System Overview and Testing
Our test bench is made up of the follow components…
Processor: Intel Core i9-10900K
Graphics Card: ASUS Strix RTX 2080 TI
Motherboard: AORUS Z490 Master
Memory: T-Force Dark Z DDR4 3600 MHz CAS 18
Storage: Samsung 500 GB 970 Evo Plus
Power Supply: Thermaltake 1200 watt Tough Power Grand 80+ Platinum
Cooling: Custom Loop (Bitspower Block)
Case: Primochill Praxis Wetbench
With its stock settings on XMP Profile #1, the T-Force Dark Z kit we tested runs at 3600 MHz with a CAS Latency of 18. The Stock timings for The Dark Z memory on XMP #1 are 18-22-22-42 and its stock voltage is 1.35 volts.
For all testing, our kit of Dark Z memory was tested at its stock settings on XMP Profile #1, as well as with our overclocked settings of 3866 MHz. Like with all reviews, we do our best to keep the ambient temperature no higher than 20°c. The first benchmark is run 30 minutes from booting the system and there is a 30-minute delay between each benchmark. This is done to give the system time to idle and cool down. The benchmarks we run are listed below.
– SiSoftware Sandra Memory Bandwidth Benchmark
– SiSoftware Sandra Cache & Memory Latency Benchmark
– SiSoftware Cache Bandwidth Benchmark
– AIDA64 Cache & Memory Benchmark
– 3DMark Fire Strike Physics test
Si Soft Sandra
For Si Soft Sandra, we run both the cache and memory bandwidth tests, as well as the memory latency tests. As mentioned earlier, we tested the Dark Z memory at both 3600 MHz and 3866 MHz.
For the memory bandwidth test, we recorded the aggregate, integer, and floating-point results. As far as the results are concerned, the higher the score the better. Our Dark Z did slightly better when overclocked to 3866 MHz on all three results.
Like with the memory bandwidth test, our Dark Z did slightly better when overclocked on the Sandra Cache Bandwidth test. The higher the score, the better.
On the Sandra Memory Latency test, again, our Dark Z did slightly better when overclocked to 3866 MHz. At its stock setting, our Dark Z memory had a memory latency of 26.2 ms and 25.9 ms when overclocked to 3866 MHz.
Aida64
For Aida64, we ran the Cache and Memory bandwidth benchmark. This benchmark gives you a read, write, and copy results, as well as memory latency. For the read, write, and copy tests, the higher the score, the better. As for the memory latency test, the lower the ms, or milliseconds the better.
In Aida64, we tested our Dark Z memory on its stock setting of 3600 MHz and overclocked to 3866 MHz. On the memory bandwidth test, our Dark Z did better when overclocked on the read, write, and copy tests.
On the Aida64 memory latency test, the Dark Z memory scored better when overclocked at a latency of 52.8 ms. At stock, our Dark Z memory hit 53.8 ms on the Aida64 memory latency test.
3DAMRK
For 3DMARK, we ran Firestrike and recorded the Physics score. Firestrike was run with our Dark Z at stock and overclocked to 3866 MHz. Like with the rest of the tests, out Dark Z memory did slightly better overclocked. With our Dark Z at its stock setting of 3600 MHz, we achieved a Physics score of 29301. With our Dark Z overclocked to 3866 MHz, we achieved a Physics score of 29420. Not much higher, but an increase none the less.