Review of Kingston HyperX GENESIS Grey series modules KHX2133C9AD3X2K2_4GX

Conclusion

In our tests, we see that the performance is pretty good compared to the T1 series at lower latency. As spec, it is able to do DDR3-2133 as tested. The unfortunate thing is that due to the Intel processor, the BCLK isn’t that easy to overclock, thus we are probably stucked at DDR3-2133 CAS 9. So, overclocking this RAM is probably not that straightforward after all.

Instead, what is interesting about this pair of modules is that we are able to do a CAS 5, DDR3-1600 as reported on our main news page before. This is a pleasant surprise for us. With a lower bandwidth and lower latency, it might benefit the AMD users.

We actually tried to use this pair of RAM at CAS 7-8-7-20-2T on our Gigabyte A75 system with A8-3850. Although it can boot up, benchmarking it at DDR3-1866 isn’t that stable even though we raised voltages slightly beyond 1.65v and bump some other voltages. The 3D test hung and we suspect it could be due to the memory controller inside the APU not able to run steadily at 933MHz (1866/2). Perhaps a new BIOS might help as AMD don’t support or XMP profiles so everything has to be manually adjusted.

Packaging wise, there is nothing to shout about. One thing I do notice the grey coloured heat spreaders, they looked fantastic when installed on a black PCB board. The colours just blend.

We do not have the exact pricing of the modules but it is priced at USD 142.00 on shop.Kingston.com. The T1 model we used in the test is no longer on sale but it’s equivalent 2x2GB pair KHX2000C9AD3T1K2/4GX sells for USD 115.00.

The choice is yours, whether you want extra bandwidth at DDR3-2133 or you prefer the taller slimmer T1 series (which cannot do DDR3-2133 at all even at CAS 9).

Pros

XMP profiles
DDR3-2133 supported

Cons

Not very compatible with AMD A75 at DDR3-1866

Ratings

Here are my ratings out of 10.