My not-biased experience with the Galax DDR4 OC Lab Kit rated @4 GHz

Hello everyone,

I made this thread in order to share my experience regarding the ultimate DDR4 kit for overclockers made by Galax.

As many, I bought the HOF card ($430 + $160 customs) + the OC Lab mems ($350) in order to participate on the GOC competition, hoping to qualify for the finals.

In order to do some testing, I got a friend's Galax OC Lab kit that did 4000~ 12-11-11 with wazza @2v.

At this point, I thought it would be ideal to order my own even tho my friend wouldn't participate (eventually he sold his kit to another participant).

When I received the new kit from Galax, I tested the same profile on the same cpu & mobo, as I did on the previous one.

Kit couldn't run spi with wazza @2000 MHz 12-12-12 with less than 1.97v (1.97v works rarely; more makes it worse); it also doesn't boot sub 1.95v @12-11-11. Spi fails right after initial loop with 2~v.

Note: Mad mentioned at some point, that all kits should do Spi32m with wazza @2000 12-12-12 with 1.9v or less.

Trying to troubleshoot, I used another 3 cpus and different OS versions with no luck.

A week ago I made a video showing the issue and sent to Galax OC Lab (Facebook profile) with no response (even tho it was read within 12 hours) so far. No news from Mad either.

Unfortunately, another user (at least one) had the same experience (kit doesn't run @2ghz 12-12-12 and also no response from Galax).

On the same time, others gotkits that run 4100/4200+ 12-11-11 with wazza... quite fml at this point hehe

At this point I am just hoping I will have enough time to participate & my card to compensate the mems on the 3d stages.

Any thoughts/ideas on what to do next?

Thanks,

Stavros

PS. this post has been censored in order to remove thoughts of a "I spend 920€ to participate and got less chances than others" guy

Oh, also "you ran mems too tight" replies are also expected and more than welcome.

Screenshot by Lightshot

You are not the only one who got a potato kit.

A month ago, before the contest was even announced, I was sent a kit by a friend to compare against the B-die I had at the time. The kit was not tragic, 2000 12-12-12 was doable with copywaza at 1.89-1.90V, but it did not like voltage above 1.94V so clocks above 2020-2030 were theoretically impossible with CL12.

After some asking around, I found two guys (one in South-East Asia, one in Eastern Europe) whose Galax OC Edition were even worse than mine; both needing around 2.00V to make 2000 12-12-12 happen.

I did some research on this, and discovered that the only guarantee you get from Galax is a 32M with copywaza at 2000MHz CL12 without subs or voltage mentioned. According to Mad's Facebook post, this voltage should be 1.9V or less but, of course, this is not guaranteed.

Also note that some guys posting 2100+ 12-11-11 results in the contest had prior close ties with Galax, so the kits they buy might not be representative of the whole batch

Also note that some guys posting 2100+ 12-11-11 results in the contest had prior close ties with Galax, so the kits they buy might not be representative of the whole batch

So, if you consider this plus the need of invoices in order to avoid hardware sharing and usage of "samples"; that could be also called double standards, no?

This might not have been the way things were originally intended to be, but this makes the situation very exploitable.

For example, imagine if an MOA/AOOC judge would pretest all hardware the night before the live event and then take the sample distribution among the participants in their own hands.

This might not have been the way things were originally intended to be, but this makes the situation very exploitable.

For example, imagine if an MOA/AOOC judge would pretest all hardware the night before the live event and then take the sample distribution among the participants in their own hands.

so you are saying that the vendor would have the ability to test the "limited-and-only-available-through-him" hw and distribute accordingly? oh well...

Ow man very unlucky, hope things get settles asap.

 

Question could it be board dependant too ? I had bad luck with 2 binned B-die kits which I smoked on the M8E. Twice Dimm 1 always lost the ability to handle volts...

I tested both kits on the same hw setup withing a week and even cleaned the slots after the first results; then tested the kit on another impact without any differences on the results.

And both dimms are acting up or just one ?

both suck yes

Sorry to hear this, doesnt help that you will lose a lot on reselling mems since the market sucks for this.

Sorry to hear this, doesnt help that you will lose a lot on reselling mems since the market sucks for this.

since these kits are quite rare now I can always sell mine for more as this failure should be almost impossible according to the binning policies #jk

(like misprinted money that passed Quality Controls - even tho there are more kits as mine apparently)

After all, people said that these kits will cost a fortune in the future.

Sorry to hear that you have problems, but maybe it's not entirely the kit's fault but yours/your hw? CPUs and boards can degrade, with Mad in OC LAB we degraded 4133 12-12-12 CW M8I to be unable to post even 4000 CL12. Also regarding the second kit you borrowed from your friend which was a bit better, but not outstanding as far I understand from your message. In proper hands of Alex it did 4133 12-11-11 CW! So this should be a clue that maybe you are doing something wrong. No offence, I am just stating the fact.

Alex@ro`s SuperPi - 32M score: 4min 58sec 140ms with a Core i7 6700K

My advices:

If you are using Asus - check out my ULTIMATE B DIE TWEAKING GUIDE.

Please note that some B DIE need different VTT and SA/VCCIO even on the same CPU and board. Please try to tune them a bit, maybe higher, maybe lower. On My Galax kit perfect VTT seems to be around 0.8-0.825v. #justBDIEthings

Some B DIE don't like big WAZA like 3 GB, try lower values, 2 GB, 1 GB, 500-800 MB and so on.

Regarding Galax - please note that Mad is not a seller and shop is not not his department, nor he has any power/influence over procedures in retail/distribution channels. If the kit fails spec (bunnyextraction happens, maybe soldering degraded - bunnyextractionty ROHS standard), maybe they degraded on half dead platform, maybe package was too much mutilated during transport, it doesn't matter what is the cause, kit has warranty and you should proceed it with Galax store or contact (I would recommend Gary). Please also note there were some Chinese holidays + Mad is moving OC Lab to different location, so believe me, everyone is busy and no replying by Mad is most likely just caused of his busy schedule, not bad will or anything. I am sure you can sort it out with Galax.

Yes, maybe vtt your problem. I had friend that had B Die that need VTT 0.95v (other than that will fail 32m with waza) & VDIMM 2.05v to pass 4K C12 tight wazza. That voltage is on Impact.

I too am in the same boat as you Stavros. My kit I have been able to pass with 1.96v real on my MOCF though, but is so high.

My dissappointment increased when trying to push to the same timings I have used on other kits (much loser) and fails. Even with the extra volts. XTU is a fail!!!!, as soon as I try to run 3970C12-11 not even tight, all I get is BSOD in 32bit W10. Yet, I have passed 2-3 times in 32m. It completely complexes me on this issue. I even them to a friend and he had worse problems than me.

I tried on multiple CPU's which have all been able to pass the same timings on my other dimms, and yet it doesn't work. I could have binned 2-3 more sets to have 3 kits that would work better than this set does.

I understand it is not the fault of Mad, but stuck with what to do with these dimms now. It is too late for me to send back for a refund now I feel, as I spent all of my 30days troubleshooting to no avail.

I too see the possible "friend" policy for showing off the memms to "add value" to the product, with the lesser quality sticks being sold to the "public or unknowns".

Have you all try low voltage? My gskill ocwc stick dont like more than 1.86v on Gene, more than that always failed.

Played with vtt and lower v than 1.9

He is not the only one getting bad KIT... I have also buy that kit from local store in here and cannot run 4K 12 12 12 28 1T any voltage even without wazza trying so many way spent almost one day looking figure out with other cpu, board same nothing different. I though my other hardware like cpu or mobo have problem but when I tested with my another kit running perfect I have 4 kit memory can run 4K easy in here all running without any problem.. I think afaik this kit have problem, not come from setting, hardware etc. also I am not stupid guys with B die chipset so many experience in here with that. But I still greathfully I return the memory to local store and the return me money cuz no more stock left. now I only have vga for joined GOC 2016 but impossible only with VGA can joined. I also have speak with Galax guys they will looking figure out but after waiting almost one weeks, I think no more hope. I can prove with video if you need it.

@Xtreme Addict my friend I am trying so many way with the setting all still same .. I think we have bad luck at this time with Certified OC Binned memory

I guess we should always mention both sides of a story and since the negative one has been mentioned already, its time to mention the other one as well.

So Mad from Galax reached out to hwbot in order to inform us (people with defective kits & gpus) that they would replace the components or offer a refund.

Sent an email and already working with Gary (mentioning names so people with similar issues know who to reach in order to save time) to fix my case.

Hopefully I will have a replacement kit to participate GOC.

Hope you don't take this in the wrong way and hope both can go in China for the final.

Me and a lot of other guys have average memory, we are just boosting our ass to take out everything from our mem kit.

In the past 5 day spent 15hr/day and 200lt of LN2 to take the best possible out from my hw.

I'm not bunnying around 'cause i don't like act in that way but i prefer work with head down.

Long story short, now things are became realy unprofessional from all the side: Overclockers, Galax and Hwbot.

My mem need 1,93v for pass waza 4k12-12-12 not tight (2,01V read with Vdimm on MOCF), so may i ask a new kit? This is just ridicolous and make things realy more unfair because every one with avarage mem kit can ask a change and hope in better mem...

Another unfair stuff, not refered to you, is this rich guys who can afford more then 1 mem kit and more then 1 vga, against poor guys who can barely afford to buy 1 mem kit and 1 vga...

just my 2C

Hope you don't take this in the wrong way and hope both can go in China for the final.

Me and a lot of other guys have average memory, we are just boosting our ass to take out everything from our mem kit.

In the past 5 day spent 15hr/day and 200lt of LN2 to take the best possible out from my hw.

I'm not bunnying around 'cause i don't like act in that way but i prefer work with head down.

 

Long story short, now things are became realy unprofessional from all the side: Overclockers, Galax and Hwbot.

My mem need 1,93v for pass waza 4k12-12-12 not tight (2,01V read with Vdimm on MOCF), so may i ask a new kit? This is just ridicolous and make things realy more unfair because every one with avarage mem kit can ask a change and hope in better mem...

 

Another unfair stuff, not refered to you, is this rich guys who can afford more then 1 mem kit and more then 1 vga, against poor guys who can barely afford to buy 1 mem kit and 1 vga...

 

just my 2C

I wont comment on how much ln2 you spent cause then there are other factors like price, availability and others.

Then I can also mention that it isnt fair cause I wouldn't have 15hr a day to bench, etc etc.

Everyone has his own perspective obviously which makes sense to each one of us.

I dont know how you consider your kit but as far as I know Galax tested the kits for 2000 12-12-12 1.9v. Mine runs once every 10 spi (example) runs with 1.97v (your mems might scale with voltage; mine dont) on impact which is bad (4060 is no go).

As for the guys who bought xxx amount of hw its their issue.

For me it always comes down to how much $$$ I spent and if it worth it.

You maybe noticed that the gold fingers on one side of the tab are longer then the other side. Did you try flipping your mem around maybe its in backwards.

You maybe noticed that the gold fingers on one side of the tab are longer then the other side. Did you try flipping your mem around maybe its in backwards.

Looks like heatsinks were installed backwards, flipped em around and now they do 4200+ c12-11-11 49/50/6/6 waza 1.8v real Thanks Splave !

I guess we should always mention both sides of a story and since the negative one has been mentioned already, its time to mention the other one as well.

 

So Mad from Galax reached out to hwbot in order to inform us (people with defective kits & gpus) that they would replace the components or offer a refund.

Sent an email and already working with Gary (mentioning names so people with similar issues know who to reach in order to save time) to fix my case.

 

Hopefully I will have a replacement kit to participate GOC.

I too had been working with Mad in mine for their issues. I'm also working with Galax on a replacement set or refund now. Mad was very helpful.