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Overclocking the new Corsair Vengeancememory kitsBy Jake Crimmins, on December 2nd, 2010

Our new CorsairVengeance DDR3 memorywas specifically designed with overclockers inmind. Vengeance memory combines value, low voltage, overclockability, and a new heat spreaderdesign. To see just how far the new kits can overclock, I chose two high density 1600MHz, Cas 9kits to test on dual and triple-channel systems. In order to test their stability, I used a combination ofHyperPi 32m and Memtest86 to push the Vengence memory to its limits. Since the Vengeance kitsare rated at 1.5 volts, I tested the modules for overclockability at 1.65 volts as well. Well see if thehigher 1.65 voltage will help the memory overclock further.

For dual channel systems, I chose the Vengeance 8GB CMZ8GX3M2A1600C9 kit for the overclocktest. The Vengeance memory kit contains two 4GB modules, rated for 1600MHz 9-9-9-24 at 1.5volts. The motherboard I chose was the Gigabyte GA-P55A-UD4P, with an Intel Core i7-870processor. I tested the kit at the rated 1.5v with 9-9-9-24 timings, and achieved a frequency of1787MHz. This was an overclock of 187MHz , without changing anything in the bios except for thebase clock. Relaxing the memory timings did not result in a higher overclock at this voltage.

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However, when I relaxed the timings and raised the voltage, the kit was able to be overclocked to2004MHz (thats a 404MHz overclock if you are keeping track). In order to achieve this overclock, Irelaxed the memory timings to 9-10-9-27 and set the voltage to 1.65 volts.

To testVengeance memoryoverclockability on triple channel systems, I chose the 12GBCMZ12GX3M3A1600C9 kit. The kit contains three 4GB modules, rated at 1600MHz 9-9-9-24. This

kit is also rated at 1.5 volts, just like the dual channel kit. The motherboard I chose to test this kitwas the Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD9, with an Intel Core i7-920 processor.

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The 12GB triple-channel Vengeance kit was able to reach 1800MHz using the stock rated timingsand voltages. Again, the only thing I changed was the base clock, in order to allow the modules torun at a faster frequency.

Similarly to the P55 based dual-channel system, when I relaxed the memory timings and raised thememory voltage the modules overclocked to 2000MHz. I set the memory voltage to 1.65 volts, andthe memory timings were set to 9-10-9-24. Again, I achieved a 400MHz overclock over the ratedfrequency with very minimal effort.

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Overall bothVengeance memory kitswere highly overclockable, easily achieving a 25% increasein frequency. It was impressive to see both Vengeance 1600MHz Cas 9 kits reaching speeds of1800MHz without any changes to timings or voltages. Raising the memory voltage and relaxing thetRCD and tRAS timings allowed for another 200MHz of overclocking headroom. Relaxing thetimings further may allow for even higher memory overclocks.

Stay tuned to the Corsair Blog for more Vengeance info, news and reviews in the coming weeks!

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