Kingston HyperX 1866 PnP SODIMM Memory

[Chastity@ASUS]

Part I

Today we are looking at some new laptop memory by Kingston that takes advantage of some late-specs for Sandybridge chipsets: 1600 and 1866 memory support. These modules are Plug N Play for i7 Gen 2 systems, tho they should be backwards compatible for earlier systems. For systems using integrated Intel graphic solutions, the gaming perks are quite noticeable. Since the GPU uses system RAM for video, the added speed can generate up to 80% in FPS increases. YMMV.

But we are interested if this DDR3-1866 stuff is good for systems with dedicated graphic solutions. So to start off, I ripped open a G73SW-A1 and swapped out the DDR3-1333 stuff and upgraded the system to 16GB. (With this much ram, you can kill the pagefile unless you are doing some really intensive video or CAD, or unless you already upgraded to a SSD.)

Just on raw thruput, the system gets a nice performance boost:

1333 RAM


1866 RAM


and Windows Index tops off:

1866:


And for 3DMark results: (1333/1866)







I would have to say the big surprise was the 3DMark11 scores... seems the tests benefit from transfer speeds

Part II will have some real world FPS tests, and Part III will involve testing the older JH/JW series.

[ottoyu34]

Sweet, wanna see the FPS increase.

[Chastity@ASUS]

PART II

My overall conclusions for real world application tests show no significant increases in FPS. However, overall system response has improved very nicely, plus if you play a game that tends to have microstutters on transitions and such, then you'll see that they tend to be non-existant, and you'll have a more fluid experience in gameplay.

Video encoding tests show no improvement in FPS speeds, demonstrating that my XT drives are the bottleneck.

Starcraft II performance demonstrates this fluid increase very well on some maps. Mafia II's benchmark did not go up (31 fps still) but less stutters during playback. Dragon Age II still fluctuates between 38 - 60 FPS on DX11.

CONCLUSION: With a dedicated GPU and VRAM, the faster RAM will help provide a more fluid gameplay experience, possibly solving a microstutter or hesitation issues for some games. I didn't notice any better min or max FPS counts.

So, would I buy this? If I was going to do a memory upgrade to replace my 2GB sticks on a Sandybridge, then sure if the prices are decent compared to other 4GB module kits. Otherwise, I wouldn't bother for the $147 cost for 8GB just for the sake of. However there are always those who feel the need to drive Cadillac.

Part III

Well, this part was more of a disappointment,

I opened up the G73JH and swapped out the memory for 8GB of the HyperX ram. After figuring out how to get it all to boot with Dual mode, I got it running... and the system sets the RAM to 1333 mode. And it didn't help much with overclocking. In fact it was a little less stable than my Kingston 1333 RAM modules.

While Kingston says these modules are "backwards compatible" the Gen 1 chipsets only support memory up to 1333, so the JH sets the 1866 RAM to it's highest known compatible setting: 1333. I was hoping the memory would remove the limit in OC by being able to work at higher speeds, but it seems the memory wasn't my limiting factor.

So if you were thinking of 1866 speeds in a Gen 1, I'm sorry to say you'll need to upgrade to SandyBridge.

[kirbz09]

Man, I have a JH and now im very disappoint Is it possible to upgrade to sandybridge with a JH? If so, how?

[Chastity@ASUS]

Yes, you can upgrade by buying a new laptop. It's a whole new chipset, cpu, motherboard, and matching video card.

[Cyriss]

what cpu did you have when you did this upgrade? i have a i7-2630qm and wanted to see if it would work with my set up. Has everything been running smoothly with this ram upgrade, no system crashes?

[Chastity@ASUS]

It's a stock G73SW-A1, so yes, it also has the 2630QM. No system issues at all. Also, I've done some additional GPU tweaking since, and got 3DMark 11 up to P2499 and Vantage to P10392.

[korre]

Doesn't say anything about the G73JW models, do they work on them?

[Chastity@ASUS]

Yes, but they will only run at 1333 speed. JH and JW have the same chipset, so it's not worth it.

[azif]

I ordered this ram from newegg the other day and am excited on installing it. I only have one concern. Am I going to have to do a full tear-down to replace all the original ram? I am almost certain the ram my g53 shipped with is bad and I want to be rid of all of it. If I leave the once stick of 4 gig ram (the one under the keyboard and like 2 layers of other stuff) will my new kingston ram be held back because of that stock ram? When you tested this stuff out did you do a full tear-down and replace all the stock ram?