INTRODUCTION

   Exactly like M.2 PCIe 3.0 Gen3 SSDs which are still leading the consumer market in terms of sales both because of their compatibility and cost (always compared to PCIe 4.0 Gen4 models) it should take quite some time before DDR5 RAM manages to surpass DDR4, at least in that regard. Increased cost compared to DDR4 RAM and limited compatibility with motherboards other than the H610/B660/Z690 models by Intel (and of course the upcoming X670/B650 AM5 models by AMD) are obviously not the only 2 reasons behind this, real world performance gains and even compatibility issues between the motherboards and DDR5 kits (at least with Intel motherboards for now) have also been enough for many consumers to hold back in either building new or upgrading their current systems. So i really don't plan on "ditching" DDR4 reviews (even though my Z690 test rig is finally up and running) and so today with me i have yet another dual-channel kit, the FAYE Black 64GB 3600MHz CL18 by our friends over at Neo Forza.

   We are a professional team, studying in computer memory and storage devices industry for more than 10 years. In order to meet the rising demand on speed and capacity of the high-end gaming market players, we created Neo Forza, a new generation of ultra-standard overclocking module, SSD and other related storage device designing brand. Neo represents from virtual to reality, showing our core value for product innovation. Forza shows our strength and determination to meet gamers every need. Neo Forza possess strong resources, focus on core technology. From research & design, specific production to exceed the testing benchmark; Neo Forza keep pushing over technical boundary, providing top-notch performance and quality, providing gamers / game players extraordinary using experience.

   Once again for their entire FAYE line of DDR4 modules Neo Forza has paired high quality aluminum heatspreaders with 10-layer PCB's for increased overclocking potential and stability. The FAYE line is currently available in black and red colors and includes single (8/16/32GB), dual (2x8/16/32GB) and quad (4x16GB) channel kits at 3000/3200/3600/4000/4400/4600/5000MHz frequencies, timings as low as CL15 (3000MHz CL15, 3200MHz CL16, 3600MHz CL18 and 4000/4400/4600/5000MHz CL19) and voltages set at 1.35V (3000/3200/3600MHz), 1.4V (4000MHz), 1.45V (4400MHz), 1.5V (4600MHz) and 1.6V (5000MHz). The 3600GHz 64GB (2x32GB) kit I have with me today sports dual-rank and single 16GB die modules by SK-Hynix and is XMP certified with timings set at 18-22-22-42-68. Of course, just like in past reviews the FAYE line of DDR4 RAM modules/kits is also covered with a rather generous lifetime warranty.

SPECIFICATIONS AND FEATURES

THE FAYE 64GB 3600MHZ CL18

Once again, the FAYE RAM kit arrived inside a small blister package which allows the consumer to actually see the front of both modules.

A few words about the FAYE series of DDR4 RAM kits can be seen at the rear.

Typically, Neo Forza packs just the two modules inside the package.

At the rear of each module, we find the usual sticker which contains information such as frequency, timings, voltage and of course the serial number and barcode.

The modules are open at the top allowing heat to exit for better dissipation.

As always in order to have a better idea about their size (42.1mm top to bottom) I placed the FAYE module right next to the XPG D50/D45 modules, and the MARS modules (again by Neo Forza).

Again, in terms of looks the FAYE kits are very basic so nothing to be excited over.

Thanks to the popular Thaiphoon burner software we get detailed information on the kit.

TEST BED

TESTING METHODOLOGY

   Thanks to XMP (2.0) profiles the only thing one needs to do in order to run this RAM kit at its advertised frequency, timings and voltages is to choose/enable it from within the Bios and reboot. That being said if you're into overclocking you may not wish to use the main XMP profile but instead to choose your very own frequency, timings and voltages to achieve even higher performance numbers and that's exactly what we'll also be doing during our DDR4 tests. To be more specific aside testing each kit with its XMP profile we will also be upping the voltages (up to 1.4V max – even though most kits can function at higher voltages I don’t recommend doing so / RAM modules that use 1.4V/1.45V/1.5V will be tested up to 1.45V/1.5V/1.55V respectively) and frequencies (200MHZ increments) until i find the maximum achievable stable frequency. I also thought about upping voltages and reducing timings instead of increasing the frequency of the modules as high as it can go (always stable and without going over 1.4V) but the end results are pretty much identical.

   As for the how I'll be testing each DDR4 Quad/Dual-Kit to arrive in the lab well there aren't that many benchmark programs that only test RAM (or at least RAM and CPU without anything else coming into play) but I’ve got most of them and so you will be seeing results from following benchmarking programs, AIDA64 Engineer Edition, Cinebench Release 20, MaxMemm2 (because we are getting low performance numbers this doesn't seem to play well with our test rig - probably because of the X299 architecture - but we decided to include it regardless), Passmark Performance Test 9, Sisoftware Sandra Titanium and WPrime v1.55. All tests are performed on a fresh Windows 10 Pro installation (complete with all updates until the day of this review) and are repeated a total of 6 times after which the average numbers get recorded into the charts.

* In addition to Quad-Channel tests since March 2020 I’ll also be using the brand new I9-9900K+Z390 DARK test rig (check above) for Dual-Channel RAM tests.
** Since May 2020 three game benchmarks (Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, GEARS 5 and Metro Exodus tested on the X299 system at 1080p resolution and with the ASUS ROG RTX2060 OC set at Gaming Mode) have also been added in the charts.
*** In September 2021 i replaced the Intel I9-9900K+Z390 DARK test rig for a brand new Intel I9-11900K+Z590 DARK one (you can access all the Z390 DARK based tests here).

TEST RESULTS - XMP PROFILE / DUAL CHANNEL

TEST RESULTS - OVERCLOCK / DUAL CHANNEL

With the voltage set at 1.37V and 1.4V I easily pushed this kit to 3800MHz and 4000MHz respectively (at CL18 of course).

CONCLUSION

   Having already reviewed the 16GB 5GHz dual-channel FAYE kit by Neo Forza (review here) testing a 3.6GHz model may not look as impressive but getting 64GB that can effortlessly climb to 4GHz at CL18 is actually not a bad deal. Yes, the FAYE line never looked as good as for example the MARS line (again by Neo Forza) or numerous other RGB lines but obviously not everyone out there cares about that. Unfortunately, due to density such high capacity RAM kits will probably never get to or surpass 5GHz (not for DDR4) but yes, even 4GHz at 1.4V should be plenty for most people out there. Τhe lifetime limited warranty Neo Forza offers is by no means something we haven’t seen many times in the past by their competition but still it’s good to have it regardless.

   At the time of this review there’s almost no availability for the FAYE 64GB 3600MHz CL18 Dual-Channel kit by Neo Forza (at least not in the USA and the EU) so I can’t comment on price (MSRP is set at around USD290). Still, there’s no denying that we’re talking about a dual-channel kit with good performance out of the box, good OC potential, good capacity (64GB is more than enough even for myself) and a lifetime limited warranty so for all of these it deserves the Golden Award.

PROS

- Build Quality (10 Layer PCB)
- Thin Heatspreaders
- Very Good Performance (Up To 4000MHz CL18)
- Available In Black & Red
- Capacity (64GB)
- Limited Lifetime Warranty

CONS

- Current Availability