GeIL ORION RGB DDR4-4400 CL18 Ryzen Memory Review

4400 MHz on Ryzen IF You Dare

We all have hardware stories, and my first DDR2 memory was a GeIL Black Dragon kit that featured not only a black PCB, but red LED lights for eyes of the silkscreened dragon on each DIMM! I thought it was pretty cool back then, but we live in the RGB (and DDR4) era now.

Naturally, GeIL (an acronym for Golden Emperor International Ltd.) has embraced current lighting trends, and the ORION RGB kit we received offers plenty of RGB goodness.

Features (via GeIL):

• Stunning and smooth RGB effects
• Designed for content creators and gamers
• Sci-fi element pattern design
• Approximately standard height heat spreaders
• Simply Fit in Case
• Speed up to 4400MHz
• Kit Capacities up to 128GB

The GeIL ORION RGB Kit

We have a the 16GB (8GBx2) kit at 4400 MHz memory to test, with timings of 18-24-24-44 at 1.45V. This represents the highest frequency in the ORION RGB lineup – and at the lowest latency (a CL19 version is available as well). The model number for our sample is GAOSG416GB4400C18ADC.

Our kit is outfitted with “Titanium Gray” brushed aluminum heatspreaders, and a “Racing Red” finish is available in some configurations as well. At the top of each DIMM are diffusers for the RGB lighting within, with the sides featuring a “trident gradient” pattern, and the upper edge featuring a “honeycomb sculpture” which is molded into the material.

Not much more need be said with regard to the design of the heatspreaders, and the RGB lighting works with all of the usual motherboard standards. These ORION RGB memory kits are available in speeds ranging from 2666 MHz to 4400 MHz, and in dual and quad-channel configurations in capacities up to 64GB and 128GB respectively.

Now for a virtual look under the hood:

I was a bit surprised to see Hynix ICs from a Ryzen kit with a frequency this high, but if they hit their rated speed and timings, it shouldn’t matter, right?

Performance Testing

As the box features an AMD Ryzen logo I chose to install it in our Ryzen 9 3900X-powered GPU testbed.

It could be argued that memory speeds this high aren’t necessary on Ryzen platforms, and it will certainly be quite the feat to reach an FCLK of 2200 MHz to achieve a 1:1 ratio with DDR4-4400. Our Ryzen 9 3900X has no trouble operating at an FCLK of 1800 MHz, and the current Ryzen 5000 Series is known to sustain higher Infinity Fabric frequencies.

I first set about configuring and benchmarking this memory using the advertised XMP-equivalent settings of DDR4-4400 CL18 (24-24-44) at 1.45V, and this was easily achieved by enabling our ASUS Crosshair VIII Hero motherboard’s D.O.C.P setting.

With the memory at 4400 MHz CL18 the system was completely stable, and I ran a couple of tests to compare the performance against other recently tested memory kits of various speeds.

Nothing to complain about with the fastest performance of this group thanks to the 4400 MHz effective frequency of the GeIL kit. But this comes at the cost of the IF frequency / FCLK, which would ideally be 1:1 with the RAM frequency.

In the case of 4400 MHz this 1:1 ratio would (theoretically) be 2200 MHz, which is (probably) beyond the realm of possibility for any Ryzen CPU. The latest Ryzen 5000 Series processors can achieve 2000 MHz, but even then you would be limited to DDR4-4000 if you wanted synchronous operation.

Now the bad part: this 4400 MHz kit produces a default FCLK of a whopping 1100 MHz, which is one half of the memory’s 2200 MHz operating frequency. I tried manually setting back to stock and 1800 MHz, but no dice – at least on this motherboard and with my limited skill level.

Having gone over the FCLK consideration at some length, it’s interesting to see what impact the low FCLK has on performance in an application that relies on both CPU and memory performance:

With 7-zip the GeIL 4400 MHz kit fared far worse than in the synthetic AIDA64 test. Infinity Fabric strikes again!

Next I attempted to get the system running at synchronous memory/IF frequencies, and here 3600/1800 was the best I could do without being more adept at overclocking. The system would not boot at 3800/1900, and altogether too much time was spent attempting to improve performance.

Setting the memory/IF to 3600/1800 I was able to lower the timings down to 17-19-19-39 at 1.35V, but I found that lower timings can be problematic; this kit seems to hit CAS 16 at both the rated 1.45V and at 1.35V at this lower frequency, depending on subtimings. I ran into boot issues with anything lower than 16-18-18-38 (at 3600 MHz), regardless of voltage.

Conclusion

The GeIL ORION RGB memory kit we tested offers easy configuration with a supported motherboard, achieving the full 4400 MHz speed at rated timings and voltage via XMP-equivalent settings, and the brushed aluminum heatspreaders and RGB integration offer nice aesthetics. Use of Hynix ICs will not please some given the price, but any memory that hits rated speeds with a single click on X570 is fine by me.

Now about pricing. The current Amazon price is an eye watering $325 for this 16GB kit as tested, and, honestly, the usefulness of 4400 MHz RAM on AMD Ryzen systems is debatable. Naturally, lower frequency memory in this ORION RGB family is also available, and at much more appealing prices; for example, the 16GB 3600 MHz CL18 kit is only $106.