Early Verdict

Geil’s Super Luce DDR4-3400 is a flashy and overclockable alternative to traditional DDR4-3000, even if it never reaches its rated data rate. We can only recommend it as a toy for tuning fanatics.

Reasons to buy

+
Lighted heat spreaders indicate thermal condition while adding flash to Geil’s Super Luce DDR4-3400.

Reasons to avoid

-
We faced extreme difficulties getting Geil’s Super Luce DDR4-3400 to run at its rated settings, and never achieved complete stability at those settings.

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Introduction

Golden Emperor International Limited has been producing high-quality modules from custom-sorted DRAM ICs for as long as Tom’s Hardware has been writing reviews. The company hasn't received as much exposure over the last two years, though. Maybe it was waiting for the next big thing, or maybe some of its competitors were getting dibs on the best chips. Regardless of the reason, we were certainly happy when one of Geil's reps told us that it was ready for a triumphant return.

Yes, we did say triumphant. We really can’t think of anything that makes a bigger statement than supplying the fastest memory we’ve ever seen, in the latest format, at better-than-competitive timings and a middle-of-the-road price. We’re talking DDR4-3400 CAS 16, folks, at $320 for a complete set, with lighting added just to help boost sales with enthusiasts who put looks ahead of performance. The lights even begin to flash slowly as the memory warms, with a peak rate of 200 flashes per minute at 55 °C. With an empty slot between each module, we never got these warm enough to exceed the baseline 13 flashes per minute.

A few readers have complained about high CAS ratings on DDR4, but we think the most vocal critics might have forgotten their fractions. Because that “big number” is measured in cycles, and because cycles at twice the frequency take half the time, DDR4-3400 CAS 16-18-18-36 has the same latency in nanoseconds as DDR3-1700 CAS 8-9-9-18. At least that’s the theory. In practice, variables like advanced timings and memory controller latency can have a big effect on the overall performance picture.