Ballistix Sport AT 3000Mhz CL17 DDR4 Dual Channel Memory Review

ASUS TUF Z370-Plus Gaming – Z370 Chipset
Intel Core i7 8700k (3.7Ghz) Hex Core 6 x 256KB L2 Cache 12MB L3 Cache
Thermaltake Water 2.0 Extreme
1x nVidia GTX 980Ti
HP dvd1260i Multiformat 24x Writer
Thermaltake Toughpower Grand 1050 Watt PSU
Windows 10 Pro 64bit

Memory Tested
4x Ballistix Sport AT XMP 3000Mhz (17-19-19-38)

Reference Tested
2x Ballistix Elite XMP 2666Mhz (16-18-18-38)

Sandra is a software collection of synthetic benchmarks that will give us a basic idea as to what a system is capable of. It should be noted that SiSoft numbers can change depending on what hardware is being tested.  These were recorded using Sandra Professional Version 24.50.2017.11

AIDA64 Extreme Edition is a streamlined diagnostic and benchmarking software package designed to assist with overclocking and general system tuning.  The package also contains modules to assess the performance of the processor, system memory, and disk drives in addition to normal stuff like stress testing and troubleshooting. 

Unigine is a synthetic benchmark much like 3DMark Vantage, but supports the newest of DirectX 11 technologies. The benchmark comes with lots of heavy tessellation and soft shadows to work the more flexible shaders found on DirectX 11 graphic cards. This makes this benchmark ideal for seeing exactly what a best case scenario might look like for a DirectX 11 capable GPU.

Benchmark Settings
HWBot Benchmark
DirectX 11 Presets
DirectX 9 Presets

PCMark 10 is an overall system benchmark to measure and compare PC performance using real-world tasks and applications. Similar to 3DMark this new version tests the entire system as a whole using applications that reflect typical PC use in the home and at the office.  This approach ensures that PCMark measures the things that matter, highlighting performance differences that will be apparent to end users and consumers.

SYSmark 2014 SE is an application-based benchmark that reflects usage patterns of business users in the areas of office productivity, media creation, and data/financial analysis and features the latest and most popular applications from each of their respective fields.  This is a Second Edition release to the popular SYSmark 2014 that works better with Windows 10.    

When you are dealing with high performance memory modules there is very little that separates them in terms of overall performance.  The charts above reflect the performance difference between the Ballistix Sport AT and Ballistix Elite.  Given that these modules are from the same company there is little that will separate them in terms of performance.  Keep in mind that the Sport AT modules are running at 3000Mhz while the Elite has tighter timings and running at 2666Mhz.

Also keep in mind that the ASUS TUF Gaming Alliance is a midmarket gaming brand and most products will be priced accordingly.  This will impact overclocking performance but not something most midmarket gamers will miss.  In fact for this segment it pays to shop above the market norm.  For instance we are using the Core i7 8700K when many gamers might opt for a lower priced Core i5, that will lower performance.  Likewise we are also using 32GB of 3000Mhz memory which is not only faster but considerably more expensive.  While that is how we roll at Hardware Asylum that might not work for everyone.