darklord]

Introduction​

Sometime ago, Intel introduced their brand new architecture named ‘Nehalem’ or popularly known as Core i7. With the launch of this platform, came some new innovations, one of them being, triple channel memory.
Although DDR3 has been in the market for some time now, only dual channel kits were available till now but with the advent of Nehalem, it was obvious that we would soon see triple channel kits being launched specifically for it.
What we have here today is a triple channel DDR3 memory kit from A-Data.
Some of you may have heard about A-Data but some of you may not have because A-Data products haven’t been available in India widely. For those who don’t know, A-Data is a leading manufacturer of high quality computer memory, Solid state drives along with pen drives, memory cards etc, it ranks second in the world for DRAM Modules and fourth for Flash Disks
A-Data is a pretty large brand when it comes to memory products, something like what Asus or Gigabyte is for motherboards.

*www.imgx.org/thumbs/small/50878_tj083/2864aed61f64af03.jpg​

Today we would be looking at A-Data Triple channel DDR3 1600Mhz CL9 6GB XPG (Xtreme Performance Gear) kit. This particular kit is targeted more towards Gamers and power users but not hardcore overclockers. So basically, it offers, high speeds, lower power consumption and stability, yet not very expensive, which is what most of the users want.

*www.imgx.org/files/50907_l5iyp/2864aed639fbbfee.jpg​

You can see from the specs that although the timings are not exactly on the tighter side, the speed is respectable at 1600MHz at a low voltage of 1.65V.

Let’s get on with the actual product

Package -

*www.imgx.org/thumbs/small/50880_tgury/2864aed61f69c2cc.jpg *www.imgx.org/thumbs/small/50881_srj1y/2864aed61f71e46d.jpg *www.imgx.org/thumbs/small/50884_la1dl/2864aed61f772a94.jpg *www.imgx.org/thumbs/small/50885_1xvou/2864aed61f848176.jpg *www.imgx.org/thumbs/small/50908_h2zwe/2864aed6492b5c2d.jpg *www.imgx.org/thumbs/small/50882_8qwsh/2864aed61f93f397.jpg *www.imgx.org/thumbs/small/50877_ucs1z/2864aed61f8d0122.jpg *www.imgx.org/thumbs/small/50904_airfk/2864aed62d949dce.jpg *www.imgx.org/thumbs/small/50905_pwucp/2864aed62d880446.jpg *www.imgx.org/thumbs/small/50903_eucws/2864aed62d844bce.jpg

Test Setup -
Intel Xeon W3570 CPU
EVGA Classified e760 motherboard
A-Data XPG 1600G DDR3 Memory
Crucial Value Series DDR3 1333MHz CL9 Memory (1.5V)
Seagate 500GB Sata II Hard Drive
Galaxy Nvidia Gefore GTX 275 Graphic Card
Seventeam ST 600-EAD Power Supply
Thermalright Ultra 120 Extreme cooler + 2 x 120mm Fans in push-pull config​

For the overclocked tests
1600MHz 7-7-7-24 2T (1.68V)
1957MHz 9-8-8-28 2T (1.8V)

 

[darklord]

Some random pictures while testing,

*www.imgx.org/thumbs/small/50906_l9avy/2864aed62da64e3e.jpg *www.imgx.org/thumbs/small/50901_am3cz/2864aed62d9c37fb.jpg​

When we started with this review, we were using Biostar Tpower X58 motherboard but unfortunately our Corsair HX1000 PSU decided to die on us and not only that, it killed the motherboard along with it
But then in the nick of time came to the rescue our new mainboard

*www.imgx.org/thumbs/small/50879_7ua3t/2864aed61f64da56.jpg *www.imgx.org/thumbs/small/50886_penea/2864aed62d7eddd1.jpg *www.imgx.org/thumbs/small/50902_fw2f2/2864aed62d73e2d2.jpg *www.imgx.org/thumbs/small/50876_jwds2/2864aed61f7cfce9.jpg *www.imgx.org/thumbs/small/50883_wsw4o/2864aed61f98dd27.jpg *www.imgx.org/thumbs/small/50900_ilgj7/2864aed62d8c5a17.jpg​

Benchmarks used are as follows,
Gaming Benchmarks –
1) Far Cry 2
2) Anno 1404
3) Call Of Juarez – Bound in Blood
4) Enemy Territory – Quake Wars
5) Prototype
6) Resident Evil 5
7) Wolfenstein
8) Crysis
9) 3DMark Vantage
10) 3DMark 2006

Synthetic Benchmarks –
1) Cinebench R10 64Bit
2) Winrar 3.80
3) Lavaly Everest Memory Read/Write
4) Fritz Chess Benchmark
5) Super Pi 32M

All the gaming benchmarks were run at a constant resolution of 1680 x 1050 with default settings. The CPU speed was kept constant at 4GHz. In almost all benchmarks, very high quality settings were used as default. Windows 7 Ultimate x64 was used for OS and Nvidia ForceWare version 191.07 was used.

Let’s get on with the benchmarks,

Far Cry 2​

*www.imgx.org/thumbs/small/50918_rjqze/2864aed677faa38c.jpg​

As you can see from the graphs, there is steady increase in performance with tighter timings and higher speed. We have included the Crucial Value series kit which is rated at 1333 MHz CL9 so that it gives a rough idea as to how much of a gain is actually achieved with this A-Data kit compared to cheaper and slower memory kits.

Anno 1404​

*www.imgx.org/thumbs/small/50917_zax6h/2864aed677f53c5a.jpg​

Here as expected there is steady improvement with increase in speed and tighter timings but interestingly, when we ran the test on A-Data at tighter timings of 7-7-7-24, we had to use 2T command rate since to get 1T working the volts needed were quite high. Maybe it’s a compatibility issue with this kit and motherboard or maybe the ICs on this kit are just not capable of handling tight timings and 1T command rate. Performance seems to have taken a hit because of that, although a negligible one.

Call Of Juarez – Bound in Blood​

*www.imgx.org/thumbs/small/50915_e8gnf/2864aed677f7f3d4.jpg​

Pretty obvious outcome here, faster speed and tight timings helps in boosting the performance substantially. You can see that at the max speed of 1957 MHz, we have a boost of almost 4 FPS compared to the kit’s stock ratings.

 

[darklord]

Enemy Territory - Quake Wars​

*www.imgx.org/thumbs/small/50923_lux83/2864aed678041278.jpg​

With Enemy Territory also the outcome is pretty much predictable. The performance scales with higher speed and tighter timings.

Prototype​

*www.imgx.org/thumbs/small/50922_qhvcm/2864aed67801379e.jpg​

Prototype seems to respond pretty well to higher speed and tighter timings compared to some other game we have seen earlier. The scaling is pretty impressive if you take into consideration that only memory is responsible for the increase in performance.

Resident Evil 5​

*www.imgx.org/thumbs/small/50921_vyznm/2864aed6780700a5.jpg​

Resident Evil 5 has become quite popular choice these days for benchmarking. As you can see from the graph, the performance increase is pretty steady. An increase of almost 4 FPS between stock speed and over clocked speed is not bad at all.

Wolfenstein​

*www.imgx.org/thumbs/small/50920_gxfpx/2864aed67809c87b.jpg​

Wolfenstein is the latest offering from the ID stable. It succeeds the successful title, ‘Return to Castle Wolfenstein’ which was a big hit. With a newer engine being used, the graphics were expected to be much superior compared to its predecessor. This also meant a more powerful system to run the game smoothly.
As per the graph, the memory seems to be influencing the performance so a faster memory would definitely help in boosting the performance.

Crysis​

*www.imgx.org/thumbs/small/50919_tqzn1/2864aed677fd934e.jpg​

Crysis has been a favorite benchmark for a long time now. The sheer fact that it brings mightiest of systems to their knees is sufficient enough to make this a popular benchmark.
If you consider the fact that our test machine had Nehalem running at 4GHz and Geforce GTX 275 doing the duty of rendering the graphics, the figures clearly indicate how taxing this game can be.
It is pleasing to know that faster memory does make a difference in overall performance. So you may want to consider faster memory with tighter timings for your next PC upgrade.

3DMark Vantage​

*www.imgx.org/thumbs/small/50916_tbntp/2864aed677f23a31.jpg​

When we were deciding what benchmarks to use, it was clear that 3DMark Vantage would be included but we were unable to decide whether to include it in gaming benchmarks or synthetic. Finally we decided that since it’s a purely system intensive benchmark it is better to include it in gaming benchmarks.
Although a synthetic benchmark, the entire 3DMark lineage has always been the most popular benchmark for testing the performance of a graphic card.
Here we see that even though CPU speed and Graphic card clocks speeds make the most difference, it is interesting to note that even memory makes a little bit of a difference.
Also, you may notice that 1T and 2T command rate is making a considerable difference. A boost of ~60 points between stock and max OC is not bad at all.

3DMark 2006​

*www.imgx.org/thumbs/small/50914_gynp3/2864aed677ee434a.jpg​

Arguably the most popular 3D benchmark till date, 3DMark 2006. Similar to what we have already seen in Vantage, here too, memory does play a role in improving your overall score.

Now that we are done with the Gaming benchmarks, lets move on to the Synthetic benchmarks

First in line is Cinebench R10 64Bit,

Cinebench R10 64Bit​

*www.imgx.org/thumbs/small/50909_9fifi/2864aed67a4b8ef3.jpg​

Although the memory does seem to impact performance here, the difference is marginal. This benchmark is more CPU dependant than anything else.

Winrar 3.80​

*www.imgx.org/thumbs/small/50911_m51nu/2864aed67a5ca507.jpg​

This is one benchmark where this kit really shines. A boost of almost 600 KB/s is commendable. Winrar is an application that we tend to use almost daily. So paying a bit extra doesn’t seem unjustified, does it?

Lavalys Everest Memory Read​

*www.imgx.org/thumbs/small/50910_ia4hw/2864aed67a4e4cf8.jpg​

Everest is a synthetic benchmark where there are multiple benchmarks included to test difference components in your system. They also have a dedicated tool for benchmarking purely the memory. Although Everest does not show you the actual picture when it comes to real world performance it is good enough to have a rough idea of the boosts that you get.

Lavalys Everest Memory Write​

*www.imgx.org/thumbs/small/50912_9iias/2864aed67a5273af.jpg​

Once again, the command rate has come in the picture. 2T seems to be affecting the performance slightly.

Fritz Chess benchmark​

*www.imgx.org/thumbs/small/50928_78gnc/2864aed67a552b52.jpg​

The difference in performance between the crucial value series and A-Data is pretty significant. Although the difference between A-Data at stock speeds and overclocked speed doesn’t seem to be a lot. Once again we see that performance is taking a hit because of the command rate.

SuperPi 32M​

*www.imgx.org/thumbs/small/50913_imwb3/2864aed67a5879bd.jpg​

We saved our favourite benchmark for last, SuperPi. Another extremely popular benchmark amongst hardware enthusiasts and overclockers.
Even though this benchmark is more or less CPU clock speed dependant, memory timings and frequency plays a significant role here.
The difference between Crucial Value series at stock speed and A-Data at overclocked speeds is quite a lot.

Conclusion​

When we received this kit from A-Data for reviewing we didn’t have a clear idea as to how it would perform.
We need to first understand that A-Data is not marketing this kit as a kit meant for enthusiasts and overclockers. This kit is meant for gamers, power users and so on. So the targeted customer base is one which expects a kit which is rated at higher speeds, consumes lesser power and most importantly is stable from the word go.
We have sort of a mixed opinion about this kit. On one hand it runs at 1600 MHz at stock timings with just 1. 5V (JEDEC Spec) which is quite good and gets the job done without much fuss for normal users but on the other hand its not a kit which would be an overclockers choice.

Overall we would say that it’s a pretty decent kit for the price. To cut a long story short, if you use the kit for what it was meant for then you won’t be disappointed and vice versa.

Pros –
1) Excellent build quality
2) Rated at 1600MHz at 1.65V but can run at the same speed/timings at 1.5V
3) Price (based on international prices it should be on the lower side)

Cons –
1) Rated at CL9
2) Doesn't clock high with tight timings

Score Card
Features : 8/10
Performance : 8/10
Value For Money : 9/10
Overall : 8/10

Before ending this review, we would like to thank A-Data for arranging this review sample