Corsair Dominator Platinum DDR4-2800 16GB Memory Review

[Crashman]

Corsair’s CMD16GX4M4A2800C16 promises the best overclocking experience available from a sub-$500 16GB quad-channel kit. Can these so-called DDR4-2800 parts really deliver a higher data rate than their DDR4-3000 competitors?

Corsair Dominator Platinum DDR4-2800 16GB Memory Review : Read more

 

[Janithdalw]

I would choose the Kingston HyperX here because it offers better value for money. Corsair is out of their mind. Damn, it's more expensive than my GTX 970 and DDR3 is not really a bottleneck of performance. DDR3 RAMs are more than enough for the next 5 years. I don't see myself upgrading to DDR4 until 2016.

 

[Pikker]

To be fair, more often than not this type of RAM will find it's way into systems that can easily exceed $1500+, at which point $50 isn't that big of a difference if it means a better-looking product, if you fancy window cases and such.
Back when DDR3 was cheap, the price premium for Dominator RAM was much higher than it is now.

 

[ohim]

The price is stupid high....

 

[JOSHSKORN]

This is the RAM I bought. I applied the XMP profile, it works great at 2800.

 

[SessouXFX]

If you're upset over the price, consider the fact that new memory types are always high starting out. DDR3 wasn't exactly dirt cheap so many moons ago. They normalize after a year or so, when the quantity makes things more affordable, just like SSDs used to be.

But it was because of this issue alone, I personally made the decision NOT to build a X99. Not because I couldn't afford to do it, but the cost of the new form of memory would be way out of my comfort zone. You got to pay to play with the big boys.

 

[sleepy1234]

These tests don't make much sense. Ram doesn't do much in a video game in terms of bandwidth unless you run out of Vram and need to make use of Virtual memory. Testing at 4k or using a 1GB graphics card might show the true benefits of the higher speeds.

 

[Crashman]

These tests don't make much sense. Ram doesn't do much in a video game in terms of bandwidth unless you run out of Vram and need to make use of Virtual memory. Testing at 4k or using a 1GB graphics card might show the true benefits of the higher speeds.

The difference was bigger a few years ago when DDR3 was fairly new, and even bigger in DDR2 days, in similar programs. The closing gap is a good indicator of progress

Too bad the reviews are getting published out-of-order...

 

[Sabishii Hito]

The Vengeance LPX kit with the same speed/timings would be interesting to throw into the mix, as ostensibly they are the exact same as the Dominators for a lot less price. Assuming they're Ver5.29 (Hynix ICs) the overclocking capability is very high for them.

 

[The3monitors]

16gb testing is no longer a value. For this new generation i want 32, 64 or 128 memory kits.

 

[Innocent_Bystander]

I don't think I'll be making the jump until after my next platform upgrade.

My next one is a DDR3 based system built around a Core i5 and a GTX 970 or Radeon 380... once that system runs out of steam (5-8 years with more regular graphics upgrades), I'll br jumping on the DDR4 bandwagon... it's also enough time for these modules to go from $450 to $80

 

[Innocent_Bystander]

16gb testing is no longer a value. For this new generation i want 32, 64 or 128 memory kits.

Question is, what kind of work do you do that doesn't fit in 16GB? If it's Media Editing, CAD, etc I can see the need. If it's all purpose use and gaming, then you're just wasting money.

 

[jimmysmitty]

I would choose the Kingston HyperX here because it offers better value for money. Corsair is out of their mind. Damn, it's more expensive than my GTX 970 and DDR3 is not really a bottleneck of performance. DDR3 RAMs are more than enough for the next 5 years. I don't see myself upgrading to DDR4 until 2016.

This is about what the price for 4GB of DDR3 was when it first came out. The high end kits always start off super high and then eventually will come down in price as production ramps up.

The major benefit will be DIMM density, We will probably be getting double the kit sizes with DDR4 vs DDR3. Great for servers and such, not so much for home systems yet.

 

[sportfreak23]

People would buy this for the look and the LED lighting. Until avexir releases something similar this isn't too bad in terms of pricing. If you want budget then get Kingstons. If you need low profile spreaders g skill.

 

[raheel136]

lol they cost close to GTX980

 

[Tanquen]

I'd just be glad to not have to replace my G.Skill 64GB ever 9-12 months. Never again G.Skill, never again.

 

[EasyLover]

Using X99 just for gaming is way overkill by large. Capacity of the RAM usually depends upon the type of work the build is for but the catch here is different. It is GB per Core of the CPU in X99. Having more GB per core would actually benefit the heavy graphics work and rendering for which X99 aims for in MHO. Anyhow, high price is one critical factor that many users are simply not moving towards X99 or buying less expensive kits.

Price of DDR4 will reduce drastically once supporting platforms from Intel and AMD will be in market. Currently, the productions rate of DDR 4 is not that high that warrants a price drop because X99 is the only platform currently available which is supporting DDR4.

Price are expected to be reduced on DDR4 with the passage of time and availability of more supporting platforms.

 

[CaptainTom]

Until CPU's get a massive boost in performance faster RAM speeds will mean nothing.

 

[Drejeck]

The moment I saw 4x4GB modules I skipped to the benchmarks and then on the comments. Why should we care about a 16GB kit when 16GB should be the base? I don't see any improvement yet. I'll come back later when we will speak of at least 16GBx4 or 32GBx2 kits.

 

[Crashman]

The moment I saw 4x4GB modules I skipped to the benchmarks and then on the comments. Why should we care about a 16GB kit when 16GB should be the base? I don't see any improvement yet. I'll come back later when we will speak of at least 16GBx4 or 32GBx2 kits.

Good luck! The previous review had 4x 8GB kits if that helps.

 

[Christopher1]

16gb testing is no longer a value. For this new generation i want 32, 64 or 128 memory kits.

Damned son.... who need 32GB+ of memory in their machines today? Even most games are happy with a little over 4GB's of memory, bottlenecking at 8GB's.
32GB's is enough in my opinion for any PC, gaming or not, at the moment. I'd more like them to increase GDDR5 memory on video cards to about...... oh, 8GB's to start out with.

 

[SessouXFX]

We're still talking about Corsairs top of the line Memory here. You're going to pay to play with the big boys, even if it were DDR3. Dominators weren't meant for the frugal or the budget crowd. This should have been obvious from the beginning.

 

[Crashman]

hey crash any chance of getting some igpu benchmarks for ddr4? Also how about a comparison review ddr3 vs ddr4 3000 memory.

What iGPU is DDR4-capable? And which identical CPUs can we use for the DDR3 vs DDR4 test?

 

[computertech82]

Since there is little to ZERO difference between memory speed, then why bother?

 

[Crashman]

hey crash any chance of getting some igpu benchmarks for ddr4? Also how about a comparison review ddr3 vs ddr4 3000 memory.

What iGPU is DDR4-capable? And which identical CPUs can we use for the DDR3 vs DDR4 test?

i see no igpu on haswell e, speed might be no difference but latency ?

It's nearly the same, I think the differences you see are mostly due to Haswell-E's workstation-derived quad-channel memory controller. You can even cheat a little with fewer modules (using tighter-than-specified secondary and tertiary values).