Patriot Division 2 Viper Xtreme PC3 15000 Memory Review

When building a system the component choices can often be a limiting factor, both in price and performance.  Luckily memory manufactures have gotten better about creating specialized memory kits specific for your particular system.  In this review we looked at a new dual channel DDR3 memory kit from Patriot called the Division 2 Viper Xtreme.  This kit will work in all DDR3 computer systems but comes with speeds and latency settings specific for the Sandy Bridge platform. 

While you can run any 1.5v-1.65v DDR3 memory module on a Sandy Bridge system you will be hard pressed to find a high speed module that matches the default multipliers found in the Sandy Bridge IMC.  Case in point the 2000Mhz reference modules used in this review had to be run at 18.67, not because they matched the review sample but rather since they won't run at the 21.33 multiplier setting.  We did have good success overclocking the Division 2 Viper Xtreme modules with a resulting overclock of 1980Mhz @ CAS9.  While this overclock did provide a healthy boost to our benchmark numbers they were still overshadowed by the faster CAS7 modules we used as a reference.

As a general rule of thumb you will see a significant performance increase whenever you can run your memory clock above the default 13.33x multiplier setting and that is what you will get from these modules.  While the Patriot Division 2 Viper Xtreme modules may not have the best timings their overall performance is perfect for gaming and general purpose computing.

High Speed Modules
Spreaders Look Great
Have the Feeling of Quality
XMP Profile Performance

CAS 9 Timings
Not able to adjust timings at speed
Color scheme my not match most motherboards