Corsair has produced memory to their usual exceptional standard with the XMS4000 part, and as usual it does what it says on the box perfectly, and more. However, I get the feeling that the whole PC4000 / PC3700 bandwagon may be a little futile until someone can release a part with decent latencies. With a rating of 3-8-4-4, the XMS4000 is barely able to overtake the XMS3200 2-5-2-2 part in real-world applications, which costs a fraction as much, and even manages to fall behind them in one test. The Sandra benchmarks are extremely impressive, and Comanche 4 proved that there are applications that do favour insane bandwidth over very efficient latency. Other tests proved that the opposite is also true however, with 3DMark and Quake both very fond of low-latency. All in all then, should you buy XMS4000 memory? That depends on two things - the applications you run, and the depth of your pockets. The majority of the time, XMS4000 will probably be faster than your existing memory, no matter what it is, but does that justify the £327 price tag?
Highs
- 500MHz stock speed
- 500MHz at CAS 2.5-7-4-4 without issue
- Very attractive new-look packaging
- Hynix is back!
Lows
- VERY Expensive
- XMS3200 at 5:4 can keep pace with, and at times overtake, 1:1 XMS4000
- Forget about asyncronouse operation
