Introduction
Patriot’s Viper Gaming family of products has had good success managing to deliver some of the best non-RGB memories in the market in recent times. The Viper Steel was a good example and the company is looking to bring over more of that success with the updated Viper Elite II. Dressed in black and red, the Patriot Viper Elite II memory drives up the speed and capacity offering up to 64GB kits and up to DDR4-4000 speeds.
These kits are straightforward so let’s get straight to the details. Read on to find out more!
Features & Specifications – Patriot Viper Elite II
- Capacity: Up to 64GB with single 32GB sticks
- Speeds up to 4000MHz kit
- Feature Overclock: XMP 2.0 Support for Automatic Overclocking
- Warranty: Limited lifetime warranty
Closer Look – Patriot Viper Elite II
Patriot Viper’s packaging comes in a crimson red box with a cut-out window of the Viper Elite II RAM peeking through to show you what’s inside. I have to say it out right now that these kits do not come in any other color except for red. At the back we have some details that we’ve already mentioned including speed rating and capacity.
Inside the protective clamshell we have the Patriot Viper Elite II memory modules and a Viper Gaming logo sticker.
Many of Patriot’s Viper Gaming products follow an asymmetrical aesthetic with their earlier RAM products having a silhouette resembling of an assault rifle and the is still true with the Viper Elite II. The original Viper Elite had a similar silhouette to that of an M4A1 from the side while the new Viper Elite II has a silhouette similar to shorter firearms.
The heatspreader itself isn’t ornate but does have good detailing. The materials themselves are on the lighter side, obviously to help reduce cost while providing the necessary cooling to for the kits.
The Viper Elite II’s height is on the mid-size due to one side of the being vertically higher than the rest of the body. Still, these kits a few millimeters taller than standard VRM heatsink height allowance so should be friendly with most tower coolers.
Not surprisingly, the heatpsreaders itself actually puts on a few millimeters on top of the actual PCB. It would’ve really helped compatibility if they decided to cut the height a bit but this is just a nitpick on my end.
With no RGB present, the Viper Elite is actually more subtle when viewed from the top, with only subtle hints of red that would probably fade in most dark PC internals.
Test Setup
| Test System Configuration (Intel) | |
| CPU | Intel Core i9-11900K |
| Motherboard | ASUS ROG MAXIMUS XIII APEX |
| Cooling | Corsair H150i RGB |
| Graphics Card | ZOTAC GeForce RTX 3080 Trinity OC |
| Storage | Corsair MP600 1TB |
| Power Supply | FSP Hydro G Pro 1000W |
| Case | OpenBench Table Community Edition |
| Test System Configuration (AMD) | |
| CPU | AMD Ryzen 9 5950X |
| Motherboard | ASUS ROG Crosshair VIII FORMULA |
| Cooling | NZXT Kraken X73 RGB |
| Graphics Card | ZOTAC GeForce RTX 3080 Trinity OC |
| Storage | Corsair MP600 1TB |
| Power Supply | FSP Hydro G Pro 1000W |
| Case | OpenBench Table Retail Edition |
Performance Results – Intel
Cinebench R20
Arithmetic Benchmarks
Blender
UL Procyon
AIDA64 Memory Benchmark
3DMark
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive
DOTA2
Shadow of the Tomb Raider
Rainbow Six Siege
Performance Results – AMD
Cinebench R20
Arithmetic Benchmarks
Blender
UL Procyon
AIDA64 Memory Benchmark
3DMark
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive
DOTA2
Shadow of the Tomb Raider
Rainbow Six Siege
Overclocking
Pushing the Viper Elite II RAM in terms of clock speed, the speeds on offer already show us a hint we’re at the limit of these kits with our clocks topping out at DDR4-4200 on stock XMP settings. Keeping voltage at XMP default, we can lower timings effectively to CAS18.
Conclusion
Patriot’s resparked their DDR4 portfolio with their Viper Elite and the Viper Elite II manages to continue that legacy, offering a decently priced options for people who just want good specs together with overall good pricing. The kits we reviewed, the 32GB DDR4-4000 kit is listed at around $189 but usually drops to $150 on Amazon with physical stores closely following that retail listing. PCHUB in the Philippines lists the Patriot Viper Elite II DDR4-4000 32GB kit for Php10260.
Talking about the DDR4-4000 kit themselves, I do like the top-end kit goes up to 32GB but that should be more common nowadays, but Patriot’s CAS20 option just seems too conservative especially the volume. I can assume the reason for this is the die lot they got just saw more CAS20 to be the safest to go with but they could’ve eked out a bit more just to give tighter timings a try.
As I said, these kits are straightforward and one of the most affordable DDR4-4000 32GB kits we can see around that an XMP profile. If you need the capacity but want to step into that higher bandwidth to see how it affects your machine, the Patriot Viper Elite II’s are a good jump coming off older sticks or value modules. The Viper Elite II offers good performance for a competitive price and right now and that makes it an easy recommendation for anyone, especially those that don’t need RGB.
Patriot backs the Viper Elite II with a limited lifetime warranty. I give it my B2G Recommended Seal!
