[section_title title=”Conclusion”]
Conclusion
Speed or latency? Both? What do you favour when selecting memory! Of course latency is great but what is the perfect balance? Well to put it quite simply, for example, a 2133MHz CL13 kit of RAM performs 2133 cycles a second which takes 13 seconds to respond. Multiply that by a million and you have how much difference it makes in terms of response time/pure speed. That is why a 2133MHz CL13 kit will generally outperform a 2400MHz CL15 kit due to the balance between pure MHz and latency. With that out of the way, back to the Predator kit and it was an interesting review to say the least; I will be as clear, brief and concise as humanly possible…
Performance to put bluntly is a little haywire and all over the place depending on the benchmark; read speeds being the most favourable with the write speeds a little to be desired. Cinebench 11.5/15 was not very favourable at all towards the HyperX Predator kit but overall, I was pretty happy with the performance as in the majority of cases, it trades blows when overclocked with other kits which were at least £30-50 more expensive; what more could you ask for then other than a free pizza? Exactly! If I had to pick a strength it would be the huge overclocking ability which did equate to a nice increase in performance; sometimes with the lack of consistency being the main drawback for me.
Aesthetics wise, these are some of the best looking DDR4 modules you can buy; aside from the unnecessarily large heat sinks, they scream aggression and given HyperX’s naming scheme for their memory, they fit the name very very well. I was close to giving them a design award just for the sheer 2 tonal design and sleek but naughty nature of the design, but I had to mark these down slightly for having stupidly tall heat sinks; they are around 2” tall so if you planned to use a cooler such as a Noctua D15, you will need to sacrifice your cooler or select different DDR4 memory.
The HyperX Predator 2133MHz 16GB (4x4GB) memory kit is available to purchase for around £182-185 depending on your retailer of choice which given the performance and design aspects, is very reasonable for a kit of DDR4. This is probably the cheapest out of the 3 kits on test and out of all 3, this one offers probably the most bang for buck. Is it enough to win the value award? Well no, prices are still high but I expect to see some DDR4 pricing stability when more competition is available on the market.
To sum things up, the HyperX predator might not be winning all the awards today but this shouldn’t put you off making a purchase if you are in need of a 16GB kit of DDR4; these are also available as a 32GB (4x8GB) kit too for those wondering. They have decent performance, overclock well but aren’t consistent enough performers to justify giving these a gold award. Combine the price, aesthetic and reasonable performance into the fold, a purchase of these will not be a disappointing one!
- Silver Award– A sure-fire gold award winner if it wasn’t for the inconsistent performance throughout the benchmarks; still a justified purchase and for those looking for an aggressive but quality kit of RAM, look no further than the HyperX Predator.
Huge thanks to HyperX for sending the Predator in for review, I look forward to seeing more in the very near future.
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Performance
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Design
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Value
Summary
Pros:
– Fantastic price to performance ratio
– Gorgeous looking black heat sinks
– Overclocking ability gives credit and weight to HyperX as a brand
– Available in 2133MHz-3000MHz (16GB & 32GB) DDR4 memory kits
Cons:
– Design may be too aggressive for some
– Heat sinks are stupidly tall
– Very inconsistent performance across the board
