Kingston HyperX Beast 16GB DDR3-2133 Memory Kit Review

By Hank Tolman

Manufacturer: Kingston Technology Corporation
Product Name: HyperX Beast
Model Number: KHX21C11T3K2/16X
UPC: 740617213621
Price As Tested: $147.99 (Newegg | Amazon)

Full Disclosure: The product sample used in this article has been provided by Kingston.

Some of the most difficult to answer questions in the enthusiast and high-end gaming PC world have to do with RAM, and more specifically with RAM clock speeds, latency, and timings. What differences do all of these make when it comes to better performance and higher frame rates in games? Typically, the answer is that they do very little when it comes to games. AMD has sought to change that answer with the release of their Richland series APUs, which are designed to take even more advantage of RAM speeds and support up to 2133MHz clock speeds. Intel’s Haswell now supports speeds of up to 1600MHz. Now that more is being done to increase the performance gain from higher RAM speeds, let’s take a look at the results. Here at Benchmark Reviews, we have a couple of new high-speed RAM kits to review. In this article, we will be taking a look at the Kingston HyperX 8GBx2 DDR3-2133 KHX21C11T3K2/16X kit.

The KHX21C11T3K2/16X DRAM Kit comes clocked at 2133MHz. Kingston’s HyperX series is focused toward enthusiasts, overclockers who need extra heat dissipation to push their components and fast as they’ll go. The kit we received is clocked perfectly to take advantage of the AMD A10-6800K APU support for 2133MHz RAM, but it also comes with the XMP profiles to fit right in on an Intel platform. The KHX21C11T3K2/16X, according to Kingston, is capable of running anywhere from 1333MHz up to 2133MHz and it seems like there may be some upward potential as well. The price seems to be set just right as well, with only a few dollars difference between the speeds for the Kingston HyperX Beast series.

First things first, let’s check out the specs on the Kingston HyperX Beast Series and the KHX21C11T3K2/16X.

• Capacities 8GB–64GB (with 8GB, 16GB and 64GB kits)
• Speeds of up to 2400MHz
• 1.5V & 1.65 V operating voltages enable stable overclocking
• Compatible with Intel XMP auto-overclocking function
• Designed to work with P55, H67, P67, Z68, H61 (AG), X79 and Z77 Intel chipsets; as well as A75, A87, A88, A89, A78 and E35 (Fusion) AMD chipsets
• Carefully selected premium chips for maximum performance and overclockability
• Vicious black heat spreader with matching black PCB
• 100-percent factory tested

Kingston has a couple of different series within their HyperX brand of DRAM, and the Beast series certainly stands out in terms of look and feel. The RAM actually looks like some sort of beast through the shape and layout of the plastic heat shroud. It looks like a set of gnarly teeth, with sharp fangs for tearing apart a victim. I’d say the look definitely fits the name. In fact, it looks even better now that the newer version has a black PCB to match the shroud.

As is apparently becoming more popular, Kingston offers relatively easy opening on their packaging. I’m used to nearly impenetrable packing, but the last two kits I’ve seen are much easier. I have to say that the ADATA packaging was easier to get into than Kingston’s, but the KHX21C11T3K2/16X was pretty easy to open. Just cut through the red tape and peel the clear plastic cover from the black plastic backing. The package is re-sealable, so you put the RAM back in if you need to, or you’ll at least have some place to put your old RAM.

The Kingston HyperX Beast line of DRAM kits is pretty robust. You can find HyperX Beast kits from 8GB to 64GB in dual or quad-channel kits. As for RAM speeds, the HyperX Beast kits start off at 1600MHz and run up to 2400MHz, a relatively thin line. Even so, the standard JEDEC timing parameters for the KHX21C11T3K2/16X are set at 1333MHz and CL9-9-9 at 1.5V. For the rated 2133MHz, you’ll need CL11-12-11 at 1.6V.

The KHX21C11T3K2/16X actually isn’t terribly large. With the shroud, the DRAM module measures 1.827” tall and 0.338” thick. Of course, even under 2”, it probably won’t fit well under a heatsink. Luckily, the DIMM slots on my test bench are far enough out of the way that it doesn’t matter. I have worked with some boards that don’t work out well with shrouded RAM.

Kingston touts excellent thermal dissipation on the HyperX Beast series, which is good, but probably not terribly necessary considering the low heat put out by memory modules. But the Kingston HyperX Beast isn’t made for just any user. It is made for those that are going to push it beyond normal parameters. The KHX21C11T3K2/16X operates between 0 and 85 degrees Celsius. It will go higher, but you’ll add about 50% or so to the average refresh period.

The Kingston KHX21C11T3K2/16X offers a wide range of features like programmable additive latency and CAS write latency. It also has an internal self calibration mechanism as well as on-die termination, meaning lower noise on the signal. Maximum operating power per module is 2.46W.

I am interested in seeing just what the increased DRAM speed support on the A10-6800K can do. I have to admit upfront that DRAM scaling has always disappointed me in the past and I am not expecting miracles now. When I buy RAM, I usually go for the middle of the road and I buy whatever is on sale.

For testing the AX3U2400W4G11, I want to give the RAM kits the best opportunity to provide a performance boost, so I’ll be using the A10-6800K with its integrated GPU. I’ll also be using a couple of other dual-channel RAM kits to compare with the AX3U2400W4G11.

• Motherboard: ASUS F2A85-M Pro
• Processor: 4.1GHz A10-6800K
• Video: APU Graphics 8760D
• Disk Drive: Seagate Solid State Hybrid ST1000LM014 1TB
• PSU: Thermaltake Black Widow W0319RU 850W 80 PLUS Bronze
• Operating System: Windows 7 Professional

• FinalWire AIDA64 v3.00.2500 Memory Tests
• Passmark Performance Test 8
• Sisoft Sandra Lite 2013.05.19.44
• Handbrake 0.9.9
• Bioshock Infinite
• Tomb Raider

Benchmark Reviews has used AIDA64 and its predecessor Lavalys Everest for years, mainly for its processor benchmarks and CPU stress-testing features. But it also includes a “Cache and Memory Benchmark” that performs read, write, and copy bandwidth tests on a system’s installed memory.

In the AIDA tests, the Kingston HyperX Beast Kit leads the pack in every category, but really shines in the copy and read tests.

Passmark Performance Test 8 is a comprehensive benchmarking suite that tests many areas of your PC, including RAM. Passmark offers a comprehensive online database to check your results against a lot of others.

Passmark tells the same story as AIDA, with the KHX21C11T3K2/16X leading the pack in both read and write speeds.

SiSoft’s Sandra Lite is a free version of SiSoftware’s “Sandra” benchmarking utility. Its comprehensive memory benchmark tests report a number of items, but we’re interested memory throughput tests. Unlike some other benchmarks that merely perform straight sequential reads and writes, Sandra reads and writes different areas of memory, using integer as well as floating point data, all in SMP mode.

In the Sandra tests, the 16GB kits perform right along the lines with their respective speeds.

HandBrake is an open-source, GPL-licensed, multiplatform, multithreaded video transcoder program designed to convert MPEG video (including DVD-Video) into an MPEG-4 video file in MPEG-4 Part 14 (.mp4) or Matroska (.mkv) containers. The program is used to convert DVDs into other forms so they can be viewed on portable media devices and with most media players. While Handbrake was originally developed for BeOS, it is now available for Linux, Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X.

Handbrake is a readily available program that easily handles and utilizes multiple CPU cores and threads. This makes it an ideal program for us to use to test CPU performance. The amount of time it takes for Handbrake to convert a media file scales very nicely based on the clock speed and available cores of the CPU. For this test, I used a 4.34GB video file in MPEG format to be converted to MP4 format using the “iPhone & iPod Touch” presets. I recorded the total time in (min:sec) that it took to transcode the video file.

The KHX21C11T3K2/16X kit pulls ahead here as well.

Bioshock Infinite, by Irrational Games, was one of the most highly anticipated games of its time. According the vast majority of reviews on the game, it didn’t disappoint. Having played it, I can tell you that the story line grabs you and doesn’t let go. The moral and ethical quandries and twisting plot will keep you in front of your screen for hours on end. The graphics are nothing to shake a stick at either. That being said, Bioshock Infinite was built on the aging (although still widely used) Unreal Engine 3. That same engine has been in use since DX9 and was designed to take full advantage of shader hardware. In Bioshock Infinite, of course, the engine uses DX11 features to make the graphics that much more realistic.The Kingston HyperX Beast 16GB 2133MHz kit pulls ahead in the Bioshock tests. In terms of real performance, we are looking at only about a 10% increase in frames per second.

The KHX21C11T3K2/16X wins in the Tomb Raider benchmark as well, and this time it’s to the tune of over 20%. That’s a little better, although the increase in RAM speed is 50%.

RAM is a tricky component. It is one of the fundamental components of a computer and the price of RAM is better than ever. With 64-bit operating systems really becoming the standard, most desktop and laptop systems now come with more than 4GBs of RAM. Newer chipsets are also supporting much faster RAM than ever before, which is why we’ve seen an influx of high-speed RAM kits hitting the markets. The price gaps between the speeds are becoming smaller and smaller, making it easier to justify getting those faster DIMMs.

In fact, with DDR4 being shown off at CES this year and potentially making a debut in mobile platforms by the end of the year, we should see speeds increasing even more while prices continue to drop. DDR4 memory will effectively double the speed of DDR3 memory from the get go and individual modules will also increase in size. In addition, DDR4 will significantly decrease power consumption. Don’t expect to see DDR4 modules in desktop systems until 2014, which significant market adoption a few years later. Intel’s roadmap has DDR4 being introduced with Haswell-E.

But that doesn’t happen until next year, at the soonest. The real question is, for now, does it make sense to spend a little extra on faster RAM? As we have seen in our tests, increased RAM speed, when paired with AMD’s latest APUs, does translate into slightly faster performance both in synthetic benchmarks and in games. The difference isn’t huge, but it could be worth it. I say that because the price differences between the slower and faster RAM modules is now lower than ever.

With the Kingston HyperX Beast RAM kits, there is not much standing between the different speeds of the RAM kits. With the prices so close, I’d probably go for the fastest possible kit. For the HyperX Beast series, that means 2400MHz. While the increase in performance isn’t amazing, I think it justifies a few extra dollars of expense.

Of course, that recommendation only goes if you are in the market for an entirely new RAM kit. If you are upgrading the RAM you have to increase the amount, I’d stick with the speed you have, as long as it is DDR3-1066MHz or above. Also be sure to get the same timings as your existing RAM, preferably the same model for the best compatibility. If you are going for a completely new kit, go as fast as you can before the price differences start to makes it unjustifiable. For the Kingston HyperX Beast kits, I’d call it at 2400MHz.

Kingston has provided a pretty good looking RAM kit in the KHX21C11T3K2/16X 16GB DDR3-2133MHz Dual-Channel Kit. The KHX21C11T3K2/16X performs very well, outpacing each and every other slower kit in every test, just like it should. The performance increase is pretty standard, and nothing too outstanding, but it shows that the HyperX Beast 2133MHz kit is stable and solid under a wide variety of situations. The kit is perfectly clocked for the AMD A10-6800K. The AMD Richland APUs also offer more in the way of specific performance enhancing coding for RAM speeds up to 2133MHz. That’s good news, considering RAM speeds have typically not translated well into real-world performance increases. Throughout my testing, I’ve shown that this is still the case, although the performance increase may be somewhat more significant than with previous chipsets. Over the next few paragraphs I’ll be giving my justifications for the ratings I’ll be giving at the end of the page. Keep in mind that these are my opinions based on my hands on experience with the KHX21C11T3K2/16X.

The Kingston KHX21C11T3K2/16X is a great performer. Not only did it outperform each of the slower kits, like it should have, but I used an 8GB kit of the same HyperX Beast series to test against a faster 2400MHz RAM kit in another review and it beat out the faster kit in several of the tests. The 2133MHz KHX21C11T3K2/16X kit is a full 60% faster than the 1333MHz kit that we used at the bottom of the spectrum. That 60% increase in speed actually only translated into between 10 and 20% actual performance increase in the tests. With RAM, you certainly never expect a 1:1 ratio, but the performance increase here only makes sense if the price is right.

The Kingston HyperX Beast series of RAM Kits looks really good. It’s not too flashy, but it looks mean, like the angry jaws of a beast getting ready to clamp shut. It’s a good look to add to a mean-looking system, especially with a little interior lighting to show it off. Kingston even added to the appeal by using a black PCB for the new editions of the HyperX Beast series modules.

Kingston is one of the top names in RAM and they have a reputation to uphold with their modules. Because of that, I wouldn’t expect anything less than an extremely high quality of construction. The heat shroud on the KHX21C11T3K2/16X is durable and sturdy and it is well attached to the PCB. The PCB for the new HyperX Beast modules is now black, but the level of construction hasn’t changed.

The Kingston KHX21C11T3K2/16X functioned stably at its rated 2133MHz. It also functioned perfectly well at slower speeds including 1333MHz, 1600MHz, and 1866MHz and I was able to reduce the timings accordingly as well. The KHX21C11T3K2/16X increased in speed up to 2400MHz at CL 12 timings, and up to 2600MHz at CL 13 timings. Overall, the KHX21C11T3K2/16X is a very functional memory kit.

Available online for $147.99 (Newegg | Amazon), the Kingston KHX21C11T3K2/16X memory is at the top of the crowd in terms of pricing for 16GB 2133MHz dual-channel kits. Considering the performance and the quality behind these DIMMs, the price could be right. Since the performance is right on track with where it should be for a 2133MHz module, the price doesn’t buy you anything really special, though.
+ Good-looking modules
+ Very Stable Performance
+ Overclocked easily to 2600MHz

– Pricey Kit

• Performance: 9.00
• Appearance: 9.50
• Construction: 9.00
• Functionality: 9.00
• Value: 7.50

Quality Recognition: Benchmark Reviews Silver Tachometer Award.

COMMENT QUESTION: How much are willing to pay for a faster RAM kit?