G.Skill Sniper 1866Mhz DDR3 Memory

Manufacturer: G.Skill
Product Name: Sniper
Model Number: F3-14900CL9D-8GBSR
Price As Tested: $104.99 at Newegg

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

RAM is one of the basic building blocks of a computer system, and although the technology has changed over the years the same basic idea of quick temporary storage has been RAM's main purpose since its inception. Gamers have always wanted the fastest speeds possible but unfortunately, that meant that many of the fastest kits were very expensive. Since the introduction of DDR3 prices have plummeted and speeds have skyrocketed and a good set of 2 x 4GB RAM can be had for under $150. G.Skill understands this and has SKU's designed for every price range. G.Skill's most recent addition is its Sniper series of which we will be looking at the 1866Mhz F3-14900CL9D-8GBSR kit which is well priced $104.99 providing users above average speeds with relatively tight 9-10-9-28 timings. Benchmark Reviews will determine if this RAM is worth its price or if users are better off getting slower, less expensive SKU's.

Years ago using the fastest possible memory was the only way to get the full potential out of a processor. This is because in the days before Sandy Bridge getting the highest clock possible was achieved using a combination of changing the clock multiplier and increasing the FSB or base clock. Because changing these also increased the base speed of the memory using the fastest memory possible was only the only way to push a processor to its upper limits. But things have changed since the Sandy Bridge platform debuted, the only effective way to overclock is to increase the clock multiplier of the K SKU's meaning that memory speed is less important for overclocking and therefore companies are concentrating on dropping prices and timings to compete with each other. As prices have dropped, users have started demanding more RAM for their systems. With that in mind G.Skill introduced the Sniper series with speeds ranging from 1333Mhz to 1866Mhz and designed specifically for Sandy Bridge users by utilizing speeds that are divisible by 266.6Mhz.

Benchmark Reviews wants to provide the most accurate information on the performance of components to its readers and therefore has a very specific way in which tests are run on components. For RAM, each set is run first run through Memtest86+ at its advertised speed to insure that that there are no errors. Once passed a combination of synthetic and application based benchmarks will be run a total of three times each. Once the results have been acquired the worst score of each test will be thrown out and the final two will be averaged resulting in the final score that will be presented to our readers.