G.SKILL is announcing two new DDR4 memory series, the Flare X series and FORTIS series, designed and tested specifically for the new AMD Ryzen processor platform. With a brand new architecture, proces... G.SKILL Launchs Flare X Series and Ryzen Optimized FORTIS Series DDR4
i am sure any reasonable kit size will be offered sooner or later. btw dual channel will also run with 4 banks filled.
Glad to see better memories already coming out supporting the platform, let's hope the bugs get ironed out fast.
Ryzen optimized? I bet if you put them in an Intel system, they perform exactly the same. Right now, it's not the memory that's bugged, it's the platform. As soon as they iron out the kinks all memory on the market will perform just fine. It's just marketing. It's like the little "Win10 Ready" stickers they put on peripherals for marketing purposes. They didnt actually change anything, just plopped a sticker on it.
With "Ryzen Optimized" I bet they include an AMP profile for automatic RAM tuning. The same is with Intel XMP profiles.
They're already available on Newegg, saw them this morning and they were reported as "in stock". The timings look pretty high though, 16-16-16-39 at 2400 and 18-18-18-43 at 2666 https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820232511 https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820232515 By comparison the "Intel Optimized" kits have 15-15-15-35 timings at both 2400 and 2666: https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820232176 https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820232174 So it's not like G.Skill couldn't take those same kits, program AMP instead of XMP, and say they were "Optimized for AMD" and sell them at the same timings. The higher timings on these seems to be intentional, I wonder if in their testing G.Skill found anything about the Ryzen memory controller that makes looser timings preferable!
Which makes it even weirder. If they can reach those tight timings at 3200 MHz, surely they could do much better at lower speeds. On the Ripjaws and Trident series they have nothing with timings that high. So why intentionally release these 2400 and 2666 kits with such loose timings?
I just think this is these are their opening kits. As typical for RAM you will find almost any combination of CAS and clock later on in the large forest of fully differentiated yet for the most part indistinguishable SD modules... In this case they put the low CAS high clock out and at the same time the entry models with higher CAS and lower clock... The mid section seems in the process of being binned after having identified the highest and lowest performers ... Also CAS is overrated. At least if set in contrast to clock. You rather have a 2666 CL16 than a 2400 CL15 because effective latency is still lower on the first... (12.51 ns vs 12.00 ns)
Because they aren't binned samsung ICs? The 3200 are the latest and greatest from Samsung that cost significantly more. Those kits with high timings are usually hynix/micron.
I understand the concept of binning. However there's something about these new kits that just doesn't add up. What you're saying would make sense if this was new technology and we were witnessing the introduction of a new kind of memory. But DDR4 isn't new, it has been in volume production for years and the processes should be highly optimized by now. There is nothing new about Ryzen that would require anything different, it's just the same old DDR4 RAM, the "optimized for AMD" is nothing but marketing speak, and probably the only thing missing from existing kits on the market is the addition of an AMP profile programmed into the modules instead of/in addition to an XMP profile. G.Skill surely has been binning these ICs for years and probably selecting the best for their Trident and Ripjaws series while dumping the lower performing ones into their other series such as Aegis and Value RAM. So, why then are these new kits being introduced with timings that aren't seen anywhere else in G.Skill's entire lineup, including the cheaper series? Has G.Skill been holding on to these ICs and just not selling them at all until now? Are these modules using ICs that were binned so low that didn't even make it into Value RAM? That doesn't make any sense! It makes a lot more sense if the higher timings are intentional. But then the question is why? Sure it can be a marketing ploy, they could be introducing these with higher timings now, so they can then inflate the price of lower timing modules later. But then why aren't they doing that already with the other existing series? There are no lower priced Ripjaws modules with CL18, or even Aegis modules. These timings are just nowhere else! Or could they be programming those higher timings into the "AMD optimized" modules because somehow they think it's best? Could their internal testing of Ryzen have shown something we don't know yet?
Nice kits from G. Skill. Hopefully this will clear up some of the bandwidth issues on the lack of quad channel support on the AM4 platform. Not that it makes any noticeable difference, but it's always nice to have a little more of everything as a whole.
Those are too cheap to be fast memory modules, faster ones will come I'm sure. If you want to pay more for RGB BS I'd rather give the difference for the next tier in performance, thank you.
Wonder why people expect high speed memory compatibility to be perfect the second the AMD motherboards are out the door? Just looking at the Z170 and Z270 and their memory compatibility was ten times worse, on average it took 6-10 BIOS revisions before they cleared up the compatibility issues.
MSI's support website is claiming F4-3200C14D-16GFX contains SK hynix, which is somewhat of a concern since most reviewers are claiming people should avoid Hynix with Ryzen boards.
