The HyperX range consists of the Fury, Savage (which we’re reviewing here), Predator and Impact. The Fury is the entry-level HyperX memory, with Savage taking the mid-range spot, before the extreme DDR3/4 Predator steps in. The Impact is the mobile and small platform SODIMM version, lying somewhere between the Savage and the Predator desktop equivalents.
The HyperX Savage kit we have comes in the form of a pair of 8GB sticks at 2400MHz, with timings of 11-13-14-32 and a voltage of 1.65V, product number HX324C11SRK2/16. There are various speeds available, from 1600MHz and up to this 2400MHz version, the top of the line.
The design of the RAM is quite impressive. Rather than opting for a taller heatsink, Kingston decided on a large red (we’re not sure if other colours exist) aluminium heatspreader, with a toothed saw-like ventilation section mid-way across the top. Surprisingly, even with this heatspreader taken into account, the height of each individual stick is only 333.mm. This means there’s plenty of room for fitting more elaborate CPU coolers. In fact, it’s only 3.3mm taller than the Kingston ValueRAM.
A lot of thought clearly went into the looks of the memory, so showcase system builders or simply those who like to have matching LEDs and other components will be happy. We particularly liked the black PCB under the red aluminium heatsink; it’s a good effect and one which we think makes a difference for those building a new system.
While the RAM looks nice, the important factors are the performance and the price. The price we’ll get to in a moment, but the performance is certainly worth considering first. The SiSoft Sandra benchmark we ran recorded 33GB/s with the default settings. After playing around with overclocking, we managed to tweak the HyperX Savage pair to a decent 2535MHz, which upped the benchmark score to 37GB/s.
Admittedly, though, we didn’t feel all that comfortable with the overclock, because after just ten minutes you feel the heat from the RAM a few inches away from them, so we dropped everything back to its default setting. It’s fair enough; 2400MHz at 1.65V is already enough.
As you can assume, then, whereas the lesser performing memory managed to play older ganes well and newer ones with a certain degree of success too, the HyperX Savage played and ran everything perfectly.
As we mentioned, the second most important factor is the pricing. After searching we came across quite different pricing levels. For example, we found this kit for £99 from Box.co.uk, but it was only £69.99 from Dabs. We can't say if the cheaper price will stay that way, but it’s worth checking around before committing to a purchase.
Overall, the Kingston HyperX Savage is a great performing 16GB RAM kit. There’s overclocking potential here, as well as some attractive pricing if you can search for a deal.