As we go up the memory speeds, moving from 1333 to 1600 to 1866 means that the next stop is DDR3-2133.  DDR3-2133 will be the next checkpoint for processors to accept by default in the future, and as a result there is a price premium for all memory kits equal and above this mark.  In our case, the G.Skill F3-17000CL9Q-16GBZH comes in at $130, some $35 more than the DDR3-1866 kit.  That is quite a hefty chunk, adding 37% on the price of memory for only a 14.3% increase in absolute MHz value terms.  As we will see in the memory benchmarks later, the 2133 MHz point does offer improvements over the 1866 kit, but not by as much as 37%.

Visual Inspection

In the land of G.Skill and kit naming, RipjawsZ is the last step in the Ripjaws line before we hit Trident.  The Ripjaws naming scheme was devised in anticipation of the Sandy Bridge and Sandy Bridge-E processor lineup where the majority of processors can achieve the speeds of all of the Ripjaws kits.  The look of the RipjawsZ kits are less edge-driven than the RipjawsX, with a rounded module end, but more bulk in terms of heatsink with the top edge still being ~1cm taller than the module.  This causes issues when paired with large heatsinks, despite large heatsinks being the aim of the processors paired with this kit.

Again, the test with this module in a large heatsink environment gives us the following:

JEDEC + XMP Settings

G.Skill
Kit Speed 1333 1600 1866 2133 2400
Subtimings 9-9-9-24 2T 9-9-9-24 2T 9-10-9-28 2T 9-11-10-28 2T 10-12-12-31 2T
Price $75 $80 $95 $130 $145
XMP No Yes Yes Yes Yes
Size 4 x 4 GB 4 x 4 GB 4 x 4 GB 4 x 4 GB 4 x 4 GB

MHz 1333 1600 1867 2134 2401
Voltage 1.500 1.500 1.500 1.650 1.650
tCL 9 9 9 9 10
tRCD 9 9 10 11 12
tRP 9 9 9 10 12
tRAS 24 24 28 28 31
tRC 33 33 37 38 43
tWR 10 12 14 16 16
tRRD 4 5 5 6 7/6
tRFC 107 128 150 171 313
tWTR 5 6 8/7 9/8 10/9
tRTP 5 6 8/7 9/8 10/9
tFAW 20 24 24 25 26
tCWL - 7 7 7 7
CR - 2 2 2 2

 

F3-14900CL9Q-16GBSR: 4 x 4 GB G.Skill Sniper Kit F3-2400CL10Q-16GTX: 4 x 4 GB G.Skill TridentX Kit
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  • ssj4Gogeta - Thursday, October 18, 2012 - link

    "Besides, do people really play games with IGP?"

    They're definitely more likely to play games on a more powerful IGP like AMD's. I thought the whole point of AMD's Fusion lineup was that you could do light gaming on the IGP itself.
  • SeanJ76 - Saturday, June 21, 2014 - link

    Exactly! no one buys shitty AMD products anymore......
  • Boogaloo - Thursday, October 18, 2012 - link

    There are already plenty of benchmarks out there for memory scaling on AMD's APUs. This is the first time I've seen an in-depth look at how memory speed affects Intel's IGP performance.
  • ssj4Gogeta - Thursday, October 18, 2012 - link

    That's what I was thinking as well.
    I'm hoping for another article using Trinity. :)
  • Calin - Friday, October 19, 2012 - link

    I'm not sure A10 supports DDR3-2400 (DDR3-1866 was the fastest memory supported)
  • Medallish - Friday, October 19, 2012 - link

    The A10 has AMP profiles(Like XMP on Intel) up to 2133MHz, however, there's always overclocking, I'm pretty sure Ivy Bridge doesn't suppoort 2400+MHz memory natively either. I'm looking at an FM2 board by Asrock which they claim can support 2600MHz memory.
  • IanCutress - Friday, October 19, 2012 - link

    My A10-5800K sort of liked DDR3-2400, then it didn't like it. Had to go back one to 2133 for the testing. Even with bumped voltages and everything else, the CPU memory controller couldn't take it. Perhaps the sample I have is a dud, but that was my experience.

    Ian
  • tim851 - Friday, October 19, 2012 - link

    I concur.

    Pointless review anyway. The summary should have read: High-Clocked Memory only needed if your primary usage is either competitive benchmarking or WinRAR compression.
  • IanCutress - Saturday, October 20, 2012 - link

    Did you know that before you read the article though? This is Anandtech, and I like to think I test things thoroughly enough to make reasoned opinions and suggestions :) Having a one sentence summary wouldn't have helped anyone in the slightest.

    Ian
  • SeanJ76 - Saturday, June 21, 2014 - link

    Nothing is better done on AMD products idiot.....

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