Review: Patriot Memory Viper 4 DDR4 RAM 2x16GB 3000Mhz

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Patriot Memory might not be as well-known anymore, but it’s been consistently pumping out RAM and storage since 1985. You might recognize their USB Flash drives, but today we’re going to be looking at some DDR4, the Patriot Memory Viper 4 in a 2 x 16GB configuration, rated at 3000MHz and timings of CL16-18-18-36.

This kit comes with subdued red and black heatsinks, and contrary to the pictures on Amazon – the circuit board is now black, not green. That should be a welcome piece of information for any builders who don’t want green PCB in their PC.

Let’s get benching

Thaiphoon Burner

First, we check out the DIMM in Thaiphoon Burner, a handy little utility that can read the firmware on a stick of RAM and usually tell us some pretty important information. We notice that the original card designer was Micron, which isn’t surprising as the DRAM IC manufacturer, SpecTek, is a Micron subsidiary.

With all the 16GB configurations I could find on their website, the target CL is 22 for 2933 MHz, so Patriot has done a great job of reducing that to a CL of 16 on the retail package.

AIDA64 Cache & Memory Benchmark

AIDA64’s Cache & Memory benchmark tells us how much pure bandwidth we’ll get from our RAM, plus the performance of the various cache memories on our CPU.

Nothing groundbreaking here, but that’s not the point of these DIMMs. Being able to run 32GB of RAM on an M-ITX build is, or extra RAM capacity for number crunching where you don’t particularly care about the speed, you just need more RAM to hold the full dataset. Still, the Viper 4 kit puts some respectable scores for bandwidth, at 41k MB/s. For reference, a speedy set of Samsung b-die IC at 3600 MHz gets a score of around 10K more.

Overclocking

Overclocking on this kit was a washout on our Ryzen testbench, which I kind of expected. It was also a washout on our Intel testbench, which slightly surprised me. Then again, it is a Micron IC, which isn’t known for overclockability.

Dual-rank DIMMs (16GB per stick) are notorious for slower speeds and compatibility issues. The fact that this Patriot Memory kit not only worked, but also at the XMP settings, speaks volumes for the quality of the sticks. They might not be big-name DRAM IC modules, but they work, which is all most people buying dual-rank DIMMs will care about.

So should I buy it?

The Patriot Viper 4 DDR4 in 2 x 16GB kit at 3000 MHz is the cheapest kit of that speed and capacity on Amazon right now, at $165.

It might not be as flashy as offerings from the competition, but if all you want is a kit of RAM that works well and doesn’t break the bank – this is it. The DDR4 works as advertised, nothing less, nothing more, which is all we really can expect from our tech.

A sample unit was provided for the purpose of this review.

Editors’ Recommendations:

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• Review: Adata XPG Spectrix D41 DDR4 RGB RAM
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Joe Rice-Jones

Maker, meme-r, and unabashed geek with nearly half a decade of blogging experience at KnowTechie, SlashGear and XDA Developers. If it runs on electricity (or even if it doesn't), Joe probably has one around his office somewhere, with particular focus in gadgetry and handheld gaming. Shoot him an email at joe@knowtechie.com.