Author: batteryforpc

If you can remember our MSI GeForce RTX 2080 Ti GAMING X TRIO, I deemed that product to be a classic (albeit an expensive one). All of the sudden a GAMING Z TRIO just surfaced at MSI, mind the Z. 

Initially, when looking at the specs it all seemed a little familiar, however, the Z model is well .. the same product, however now with 16 Gbps specced memory. So the story goes like this:

MSI GeForce RTX 2080 Ti GAMING X TRIO (review)

Boost: 1,755 MHz / Base: 1,350 MHz

Memory 14.0 Gbps GDDR6 (effective data-rate)

MSI GeForce RTX 2080 Ti GAMING Z TRIO

Boost: 1,755 MHz / Base: 1,350 MHz

Memory 16.0 Gbps GDDR6 (effective data-rate)

Interesting right? We might see a completely 2080 Ti rehash from AIbs with a new type of GDDR6 memory.

Updated: MSI outs a press-release on the new SKU.

[Taipei, Taiwan] As the world’s most popular GAMING graphics card vendor, MSI is proud to unleash the most powerful Turing-based gaming graphics card onto the market. The famous GAMING TRIO series has reached its ultimate form in custom GeForce graphics cards to push the limits of performance once more. Making sure gamers will bask in glorious amounts of frames, MSI has fitted the GeForce® RTX 2080 Ti with extremely fast 16 Gbps memory. Outperforming the MSI GeForce® RTX 2080 Ti GAMING X TRIO by over 5% out of the box, the industry-leading MSI GeForce® RTX 2080 Ti GAMING Z TRIO sets a new bar for extreme gaming.

Rocking the mighty TRI-FROZR design with supreme cooling power allows the MSI GeForce® RTX 2080 Ti GAMING Z TRIO to deliver top notch in-game and thermal performance. Featuring MSI’s patented TORX 3.0 fans, the unique fan design combines the advantages of two differently shaped fan blades to generate huge amounts of concentrated airflow while remaining virtually silent. The Wave-Curved 2 fin design helps to dissipate heat from the heatsink quicker than ever to keep you cool in the heat of battle.

An aggressive gunmetal grey & black look emphasizes the glorious RGB glow on the card. Using the updated & improved MSI Dragon Center software, controlling and synchronizing your LED-lit components and peripherals is just a few clicks away.

MSI DRAGON CENTER

MSI Dragon Center is a brand-new software platform with the goal to integrate all MSI software for components, desktops, laptops and peripherals. The all-new software features Gaming Mode, which instantly optimizes your hardware for the best gaming experience including SSD, monitor and network settings. Mystic Light enables you to customize RGB effects to enhance the gaming atmosphere around you. This budding new software platform will continue to improve and evolve, including more unique functionalities and benefits for MSI users.

MSI AFTERBURNER

MSI Afterburner is the world’s most recognized and widely used graphics card Overclocking software. It gives you full control of your graphics card and enables you to monitor your system’s key metrics in real-time. Afterburner gives you a free performance boost for a smooth in-game experience thanks to higher FPS.

The race for bezel-less smartphones gave birth to trends like waterdrop notches, pop-up cameras, and punch-holes. So far, the only limitation for companies to deliver a truly bezel-less smartphone is the front-facing camera. While companies like Asus adopted a single camera that snaps to the front when needed, not every one of them wants to give up the selfie snapper. After the under-display fingerprints, OEMs are now working to deliver a proper under-display camera. Several companies such as Oppo, Xiaomi, Huawei, and Samsung already working on it. But which company will be the first to deliver a smartphone with this characteristic? According to a report, it will be HMD Global with its Nokia 9.3 PureView.

THE NEXT NOKIA FLAGSHIP COULD BE THE SMARTPHONE WITH THE MOST INNOVATIVE SELFIE CAMERA OF 2020

Earlier this year, we saw a report claiming that the Nokia 9.3 PureView could be one of the first phones to feature this technology. More recently, another report revealed that HMD Global will make its flagship official during Q3 2020. Today, a fresh report from Nokia Power User once again states that the Nokia 9.3 PureView will come with an under-display front-facing snapper. It cites information from a source that is very close to the Finnish firm. According to them, the new smartphone will come with PureDisplay V3 technology. Besides it, the new handset panel will deliver a 120Hz refresh rate.

According to the source, HMD Global has been testing the under-display selfie camera along with a pop-up mechanism. The company is reportedly found the under-display camera tech to be stable enough to come in a new flagship. The Nokia 9.3 PureView is said to come with a Penta-Camera setup featuring 108MP primary camera, 64MP sensor, and another three unspecified sensors. When it comes to the selfie camera, it is said to deliver a 48MP camera. If Nokia delivers this under-display technology, we are very curious to see how the quality will be.

Apart from the camera specs, the new handset will debut with Snapdragon 865 and Android 10.

The HP brand may be a household name, but anyone deep enough into PC hardware to read enthusiast publications probably doesn’t associate the company with the memory market. Most of us associate HP name with expensive ink cartridges and an ever-rotating array of notebooks. While the greatest benefit of being associated with a well-known 81-year-old company might be the ability to draw in neophytes, those researching and buying enthusiast tech like high-end desktop memory often pay little attention to marketing. So, what is the tech?

Available at data rates ranging from DDR4-2666 to DDR4-3600, each HP V6 memory kit includes one or two DIMMs, a product ID insert with installation guide and RMA contacts, and a lengthy multi-language regulatory compliance sheet. Heat spreader color is said to identify each kit, with red for DDR4-2666 and blue for DDR4-3000. But HP confuses the issue by cloaking both its DDR4-3200 and DDR4-3600 in black.

A look at the back of the package indicates that these modules can be found on the main webpage of HP Development Inc., but that it’s also manufactured and distributed under license. Sure enough, our search of the HP website yielded no information about this memory.

HP business partner Multipointe Channel Solutions (MCS) has been marketing HP-branded SSD’s for a while now, but doesn’t talk about its own history on its own website. Any customer assurance should come from the fact that the company is still in operation, rather than its ties to the HP name.

As MCS only offers 8GB modules, its P/N 7TE41AA#ABC DDR4-3200 dual-channel kit has a total of 16GB. XMP timings of 16-18-18-38 at 1.35V boost the kit past its basic DDR4-2666 configuration, but that relies on users to own an XMP-compatible motherboard to set XMP mode. This of course is how the entire performance memory market works, but it’s still something that uninformed buyers might not know.

One thing that stands out about HP memory in general is its 5-year warranty, which is substantially less than the lifetime warranties of others (though the meaning of “lifetime” can sometimes be sketchy). This gives rise to questions, like “how long will I use this kit, anyway?” Five years is likely enough coverage for many, especially given we’ve seen that most defective memory dies in less than five years and would thus be covered.

Comparison Hardware

Comparison kits for our testing rounds include our latest 2x 8GB review samples from Geil, OLOy, and Team Group, the later clocked at a higher DDR4-3600 XMP, tested on AMD’s Ryzen 7 3700X and MSI’s memory-mastering MEG X570 Ace, using Toshiba’s OCZ RD400 SSD and Gigabyte’s GeForce RTX 2070 Gaming OC 8G to reduce bottlenecks.

Overclocking and Latency Tuning

The HP V6 DDR4-3200 is the first 2x 8GB kit we’ve seen in a while that wouldn’t reach DDR4-3600, which means it won’t be represented at several of our alternative performance settings. We were however able to reduce its DDR4-3200 timings to 14-16-16-32 at 1T.

Lowest Stable Timings at 1.35V (Max) on MEG X570 ACE (BIOS 1.20)

Unfortunately, the rest of the kits reached at least DDR4-3600, and one even went to DDR4-4266. The fastest kit was also rated at a higher DDR4-3600 XMP.

Benchmark Results and Final Analysis

The HP V6 DDR4-3200 kit’s XMP bandwidth and latency are close to average in SiSoftware Sandra.

XMP gaming performance also looks good, and it even retained that performance for the most part at our lower frequency and latency settings.

The HP V6 DDR4-3200 also looks decidedly average in our timed tests, where less time means more performance. So, it should be a good deal if it’s priced well.

About that key pricing issue though: We weren’t able to find P/N 7TE41AA#ABC for sale anywhere, and instead had to price it as two P/N 7EH67AA#ABC single modules. To compete, a pair of these would need to be priced around 25% lower than two single modules.

At its current price of about $53 per 8GB stick, this kit just isn’t competitive. That of course doesn’t mean it’s a bad product, just that there are plenty of better options available from companies more well-known in the memory market. Pricing could of course also change substantially, which could make this memory more competitive. But until it does, most consumers in the know should look to the plethora of competitors.