Corsair officially announced the launch of their new Dominator GT line of ultra high-performance DDR3 memory modules for Intel's Core i7-based systems yesterday.
The Dominator GT series features a new red and black color scheme that is actually attractive. The GT modules feature Corsair's next-generation Dual-path Heat eXchange (DHX) technology. The revised DHX technology includes a single-piece heat-sink and removable cooling fins. The removable fins allow multiple cooling options for the Dominator GT modules, including water cooling, as well as a custom-designed thermoelectric cooling system to actively cool the modules to as low as 20C below ambient temperature for maximum overclockability. Corsair ships the kits with their Airflow fan systems at this time.
The new Dominator GT is available in three different configurations,3x1GB DDR3-2000, 3x2GB DDR3-1866, and 3x2GB DDR3-2000. . Each kit offers latencies of 7-8-7-20 with DIMM voltages around 1.65V at the specified memory speeds. Current pricing has the 3GB 2000 kit at $299.99, 6GB 1866 at $479.99, and the 6GB 2000 kit at $579.99. The DDR3-2000 kits will be offered in very limited quantities that are hand-screened and hand-tuned. The DDR3-1866 kit follows the same screening and tuning process but will be available in additional quantities.
These kits are obviously designed for the hardcore overclocking community and those with deep pockets. However, if you want to really push memory speeds and get that last little bit of performance out of your system, you will want to use this type of memory on the i7 platform. "Because of the complexity in screening, manufacturing and testing, the Dominator GT family will be available only through the exclusive online GT Performance Shop." Corsair will also offer the full range of cooling options for the Dominator GT family shortly.
The Corsair Dominator GT family is available immediately (the 2000 kits are sold out currently) and is backed by a lifetime warranty and comprehensive customer support via telephone, email, forum and the Tech Support Express help desk.
Now that we have walked through the press release information. The first question that comes to mind is if the Dominator GT modules actually work at the advertised speeds and voltages. The answer to that question, is a resounding yes. We recently received our 6GB DDR3-2000 retail kit and have been putting it through just about every test we can imagine at a variety of speeds and voltages on several X58 boards.
Our first results are very positive with speeds reaching DDR3-2052 at 7-8-7-20 1T timings on 1.65V. We utilized the DFI LP UT X58-T3eH8 motherboard, retail Core i7 920, MSI 4870X2, CoolIT Systems Freezone Elite, and Corsair HX1000 power supply. We set VCore to 1.4375V in the BIOS (BIOS read is 1.45V, real is 1.44V), VDimm to 1.65V (BIOS read is 1.64V, real is 1.652V), and VTT to 1.51V (BIOS read is 1.50V, real is 1.52). We decided to push the IMC so we set our CPU multiplier to 20x and Bclk to 206. These settings passed our full test suite along with several loops of the same benchmarks for 24 hours.
The key to getting this memory to operate at its intended settings is properly setting VTT based upon your processor and board's capabilities. We do not like running VTT higher than 1.475V or so, but had to go to 1.51V in the BIOS for absolute stability. Simply relaxing the CPU multiplier to 19 and using the same Bclk at 206 (3.89GHz core speed) allowed us to drop VCore to 1.385V, VTT to 1.46V, and VDimm to 1.63V to reach the same memory speed and timings with full stability.
Our initial results are shown below. Please make note that we are using the new Version 5.00 of Everest and the latency numbers are correct now for i7 systems. Our results with version 4.60.1631 had overall latency at 21.3ns, which is incorrect. We will be back shortly with actual application results at various memory speeds and timings (CAS6 at DDR3-1600 is the goal). In the meantime, if you need to spend that tax rebate on a set of ultra high performance DDR3, we might suggest you head over to the Corsair Shop.
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db475 - Monday, February 9, 2009 - link
please confirm the forum account name "db475" and the email "austin2359@gmail.com"I tried with three different names and three different emails and none of them worked.
Something is wrong with the registration systems.
Don't openly post this comment.
db475 - Monday, February 9, 2009 - link
Note that I am discussing the FORUM not the BLOG.v12v12 - Wednesday, February 11, 2009 - link
OMG... dude SEND that to tech support... we ALL can see it... spamcity now...Mr Roboto - Monday, February 9, 2009 - link
Too bad Corsair RAM is overpriced, heavily marketed crap. What are they using noways? Qimonda? PSC? Garbage is what it is.While this RAM might be great just wait until you have to RMA it and they replace your $500 RAM with some total garbage that barely runs spec and needs and extra .2v just to do that.
For those seriously considering this kit, please do yourselves a favor and check out any e-tailer and compare this RAM to similarly timed and speced DDR3. You'll see that this is all marketing fluff with no substance behind it. While the Red heat spreaders look cool there is nothing behind that lifetime warranty.
There are half a dozen other memory manufacturers who will bend over backwards for your business, don't let Corsair bend you over.
Maiyr - Wednesday, February 11, 2009 - link
I've had the exact opposite experience and it is why I buy Corsair anyway. I've had two different RMA's for them and both times they sent me the exact same RAM I RMA'ed. I don't care about a companies product as much I care about the customer service. Any time I have interacted with Corsair it has always been a pleasant experience.Holly - Tuesday, February 10, 2009 - link
Not mentioning this RAM kit, but Corsair RMA was excellent for me. My kit (different set) came with one module broken - heat spreader was ripped off and part of chips stayed glued to that. Very probably shipping service guy was sitting on that or whatever. Not even slightest problem RMAing that kit.My Corsair PSU after replacing old PSU of same wattage lowered my CPU temperature by 5°C. After having the PSU on test bed the highest fluctuation found was about 3mV - on 12V rail; while PSU was running 50W below specified max..
So for me I doubt I'd ever put different brand of RAM and PSU in my computer ever again.
Nfarce - Sunday, February 8, 2009 - link
I can't imagine a bigger waste of $480 or $580 for a PC build than these 6GB memory kits. Only the most foolish - or most unlimited funded - PC geek among us would justify spending that kind of cash on what is perhaps the least critical performance part of PC building in terms of benchmarking. In other words, a $500 dollar video card will go a helluva lot farther in performance over a $200 video card vs. $500 memory over $200 memory. Am I wrong?Rajinder Gill - Monday, February 9, 2009 - link
You are far from wrong. Just that some people have the money to burn and they choose to spend it on memory among other expensive components. Even though the performance return is quite often miniscule. I think most people are aware what they get back from memory per buck. Although there are still plenty around to remind them just in case they happen to forget..lolSunrise089 - Friday, February 6, 2009 - link
"Because of the complexity in screening, manufacturing and testing, the Dominator GT family will be available only through the exclusive online GT Performance Shop. "This is totally false. Corsair is welcome to price and sell their memory however they want, but it is obvious there is no technical reason why "screen, manufactured, and tested" memory couldn't be sold through any online vendor. It isn't like Newegg goes out and rebrands parts. A simple "Corsair has decided to sell the memory in-house" or "Corsair wants to control pricing themselves and so will be selling the memory in-house" is much more honest than the above BS.
Gary Key - Monday, February 9, 2009 - link
Corsair provided those exact words and after seeing what they go through to get a set of ICs that are capable of these speeds, I can understand why they want to control distribution. Another reason for them selling direct to is provide personal support to those users buying this product.Expensive highly clocked memory is not for everyone nor would I ever recommend it for about 98% of the public. But there is a market for this product for people who benchmark competitively or want peace of mind knowing that their memory will work in a myriad of configurations.
The biggest advantage to this memory (for me) is that fact that you can run extremely tight latencies in the 1333~1600 range (think CAS 5) at stock voltages on the right board. That is the angle we are taking with the review, not that you can run DDR3-2100 and improve SuperPI scores by three tenths of a second. So, just like a Bugatti Veyron is not on most people's daily transportation list, we still love to see one occasionally and there are a few hundred people who bought one.