Hey everyone, I've been testing several VLP kits lately on the search for the best option for my system (and out of fascination, they're cool and niche). I figured I should tell this thread about my experience.
My kits:
- Kingston KVR26N19S8L/8 2x8GB 2666C19
- V-Color TE416G26D819V-VKC 2x16GB 2666C19 ECC
- Innodisk M4C0-AGS1TCIK 2x16GB 2666C19 ECC
MB: Asus Rog Strix B450-I Gaming
CPU: R5 3600 (previously an Athlon 200GE)
The Athlon should approximately represent your average Zen1 and Zen+ memory controller and its limits, whereas the 3600 is obviously much more capable in every regard and can unlock the true limits of these ram sticks. The Strix B450-I motherboard is generally regarded one of the best options for memory overclocking on Ryzen and shouldn't be the limiting factor in most cases.
[Spoiler="Kingston KVR26N19S8L/8"]
The modules use memory chips by Nanya Technology, specifically their first 8Gbit die revision, A-Die. Nanya only entered the DDR4 market in 2019 and reviews of this die are scarce and hard to find. Everything I've found points towards respectable overclocking headroom, around the 3400-3800MT/s mark. Thats sufficient for Ryzen.
On my 200GE, I ended up getting these up to
Frequency | Voltage | tCL-tRCDRD-tRCDWR-tRP-tRAS | note |
|---|
3666MT/s | 1.45V | 16-17-18-21-36 |
|
3600MT/s | 1.35V | 16-17-18-21-36 |
|
3466MT/s | 1.28V | 16-17-18-21-36 |
|
3200MT/s | 1.20V | 16-17-18-21-36 |
|
There might have been more potential in those timings at lower frequency, but I stuck to 3600MT/s so I didnt really care about that.
On my Ryzen 3600, I curiously had to change the tRCDRD timing to achieve stability
Frequency | Voltage | tCL-tRCDRD-tRCDWR-tRP-tRAS | note |
|---|
3600MT/s | 1.35V | 16-19-10-21-37 |
|
3800MT/s | 1.35V | 18-19-20-15-38 |
|
Higher frequencies did boot but threw errors quickly. Not sure if I'd be able to stabilize them.
[Spoiler="Raven Ridge 3666MT/s"]
[/Spoiler]
[Spoiler="Matisse Screenshots"]
[/Spoiler]
Overall I'm happy with the results of this memory kit, I ended up recommending my 3600MT/s settings to someone else on Discord and they seemed to work there as well. Can recommend.
[/Spoiler]
[Spoiler="V-Color TE416G26D819V-VKC"]
These modules uses memory chips by SK Hynix, namely their second latest 8Gbit die revision, commonly referred to as CJR. They're great ICs, can be found on many 3600MHz 16-19-19-39 or 3600MHz 18-22-22-42 retail kits. They may have overclocking headroom between 3600CL16 and >4000MT/s CL18, from what I've seen.
They're also the same ICs as those found on ADATA VLP modules recently, from what I've gathered.
A thing to note here is that -AURMEND- got this same kit with Hynix AFR ICs. Those are inferior dies on average, usually reaching between 3200 and 3600MT/s at most. The amazon seller that I got these from also sells a 2400MT/s module, which according to the low-quality product picture and amazon user reviews contains Samsung dies (B-Die, it seems).
On my 200GE, this kit capped out at around 3333MHz. Their dual rank nature is simply too taxing for weak memory controllers.
On my Ryzen 3600, they got a lot further
Frequency | Voltage | tCL-tRCDRD-tRCDWR-tRP-tRAS | note |
|---|
4000MT/s | 1.40V | 18-19-10-21-21 |
|
3800MT/s | 1.45V | 16-19-10-21-21 |
|
3600MT/s | 1.40V | 16-17-10-19-21 |
|
[Spoiler="Matisse Screenshots"]
[/Spoiler]
I'm highly impressed with these modules, I think I got lucky. The ECC functionality doesnt appear to reduce performance and can be disabled in the BIOS.
[/Spoiler]
[Spoiler="Innodisk M4C0-AG1CTIK"]
These EUDIMMs contain Samsung C-Die chips (detected via their ...C-BCTD code on the ICs). Those are known to be some pretty bad ICs. They have low voltage tolerance and scale negatively with voltage past a certain point. They can be found on recent Corsair v4.32 3200C16 and I believe 3600C19 kits. Some reports suggest they can clock rather high with loose timings, but only at low-ish voltage.
On my 200GE, they achieved no greater than 3266MT/s at lame timings (16-17-10-20-40 IIRC)
On my Ryzen 3600, I did get to push them further
Frequency | Voltage | tCL-tRCDRD-tRCDWR-tRP-tRAS | note |
|---|
3200MT/s | 1.24V | 16-17-10-18-33 |
|
3600MT/s | 1.28V | 18-21-21-22-42 |
|
3800MT/s | 1.24V | 20-21-21-22-42 | -boot issues- |
Anything between 3666 and 3800 might be stable, but demand higher voltage for tCL 16 so I stopped. 3800 had issues where it oftentimes didn't boot successfully, which could probably be stabilized with more effort, but its timings are super loose already so I won't bother.
[Spoiler="Matisse Screenshots"]
[/Spoiler]
These sticks are the worst performing ones out of the three. Based on this individual experience I wouldn't recommend them in case there are other options available.
[/Spoiler]
Conclusion:
- Kingston OC: 3600C16 or 3800C18
- V-Color OC: 3600C16, 3800C16 or 4000C18
- Innodisk OC: 3600C18
The VLP DDR4 DRAM options on the market right now appear to have respectable potential. Western users are no longer restricted to uncertain purchases from South East Asia, like it used to be until mid 2019. I wouldn't hesistate to pick V-Color modules or Crucial's CT16G4XFD8266 over the Innodisk modules.
I hope this will be helpful to some. I know my testing wasn't perfectly consistent or perfectly thorough (you'd typically want to run an overnight ram test for every setting), but this should be fine in terms of giving some form of indication.
I have also decided to compile this spreadsheet for information about VLP DDR4, with reported overclocks I could find on here, on Reddit and on Discord.
I think I'm gonna sell my Innodisk modules, I'll post a trade thread some time.
