G.SKILL was one of the first firms to release RGB DDR4 modules, which were a huge success. Their Trident Z RGB kits are still among the greatest RGB kits on the market, with a sleek and sensual design that you can’t help but appreciate. What could possibly trump G.SKILL’s Trident Z RGB kits? With the debut of the Trident Z Royal DDR4 RAM at Computex this year, they showed everyone how they were going to do it. The heat spreader architecture is the same on this new memory, but the heat spreaders are constructed of polished aluminum, which looks fantastic. A crystalline light bar atop the heat spreaders is unlike anything we’ve ever seen before. Today we’re looking at the F4-3200C16D-16GTRS kit, which is a 16GB (2 x 8GB) kit with timings of 16-18-18-38 at 1.35v and runs at 3200 MHz. Is this going to be the RGB memory to have in 2018? Continue reading to find out!
Table of Contents
Specifications
- Series: Trident Z Royal
- Height: 44 mm / 1.73 inch
- Registered/Unbuffered: Unbuffered
- Error Checking: Non-ECC
- SPD Speed: 2133MHz
- SPD Voltage: 1.20v
- Fan included: No
- Memory Type: DDR4
- Capacity: 16GB (8GBx2)
- Multi-Channel Kit: Dual Channel Kit
- Tested Speed: 3200MHz
- Tested Voltage: 1.35v
- Tested Latency: 16-18-18-38
- Warranty: Limited Lifetime
- Features: Intel XMP 2.0 (Extreme Memory Profile) Ready
Packaging
Trident Z Royal from G.SKILL comes in a simple black box with “G.SKILL Trident Z Royal” text across the center.
On the back, there isn’t much information other than stickers that tell you whose kit it is, the speeds, timings, and so on.
When you open the box, you’ll find a G.SKILL case badge and a cleaning cloth, both of which you’ll need to keep the modules clean.
After removing those two items, you may finally look at the memory below.
G.SKILL Trident Z Royal Overview
If you’re familiar with the Trident Z memory design, you’ll recognize the Trident Z Royal. The heat spreader has undergone a significant transformation, becoming CNC-cut aluminum that has been meticulously polished. G.SKILL offers both silver and gold heat spreader designs for these modules; as you can see, we received the silver variant. These look incredible, and the photos do not do them justice. The silver version is essentially chrome since it has a mirror-like sheen, making it difficult to photograph.
Except for the Trident Z Royal emblem on the far right, the main surface of heat spreaders is very basic. These modules’ PCBs are, of course, black. The PCB is a bespoke 10-layer design, and each of the memory ICs is individually hand-screened.
When you turn the modules over, little stickers on the back indicate which kit you have. We have the F4-3200C16D-16GTRS kit, which is a 16GB (2 x 8GB) kit running at 3200 MHz with timings of 16-18-18-38 at 1.35v, as previously noted.
The crystalline light bar at the top, which rests atop eight RGB LEDs, is, of course, the most notable feature of these modules. It looks incredible on its own and is unlike anything we’ve ever seen.
Each module’s top has a light bar that runs the length of it. It’s made to spread and refract light from the RGB LEDs beneath it.
When looking at the modules from the side, it’s easy to notice how thick the heat spreaders are, which is rather astounding. Each module is 44 mm (1.73 inches) tall for those who are curious.
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Lighting & Software
When you connect this kit to your system and turn it on, you’ll notice the crystalline light bar glow with RGB lights, which is extremely stunning!
Since the last time we saw it, G.SKILL has upgraded its RGB control software. The new design and settings are extremely excellent, and they don’t feel like an ASUS Aura Sync skin. You can control each DIMM separately, as well as all eight RGB LEDs individually. One of the good features is that you may select a color from the color wheel, enter it as an RGB code, or even as a HEX code. The software has a number of excellent lighting effects, each of which may be adjusted in speed. In addition, the software includes four distinct profiles.
These modules are really highlighted by the crystalline light bar, and you can’t help but adore them. These will undoubtedly make a statement in any construction.
The light bar is also designed to distribute and refract light, which should assist illuminate the interior of your case. As you can see from the lights on our graphics card, it performs a fantastic job.
Overclocking
On the Intel Z370 platform, overclocking is simple. Changing the frequency divider in the BIOS is the simplest way to overclock. To get the best overclock, we aim to stick to the XMP profile’s recommended timings. If we run into any problems, we’ll increase the voltage to see if we can get our system to boot and stabilize.
This kit runs at 3200 MHz according to the XMP profile. I began by increasing the frequency divider in the BIOS without changing the timings or voltage. We were able to go up to 3600 MHz! That’s without adjusting the timings or voltage, which is quite good! We could easily operate our kit at 3600 MHz all the time because this was a 100 percent stable overclock.
The extra 400 MHz was a welcome boost; here’s how it stacks up against other RGB DDR4 modules we’ve recently examined.
System Overview & Testing
The G.SKILL Trident Z Royal was installed in our Z370 test system, which consists of the following components.
- Processor: Intel Core i7-8700K
- Memory: G.SKILL Trident Z Royal
- Storage: Zotac Premium Edition 240GB
- Graphics Card: Zotac GeForce GTX 1070 Ti AMP! Edition
- Motherboard: ASUS Prime Z370-A
- Cooling: NZXT Kraken X52
- Power: Corsair AX860i
- Case: Lian Li PC-T80
Using CPU-Z, we can observe that this memory is set to its XMP profile, running at 3200 MHz with 16-18-18-38 timings at 1.35V.
We’ll use the benchmarking program below to evaluate the memory at its stock or XMP profile settings. After that, we’ll repeat the testing with a 3200 MHz overclock. The benchmarking program that we utilize is listed below.
- SiSoftware Sandra Memory Bandwidth Benchmark
- SiSoftware Sandra Cache & Memory Latency Benchmark
- SiSoftware Cache Bandwidth Benchmark
- AIDA64 Cache & Memory Benchmark
- Cinebench R15 Multi-threaded test
- 3DMark Fire Strike Physics test
Now it’s time to put our skills to the test!
Sandra from SiSoftware is our first guest. The Memory Bandwidth benchmark is the first test. Here, higher scores are preferable.
Sandra’s Cache & Memory Latency benchmark will then be used to determine the latency of the memory kits. Here, lower scores are preferable.
The Cache bandwidth test is our final Sandra test. Here, higher scores are preferable.
The Cache and Memory benchmark in AIDA64 analyses read, write, copy, and memory latency. Higher read, write, and copy scores are better, whereas lower latency scores are preferable.
Then there’s Cinebench R15. This benchmark creates a photo-realistic three-dimensional scene. The CPU conducts all of the renderings, albeit adjusting memory and memory rates does make an impact. We completed the multi-threaded test; greater scores are desirable in this case.
Finally, we’ll take a look at 3DMark’s Fire Strike benchmark. We’ll use the Physics score from our benchmark because it’ll alter the most when your memory speed changes. Here, too, greater scores are preferable.
Conclusion
G.SKILL truly raised the bar with their initial Trident Z RGB memory, and we didn’t think they’d be able to beat it, but they’ve proven us wrong yet again. The Trident Z Royal memory kit is without a doubt the most attractive RGB memory kit we’ve ever seen. The general design of the Trident Z is fantastic, but G.SKILL managed to make it even better! First, the original heat spreaders were replaced with polished metal heat spreaders with a mirror-like finish.
They replaced the usual light bar at the top of each module with a crystalline light bar if that wasn’t enough. This is impressive enough on its own, but wait when you turn on your system. It is meant to scatter and refract light from the 8 RGB LEDs below, and it is lit with radiant RGB lighting. When it comes to RGB lighting, each of the 8 RGB LEDs can be separately adjusted, and G.SKILL’s RGB software is fairly outstanding, allowing a variety of options and effects.
Finally, there’s a unique 10-layer PCB with hand-screened memory ICs under the hood. This assures excellent performance at the kit’s XMP profile level, as well as a decent overclock. We were able to increase the frequency of this kit from 3200 to 3600 MHz without changing the voltage or timings. That is just remarkable!
G.SKILL’s new RGB DDR4 kits are unquestionably the must-have RGB DDR4 kits of 2019. Our preferred online shop is selling the kit we evaluated today (F4-3200C16D-16GTRS) for $199.99, which is around $40 more than the standard Trident Z RGB modules.
Pros:
- This is the best-looking RGB DDR4 we’ve ever seen.
- Excellent performance
- Plenty of room for overclocking
- Reasonable price
- A light bar in your system creates a light show.
- Excellent RGB control software
Cons:
- None that we found
