Corsair is Smoking Crack

[John P. Myers]

Corsair Unleashes Vengeance Extreme, the World's Fastest Rated PC Memory Kits
– New Corsair Vengeance Extreme Memory Kits, The World's First Rated at 3000MHz –

FREMONT, California — March 14, 2013 — Corsair®, a worldwide designer and supplier of high-performance components to the PC hardware market, today announced new Vengeance® Extreme 8GB dual-channel DDR3 memory kits rated at 3000MHz, the world's fastest rated production PC memory kits. Fitted with low profile "racing red" heat spreaders, the new 2x4GB memory kits operate at 3000MHz air-cooled, with latency settings of 12-14-14-36, at 1.65V. A Kingpin Cooling memory cooler is included for overclockers who want to use LN2 (liquid nitrogen) to reach memory speeds well beyond 3000MHz.

The extreme-speed 3000MHz rating of the Vengeance Extreme memory kits is the result of a rigorous internal four-stage hand-screening process performed by Corsair engineers. This process is passed by fewer than one in 50 memory ICs. Performance qualification is performed on select Intel® Z77 based motherboards, including the ASUS P8Z77-I DELUXE and ASRock Z77 OC Formula. To hit their rated speeds, the modules require a 3rd Generation Intel Core™ unlocked processor with an Integrated Memory Controller capable of running 3000MHz.

"We are focused on helping enthusiasts and overclockers push the boundaries of PC performance," said Thi La, Senior VP and GM of Memory and Enthusiast Component Products at Corsair. "Our engineering team's hard work has led to new performance optimization techniques for memory, which we are pleased to debut in our new Vengeance Extreme memory."

Pricing and Availability

The Vengeance Extreme 3000MHz 8GB memory kits are priced at $749.99 USD and will be available exclusively from Corsair.com in March. Quantities of these hand-built modules will be extremely limited.

[DrPop]

Just out of curiosity: how much of a system-wide speed increase would you see by doubling the RAM speed like that, with all other things remaining equal? I have no idea how much of a bottle-neck RAM is currently. I would think you'd get a better return on system speed by running multiple SSD drives in a striped RAID array.

But I supposed for the enthusiast who just has to have everything...

[STE\/E]

The Vengeance Extreme 3000MHz 8GB memory kits are priced at $749.99 USD

... Let's see, I paid about $99 for 16gb for each Box when I did my rebuilds a few months ago, I don't think I'd be jumping on anything that costs $749.49 for 8gb or $1498.98 for 16gb any time soon or like not in this Lifetime anyway ...

[John P. Myers]

Just out of curiosity: how much of a system-wide speed increase would you see by doubling the RAM speed like that, with all other things remaining equal? I have no idea how much of a bottle-neck RAM is currently. I would think you'd get a better return on system speed by running multiple SSD drives in a striped RAID array.

But I supposed for the enthusiast who just has to have everything...

Well let's just see if this stuff is even any good.

Math time!

Corsair claims 3000MHz. This equates to a bandwidth of 24GB/s per module, so 48GB/s in dual-channel mode. It should be noted that buying 2 sets of this stuff for 16GB would force you to underclock it as the memory controllers cannot handle 2 banks of RAM at that speed per channel. So if you want 3000MHz DDR3, 8GB of this stuff is the max your system can tolerate.

Corsair claims timings of 12-14-14-36, making the time required to ask the RAM for data, then receive it = 40 clocks.
40 clocks @ 3000MHz = 0.0000000267 seconds

The sweetspot of DDR3 is 1600 MHz with 7-8-7-24 timings. Let's see how that does.

Using timings of 7-8-7-24, it makes the time required to ask the RAM for data, then receive it = 22 clocks.
22 clocks @ 1600MHz = 0.0000000275 seconds

M'kay so it seems you save 0.0000000008 seconds per request with this $750 Corsair stuff, or 8 seconds of your life for every 10 billion requests of 64 bits, which is the size of a double-precision number.

Advantages of this Corsair stuff: It does beat the sweetspot in terms of speed, but just barely. 48GB/s bandwidth for the kit vs. 25.6GB/s for a 1600MHz dual-channel kit. 8 seconds of your life. It should be pointed out it can take alot longer to reach the 10 billion request mark than you may think. When data is read from RAM sequentially from the same row, it adds a flat rate of 1 clock to the delay regardless of RAM's timings, which essentially means only the first request counts towards the 10 billion so you can save your 8 seconds

Disadvantages of this Corsair stuff: lolprice (for the sweetspot, see this $180 16GB kit: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820226270) Corsair stuff limited to 8GB. The higher bandwidth is useless unless you're gaming at full HD or higher resolution on ultra settings, or are creating a 3D CAD design of your entire neighborhood.

[Slicker]

The higher bandwidth is useless unless you're gaming at full HD or higher resolution on ultra settings

Is there any other way?

[John P. Myers]

Is there any other way?

No. No there is not.

Edit: also there's this:

To hit their rated speeds, the modules require a 3rd Generation Intel Core™ unlocked processor with an Integrated Memory Controller capable of running 3000MHz.

So no Haswell or Sandy Bridge. Boo.

[DrPop]

...

M'kay so it seems you save 0.0000000008 seconds per request with this $750 Corsair stuff, or 8 seconds of your life for every 10 billion requests of 64 bits, which is the size of a double-precision number.
...

So in gangsta' mode (see my Lounge thread) I be thinkin' dis be a no startin' mo-fo and not gunna put out fo dis B.S. dey foisten' on my unsuspectin' digtalshizal nerd brothes dat be wantin' da best RAM.

[Fire$torm]

So in gangsta' mode (see my Lounge thread) I be thinkin' dis be a no startin' mo-fo and not gunna put out fo dis B.S. dey foisten' on my unsuspectin' digtalshizal nerd brothes dat be wantin' da best RAM.

Errrr, hmmmmmm....... what?

Could you repeat that, In English!?

[John P. Myers]

Some stats i stumbled across:

RAM RMA rates:
- Crucial 0.4%
- Kingston 0.5%
- G. Skill 1.4%
- Corsair 1.6%

Top RMA'd Corsair RAM Kits:
- 9.17% 3x2 GB Corsair XMS3 DDR3 1600 MHz CL9 (CMX6GX3M3A1600C9)
- 7.32% Corsair XMS3 DHX 2x2GB DDR3 1333 MHz CL9 (TW3X4G1333C9DHX)
- 6.98% Platinum Corsair XMS3 (3x2 GB DDR3 1333 MHz CL9 (TR3X6G1333C9)
- 6.82% 3x2 GB Corsair XMS3 DDR3 1600 MHz CL9 (TR3X6G1600C9)

Maybe they intend to use that $750 (from the ones that aren't RMA'd) to fix their quality control issues.

[Duke of Buckingham]