CORSAIR High End Dominator Platinum - DDR3 2800C11 Review

DDR3 has been in the market for long time. It changes year by year.
Ex: price change or capacity improves. Like last year, 4~8GB became the mainstream capacity.
Most users use 4GX2 or 8GX2 as their PC spec.
Besides capacity, high clock DDR3 is the other key factor of performance improving.



CORSAIR focus on high performance DDR3 for years.
High clock DDR3 products are Dominator series mainly. After that, it's with GT or GTX code.
Last year, CORSAIR launched DDR3 most high end series, Dominator Platinum.
This review is the current highest clock modules, Dominator Platinum.
The model is CMD16GX3M4A2800C11. This is DDR3 2800 CL11, the top specs.

The high end Dominator Platinum bundles with exclusive AIRFLOW.
The package is much bigger than the regular DD3 modules.


The back side lists the PCB and other technologies.


DDR3 2800 4GB X 4, CL11 14-14-35, 1.65V
Dominator Platinum DDR3 2800 has CL11 and CL12 versions.


Product manual and AIRFLOW cooler.
AIRFLOW texture and fan design are much better than former one.


Dominator Platinum front and back.
CORSAIR own DHX (Dual-path Heat eXchange) Cooling technology which flaunts it's better cooling capability.


The top is white metal heat sink. I guess this is name, Platinum, from.
After powering on, you can see the white light. It really enhances the product texture.
They also have upgrade kit, Light Bar Upgrade Kit.
I have seen some pics in internet. It has rich light effects.


I choose Intel Ivy Bridge Z77 as test platform. Z77 is the current highest DD3 platform.
I use GIGABYTE Z77X-UD4H. The spec and price are mid-range in Z77 market.
It's Ultra Durable 4. CPU PWM is 8 phases design. It has 4 built-in GPU outputs.


It has 3 PCI-E X16, 3 PCI-E X1 and 1 PCI. The design, components and expandability are quite balance.
As LGA 1155 Sandy Bridge structure, DRAM can reach DDR3 2133 as none overclock CPU.
The other LGA 2011 Sandy Bridge can reach DDR3 2400.
LGA 1155 Ivy Bridge is the current highest DDR3 clock platform. It can reach DDR3 2666~2800.
It's must for DDR3 2800 platform. Intel keeps improving Memory controller built in PU.


Test Platform
CPU: Intel Core i7-3770K
MB: GIGABYTE Z77X-UD4H
DRAM: CORSAIR Dominator Platinum CMD16GX3M4A2800C11
VGA: Intel HD Graphics 4000
HDD: Samsung 830 Series 128GB SSD
POWER: XIGMATEK Tauro 400W Bronze
Cooler: CORSAIR Hydro Series H100
OS: Windows8 64bit

Let's start with the comparison between DDR3 2400 and DDR3 2800.
Enable XMP in UEFI BIOS.
The first pic is DDR3 2400 CL11 14-14-35 2T.
Hyper PI 32M X 8 => 11m 39.698s


The 2nd pic is DDR3 2800 CL11 14-14-35 2T
Hyper PI 32M X 8 => 11m 24.254s


Hyper PI 32M can test stability and arithmetic performance.
You can see DDR3 2800 is 15 seconds faster than DDR3 2400.

CrystalMark 2004R3 MEM => 83220
MaXXMEM Memory-Copy - 27972 MB/s


CrystalMark 2004R3 MEM => 91528
MaXXMEM Memory-Copy - 29007 MB/s


DDR3 2800在CrystalMark 2004R3 MEM is about 9.9% higher.
MaXXMEM Memory-Copy is 3.7% higher.

ADIA64 Memory Read - 23600 MB/s


ADIA64 Memory Read - 26037 MB/s


ADIA64 Memory Read DDR3 2800 improves about 10.3%.

Then, I installed SoftPerfect RamDisk. I set 8192MB capacity for RamDisk test.
PCMark Vantage Memories Score => 14297 / HDD Score 1438588


PCMark Vantage Memories Score => 14428 / HDD Score 1435109


In PCMark Vantage test, no matter Memory or RamDisk HDD test, you can see the difference is minor.

ATTO DISK Benchmark max read is 4093.6 Mb/s and write is 3286.8 MB/s.

CrystalDiskMark
Seq Read - 12702 MB/s Write - 15024 MB/s


ATTO DISK Benchmark max read is 4160.7 Mb/s and write is 3807.2 MB/s
CrystalDiskMark
Seq Read - 13094 MB/s Write - 15086 MB/s


After RamDisk, DDR3 2800 performance improves in most benchmark software.
Maybe the performance is much higher than the regular usage, the DDR3 clock impact becomes smaller.

Ivy Bridge structure, when set CPU frequency as 100MHz, max DDR3 clock is 2800.
Even though, the DRAM quality really impacts the DDR3 2800 stability.
The CPU built-in Memory Controller must be good, also the MB.
There are many conditions. However, DDR3 2800 bandwidth is worth for that.

After then, I fine tune it to DDR3 2800 CL11 14-14-35 1T 1.65V. The official spec 2T with 1.65V is more conservative.
Hyper PI 32M X 8 => 11m 14.440s


CrystalMark 2004R3 MEM => 95465
MaXXMEM Memory-Copy - 29007 MB/s


ADIA64 Memory Read - 26384 MB/s


SoftPerfect RamDisk
PCMark Vantage Memories Score => 14892 / HDD Score 1507704


ATTO DISK Benchmark max read is 4227.9 Mb/s and write is 3496.3 MB/s
CrystalDiskMark
Seq Read - 13325 MB/s Write - 15267 MB/s


DDR3 2800 at same CL and other parameters, 1T and 2T performance are similar.
Most benchmark software above has better performance in 1T. However, 2T set up has better stability.
As DDR3 2400 and 2800 difference, DDR3 high clock does have better bandwidth.

I would like to mention AIRFLOW cooler temperature performance at DDR3 2800 2T setup.
If without AIRFLOW, the max temperature is around 47.5, otherwise it's about 37.6.
The temperature drops 9.9 degree C. It's helpful for stability for sure.

Intel new structure always advantages DDR3. Either pull higher clock or performance improved as same bandwidth.
Last generation, Sandy Bridge, max is DDR3 2133. Ivy Bridge max is DDR3 2800.
Regarding to DDR3 clock improvement, if CPU clock can pull higher than 100MHz, the clock will be higher.
These 2 generations structure sync CPU clock with PCI-E clock. If you pull CPU clock too high, the system stability is a question.
So this review only set CPU clock at 100MHz.



CORSAIR most high end DDR3 product line, Dominator Platinum, has several clocks.
The official site shows 5 models from DDR3 1600 to DDR3 2800. Higher clock is higher price.
DDR3 is no more competition for clock performance and capacity.
As RamDisk software becomes more popular, more DDR3 capacity provides richer and more convenient applications. Especially, the incredible bandwidth leverages the performance.
This review, Dominator Platinum DDR3 2800 CL11, performance is excellent.
I hope it will have 8GX4 version soon. It will show us another milestone of DDR3 performance.
DDR3 can be higher or not? 8G price can be more parity? I think these are what end users care about.
Hopefully, after 2nd June, Intel new Haswell structure will fly over DDR3 3000.