Let’s start with the most obvious fact that these results prove. Samsung B-Die based RAM is pure Ryzen Ram overclocking nirvana. This is actually the most critical factor when looking at RAM for your shiny new Ryzen rig. It is just that good. Next since A.G.E.S.A. 1.0.0.6a was released RAM overclocking on Ryzen is not that bad. It’s still not as good as on Intel but we honestly doubt many will care about ‘only’ hitting DDR4-3466 speeds. That is bloody fast.
Now with that taken care of the Ballistix Elite series is simply fan-frickin’-tastic. If you can afford it and you want 32GB of RAM it really is one of the few we would trust in our rigs. This is because these bad boys allowed us to use 4 sticks of DDR4 at 1T command rate instead of 2T. This may not sound like a big deal but it is a massive difference when it comes to latency. With the DDR4-3466 kit we were easily able to do 1T all the way to DDR4-3200 at 1.35v. To hit DDR4-3466 we had to raise the voltage a smidge to 1.40v. If our Ryzen’s IMC was better would probably could have gone even further but DDR4-3466 is our chips limit. In other words, these sticks will not be the bottleneck. It will be your processor that keeps you from going even higher. That is just amazing and underscores how good this kit really is.
Next, the extra thick heatsinks really do a fantastic job at keep the RAM ICs cool without making them overly tall. Even on an open test bench and at DDR4-3466 with 1.4volts and stressing them for days at a time they only got slightly warm to the touch. Yes the single Noctua heatsink cooler sucking – not pushing – air over them was more than enough. That is not something we would recommend doing with the Tactical series.
Now for those interested in tighter timings at lower frequencies the Elite series really does not offer much more than Tactical line. We got all the way to DDR4-2666 at 1.2v and by pushing this to 1.35 were able to hit DDR-2666 at 13-14-14 timings. Only then did we have to loosen things up a smidge. This is basically the same as what the Tactical DDR4-3000 kit was capable of. Albeit at 1T instead of 2T timings and with less voltage required to hit higher frequencies. Specifically to hit DDR4-3200 it only required 1.35v instead of requiring 1.40v. With 1.4v DDR4-3466 was not only possible at 2T (unlike the Tactical review sample) it was able to do it at 1T. As such if you really don’t care about Infinity Fabric speeds and rather tight (for Ryzen) timings the Elite may not be worth the extra cost.
Though this will only enter into the equation for a rather small minority of people. If you don’t know if you need tighter timings vs higher frequencies… it is safe bet that you will want higher frequencies. The overall performance impact is just too large for most scenarios to sacrifice Data Fabric/Infinity Fabric performance for slightly lower latency. Mix in the fact that these go all the way to DDR4-3466 at tight timings and for those interested in getting every last ounce of performance from their CPU and RAM combination the Elite series is indeed worth the extra cost.
