Deceptive packaging, bottom of the barrel or stroke of genius? – Patriot Viper Venom DDR5-6400 CL32 2x 16 GB kit with SK Hynix 8 Gbit “H-Die” ICs in test with teardown and overclocking

1 - Unboxing and specifications 2 - SPD information and special properties of the ICs 3 - Heatsink test with external K-type sensor 4 - Teardown and PCB analysis 5 - Compatibility and overclocking 6 - Benchmarks – Synthetics 7 - Benchmarks – Gaming 8 - Summary and conclusion

When resource scarcity, hype-driven demand and the creativity of engineers come together, the strangest products often emerge. This is also the case with today’s test specimen, which at first glance may appear to be a run-of-the-mill 2x 16 GB DDR5 kit, but in reality is a curious oddity that is deceptively put in front of uninformed customers by the manufacturer. In today’s test, we find out what this is all about and when you could possibly consider buying a RAM kit like this.

The Patriot Viper Venom series has been around for some time and 2x 16 GB kits have also been commonplace since the DDR5 market launch. With DDR5-6400 and tCL 32, the XMP profile of this product with the number PVV532G640C32K is also quite inconspicuous at first. But let’s unpack the whole thing.

Unboxing

The outer box is typical for Patriot and the Viper Venom series. A sticker shows the capacity and clock rate, correctly in MT/s, of the fastest profile. As can be seen from the label at the bottom left, only Intel XMP 3.0 is officially supported. However, there are also SKUs from Patriot that have EXPO profiles. But this is neither relevant for today’s review nor for the vast majority of motherboards, which know how to interpret the other profile type anyway.

The modules can be seen from the rear, which in addition to the product number also bear a batch number 9DE00330. Amidst the numerous conformity markings, there is also a reference to the Limited Lifetime Warranty – i.e. 10 years in Germany.

Only the modules are included in the scope of delivery, held by a transparent plastic carrier frame. The modules themselves have a multi-part heat sink made of dark or light grey powder-coated aluminum elements, which are rounded off by a black plastic binding element. A Viper logo and lettering are printed in red. As we all know, tastes differ, but the design doesn’t suit mine.

But things get really interesting when we look at the modules from below. Here we can see that each module is equipped with 8 ICs on each side and 16 ICs in total. This means that with 16 GB net capacity per module, each of the 16 memory chips only needs to have 1 GB net or 8 Gbit gross capacity. So we have 8 Gbit DDR5 ICs here, which are installed in a dual-rank topology! Incidentally, this is not mentioned anywhere in the specifications or on the manufacturer’s product website. At this point I would like to thank forum member Gurdi, who came across the kit by chance and gave me the tip for this test candidate.

If we take a closer look, it gets even more curious. Where normally thermal pads should thermally connect the heat sinks with the memory modules, Patriot uses foam here. What is normally used as a gap filler for empty PCB sides is simply stuck onto the ICs as a “thermal pad”, and even in different thicknesses on both sides. Whether it is an advantage or disadvantage that the foam does not have full-surface or even contact with all ICs is questionable. At least the PMIC has been given a real thermal pad, which can be identified by its pink color in the middle.

From above, the sandwich construction of the heat sinks is once again clearly visible. Another red Viper lettering adorns the glossy, black plastic element in the middle.

From the side, you can see once again how poorly the ICs are covered by the foam strips and that their different thicknesses even make the aluminum heatsink sit crooked on one side.

Height

Length

Width

The modules including the heat sink are 138 mm long, so they only overhang the DIMM slot latches slightly, 43.5 mm high including the DIMM contacts and 7.5 mm thick.

To summarize, it must be said that the heat sink design gives a questionable impression. Apart from the visual design, the placement of the thermal pads seems more improvised than planned or well thought out. Whether this also has a functional impact in the form of instability will have to be seen in the tests on the following pages.