System Overview & Testing
We installed the Ballistix Tactical Tracer RGB in our Z370 test system which is made up of the following components.
Processor: Intel Core i7-8700K
Graphics Card: MSI GeForce GTX 1060 Gaming X 3GB
Motherboard: ASUS Prime Z370-A
Memory: Ballistix Tactical Tracer RGB DDR4-2666 32GB Memory Kit
Storage: Zotac Premium Edition 240GB
Power: Corsair AX860i
Cooling: NZXT Kraken X52
Case: Lian Li PC-T80
Taking a look at CPU-Z we can see this memory is running at its XMP profile, operating at 2666 MHz with timings of 16-18-18-38 at 1.2V.
For testing we will run the memory at its stock or XMP profile settings using the below benchmarking software. We will then run the tests again our overclock of 3200 MHz. Below is a list of benchmarking software that we use.
– SiSoftware Sandra Memory Bandwidth Benchmark
– SiSoftware Sandra Cache & Memory Latency Benchmark
– SiSoftware Cache Bandwidth Benchmark
– AIDA64 Cache & Memory Benchmark
– Cinebench R15 Multi-threaded test
– 3DMark Fire Strike Physics test
Now let’s get to testing!
To start things off we have SiSoftware’s Sandra. The first test is the Memory Bandwidth benchmark. Higher scores are better here.
Next we have Sandra’s Cache & Memory Latency benchmark that will measure the memory kits latency. Lower scores are better here.
Our final Sandra test is the Cache bandwidth test. Higher scores are better here.
AIDA64 has a built in Cache & Memory benchmark that measures read, write, copy and memory latency. For the read, write and copy higher scores are better, for latency lower scores are better.
Next up is Cinebench R15. This benchmark renders a photo-realistic 3D scene. All of the rendering is done by the CPU, although changing memory and memory speeds does make a difference. We ran the multi-threaded test, higher scores are better here.
Finally we wrap things up with 3DMark’s Fire Strike benchmark. We will be taking the Physics score from our benchmark as it will change the most when you change memory speed. Again, higher scores are better here.
So how does this DDR4 compare to all other DDR4 memory kits that we have tested so far?
