V-Color Manta XPrism RGB DDR5 7200MHz 32GB RAM w/ Filler Kits Review

See full bio

Nauman Siddique

At Tech4Gamers, I take on the role of Hardware Reviewer with pride. My responsibilities involve a thorough examination of essential hardware components like motherboards, graphics cards, processors, PC cases, and CPU coolers, among others, focusing on their complexities and functionalities.

 

 

 

See full bio

V-Color has been around for some 17 years manufacturing memory products for consumer and industrial users. They have sent us the following products for testing:

• Manta xPrism RGB DDR5 16GBx2 7200MHz CAS34 kit
• RGB RAM FillerKit
• M.2 PCIe RGB Fulfill kit

The main product in these is obviously the DDR5 kit. The Filler kit will come in handy if you want to populate all 4 DIMM slots of your motherboard. However, there are restrictions to using this filler kit that we will cover later. The SSD Dummy kit does not have any active NAND component like the RGB RAM FillerKit. It serves the aesthetic purpose of only occupying the unused NVMe slot. Now coming to the main topic of interest, which is the DDR5 kit itself, this kit operates at 7200MHz, running at 34-45-45-112 timing at 1.40V

This is a second kit operating at 7200MHz on our test bench. Earlier, we tested Kingston Fury Renegade RGB DDR5 16GBx2 7200MHz kit running at 38-44-44-105. Looking at the timing, we can see that the V-Color Manta xPrism kit has an advantage in terms of CAS only, but the subsequent tight timings on the Kingston kit gave it a good advantage, as we shall see in the testing section. The part number of this kit is TMXPL1672834KWK. This kit has Intel XMP and AMD EXPO profiles on board as well. This means we can use this same kit on Intel and AMD as well.

The above table shows the salient differences between the DDR4 and DDR5 modules. Some of the keynotes include 1.1V as compared to 1.2V [JEDEC stock voltage], higher densities, more banks & bank groups, provision of on-die ECC on DDR5, and PMIC on DDR5 modules.

Among the key differences between the DDR4 and DDR5, the position of the key notch is different on both, which would mean DDR5 RAM can’t be installed on the DDR4 socket. This is despite having the same pin count. The DDR5 modules contain Power Management IC circuitry on the PCB, which was not the case with the DDR4. The PMIC enhances power supply stability. Its lower operating voltage also makes DDR5 more power-efficient than DDR4. Also, DDR5 integrates I/O resistors with CMD/ADD resistors giving a cleaner look.

DDR5 module provides two times more capacity than DDR4 by packing in more banks and bank groups. In addition, Burst Length and Prefetch are also doubled. ECC technology is also featured for data integrity.

The DDR5 kits boast higher bandwidth and frequency when compared with the DDR kits. According to ADATA, their DDR5 memory modules deliver frequencies of up to 4800MT/s and feature bandwidth of 38.4GB/s, which is 50% higher than the DDR4-3200. The maximum frequency is increased by 1.63 times compared to DDR4.

Specifications

Packing Box

The DDR5 kit and filler kit are shipped inside a paperboard packing. The packing box has an orange and black colors accent. The top view of these boxes does not tell us anything.

Flipping both boxes will show the backside and we have got some useful data over here. There are labels showing the part numbers, serial numbers, operating frequencies, timings, etc.

There are hard shells inside the main packing boxes. These contain the RAM modules and filler kit.

The M.2 PCIe dummy filler kit comes in a simple see-through packing.

VPM2F002 is a part number of this RGB Fulfill kit. It is a bit strange as V-Color is using different naming for the same product.

Design

Let’s start with stating the salient features of the Manta DDR5 kits from V-Color:

• Futuristic Colorful Memory
• Uniquely crafted Prism RGB-infused design with ultra-bright lighting diffuser
• Strictly selected quality jet black aluminum alloy, sliver copper alloy, glacier white heat sink
• Well-chosen 10-layer PCB fully supporting XMP for automatic overclocking
• Extremely efficient OC DRAM auto sorting equipment designed by v-color’s Advanced O.C Smart Sorting System
• Synchronized across M/B of ASUS, GIGABYTE, MSI, ASROCK, BIOSTAR

Manta xPrism is the name of a mainstream enthusiast DDR5 memory solution from V-Color. These kits are available in white and black colors. V-Color is providing solutions for Intel XMP and AMD EXPO as well. The kit we have got supports both profiles, which is a wise implementation. This series has the following module capacities:

• 2x16GB
• 2x32GB
• 2x24GB
• 2x48GB

This series has an extensive range of kits at varying transfer rates which are:

• 6000 MT/s
• 6200 MT/s
• 6400 MT/s
• 6600 MT/s
• 7200 MT/s
• 7600 MT/s
• 7800 MT/s
• 8000 MT/s

Since these kits conform to the JEDEC 5600MHz base frequency hence we are not seeing any kit lower than 6000MHz speed.

The dimension of this kit is 138×41.7x9mm. Out of all the kits that we have tested, this kit has more width. The overall height of this kit is 41.7mm. The Kingston Fury Renegade RGB DDR5 kit has a height of 44mm. This is somewhat of a high-profile design hence working with a liquid cooler should have no concern, but the air cooler might be restricted. It is Non-ECC, Unbuffered DIMM with a 288-pin layout (DDR5).

There is a V shape design in the center of the heat spreader indicating the V-Color branding. The heat spreader is made of aluminum alloy material and is finished in black color. There is a scintillating diamond-cut design on the diffuser that looks good in person. This kit would sync in well with SilverStone iCEGEM series of liquid coolers as the blocks on these coolers feature the same design.

We can see xPrism branding in orange and black colors towards the lower right side of each module. Each module has a capacity of 16GB and operates at 7200MHz. The PCB is black in color, as we can see on the base and side of each module. The diffuser is running on the entire length of the module, and there is no obstruction or covering on the ends of each module that would give a total RGB view coming from each module.

The backside of the modules has the same design layout. There is a scanning label towards the lower right quadrant, probably showing the serial number of each module. Each module has 1Rx8 meaning a single rank design using 8 modules. This kit is made in Taiwan. The part number of this kit is MXPL1672834KWK. Cracking this part number, we can identify Manta, xPrism, 16GB, 7200MHz, and CAS34. I am not sure what KWK stands for. Similarly, ‘L’ and the digit 8 are not known to me.

The above picture shows a top view of these modules. There is a black color Manta branding in the middle of each module. This view clearly tells about the scintillating diamond-cut design. The black color kit would complement the neutral theme builds.

This kit has a single-rank design and uses a black color PCB which is a standard design industry-wide. This is a 10-layer PCB design that would make overclocking convenient. However, note that there are more variables involved when it comes to overclocking the RAM besides RAM itself. Hence, nothing is guaranteed. The quality of the CPU and the motherboard design are equally important. However, what is guaranteed is that this kit would not hinder the performance boost provided one sorts the other variables.

The non-populated side of the PCB has a black color thick pad running on the entire length. Its width makes up for the width equalization on the opposite side. The populated side of the PCB has a PMIC chip in the center. There are 4x memory chips on the left of this PMIC chip and 4x memory chips on the right side of this controller. This gives a 32GB capacity overall in 1Rx8 using a 2G x 64-bit design. We can also see a thermal pad on these chips.

V-Color is using Hynix A-dies on this kit, having a part number H5CG48AGBDX018. This kit is using RICHTEK PMIC controller having a part number RTQ5132GQWF. This is the same controller that our tested Team Group Delta RGB kit is using. Kingston Fury Renegade DDR5 6400MHz CAS 32 kit is also using the same controller. This kit is manufactured in July 2023 (Week 28). This kit has AMD EXPO Revision 9.0 and Intel XMP Revision 3.0 profiles programmed. These are:

Intel: 7200MHz 38-45-45-112 1.40V

AMD: 6400MHz 34-38-38-90 1.350V

Thaiphoon Burner could not read the SPD Hub device completely. This kit is mentioned to have an SPD hub device having a model SPD5118—Y1B000NCG. My guess is that this chip is from Montage Technology.

Surprisingly, the Thaiphoon burner did not read any temperature sensor integration on this kit, but HWInfo64 showed that this kit has a temperature sensor. Also, it is worth noting that the Thaiphoon burner reported an integrated temperature sensor on the filler kit.

V-Color uses a thick PCB comprising 10 layers. We can see a brown color on the sides, indicating that there is a black color coating on the PCB surface. The PCB is protruding from the sides of the heat spreader. This is to make room so that latching can be done when installing the modules in the socket. As mentioned above, the diffuser is running on the sides of this kit.

The filler kit has the same design and layout. It does not have any DRAM component.

The backside of the filler kit also has the same design. There is a serial number sticker on each module. Each module has the same dimension as well. Looking closely, we can see some active pins on the connector of each module. These are there to provide RGB control and temperature sensor.

Thaiphoon Burner shows that the filler kit has an integrated temperature sensor which is somewhat surprising since I was expecting this sensor to be in the actual DRAM kit. The SPD Hub device is from Montage technology and uses SPD5118 with a temperature sensor.

V-Color has mentioned this filler kit will work with Intel XMP only and that using 4 modules will increase the voltage load. Hence their recommendation is running at 6000MHz and a maximum of 6600MHz if using this filler kit for stable performance. In our testing, we managed to load the XMP profile of 7200MHz and use this filler kit as well. However, we could not overclock the kit at all and had to remove the filler kit to overclock the Manta xPrism DDR5 kit.

The M.2 PCIe Fulfill kit has a dummy PCB with M.2 connector. It has a form factor of 2280. There is a diffuser running on all three sides of this PCB for RGB illumination. There is a V-Color branding in the center. There is a textured pattern on the black color surface. There is no NAND flash on this PCB.

There are 5 RGB LEDs on this product. Since the diffuser extends over the PCB, this product crosses the standard dimension of any M.2 PCIe SSD, and it would make it difficult to install. We faced this issue on GIGABYTE Z790 AORUS ELITE AX motherboard. This dummy SSD kit could only be installed on the last M.2 port.

The above picture shows the kit installed on the GIGABYTE Z690 AERO DDR5 motherboard on the top slot. This was done to take pictures only.

There it goes. A perfect combination of V-Color RGB-enabled products is shown in the picture.

The above picture shows the product in action. I mean, in RGB action, since there is no active component on it so it will fill the empty slot on your motherboard. Oh, and you can’t use two of these two adjacent to each other due to excessive width.

The above picture shows all three V-Color products in action.

There are only two profiles programmed on this kit. One is for Intel XMP, and the other is for AMD EXPO.

• Intel: 7200MHz 38-45-45-112 1.40V
• AMD: 6400MHz 34-38-38-90 1.350V

XMP1 loads the DDR5 profile of 7200MT/s using 38-45-45-112 timings at 1.40V. On Auto and Stock, the JEDEC values of 5600MT/s will be used with the timing of 46-45-45-90.

We can see the correct SPD data on the XMP and EXPO profiles. Thaiphoon burner showed the minimum timings of 46-45-45-90, whereas SPD data is showing it as 45-45-45-90.

This kit supports SPD profile creation. Users can create up to 2 profiles from BIOS and save those profiles for use on other PCs.

The above picture shows memory timings in USEI BIOS. I always prefer manually entering timings even after loading the XMP profile, just in case.

As shown in the above picture, VDD and VDDQ voltages were set to correct 1.40V manually as well. The PIMC chip is from RICHTEK, as we have mentioned above as well.

The above is the SPD readout as taken from the AIDA64 Engineer edition.

RGB Lighting

We have tested these kits on GIGABYTE Z790 AORUS ELITE AX motherboard and controlled the lighting using GIGABYTE RGB FUSION 2.0 app. The kits were responding to the change in modes perfectly. However, we noted a color tone difference between the filler kit and the actual kit. The filler kit has a more solid color fill compared to the actual kit.

This kit is compatible with the following:

• ASUS AURA SYNC
• GIGABYTE RGB FUSION 2.0
• MSI MYSTICSYNC LIGHT
• ASROCK POLYCHROME SYNC
• BIOSTAR RGB SYNC

There is no dedicated software to control the lighting, which is a wise design. Using the RGB sync technology of the motherboard manufacturer would be better as it would mean we are using less software to control the lighting.

Here are pictures.

RGB Lighting

1 of 9

Testing

We are using below mentioned configuration for RAM testing:

• Intel i7 13700k [Stock, Auto]
• CORSAIR iCUE H170i XT CAPILLEX LCD
• GIGABYTE Z790 AORUS ELITE AX
• Sabrent Rocket 4 Plus 2TB PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD [For OS]
• GIGABYTE GeForce RTX 3060 VISION OC Rev.2 [For Display]
• be quiet! Straight Power 11 850W Platinum PSU
• Thermaltake Core P6 TG Snow Edition in an open frame layout

Other kits are:

• G.Skill Ripjaws S5 DDR5 32GB 6000MHz CAS30
• XPG Lancer RGB DDR5 32GB 6000MHz CAS40
• Sabrent Rocket DDR5 32GB 4800MHz CAS40
• Kingston FURY RENEGADE DDR5 32GB 6400MHz CAS32
• CORSAIR VENGEANCE RGB DDR5 32GB 6000MHz CAS36
• Kingston FURY RENEGADE RGB DDR5 32GB 7200MHz CAS38
• Team Group Delta RGB DDR5 32GB 6000MHz CAS30

We are thankful to our sponsors for this test bench. The following software has been used for the testing:

• AIDA64 Engineer
• SiSoftware Sandra Suite
• Performance Test
• 3DMark Time Spy
• Super Pi

Before testing, we loaded XMP 3.0 (XMP1) in UEFI BIOS. The timings and DRAM frequency were manually loaded just in case to ensure the proper working of the kit.

The above is a CPU-Z screenshot. Looking closely, you will notice that the software is reporting the kit to be in quad-channel configuration. The reason for that is with DDR5 kits, we have two channels per module, with each being 32-bit wide.

Results

Let’s start taking at results one by one, starting with AIDA64 Engineer.

We can see that Kingston Fury Renegade RGB 32GB 7200MHz CAS38 and V-Color Manta xPrism RGB 32GB 7200MHz CAS34 are neck-to-neck in the performance. The V-Color kit comes out the winner here, though with a narrow margin.

Again we see tough competition between both 7200MHz kits and this time V-Color stands at the second number.

We are seeing the same result as we saw in the Memory Read benchmark.

No surprise there, actually. Both Kingston DDR5 kits are still top of the chart, and the V-Color kit stands at third number. The 38-44-44-105 timings on the Kingston Fury Renegade RGB 7200MHz kit perform better than the 34-45-45-112 timings on the V-Color kit. The Fury Renegade 6400MHz kit has a tight timing of CAS32, making it take a top slot.

SiSoftware Sandra Suite

Now, let’s take a look at the results from Sandra memory related benchmarks.

The V-Color Manta xPrism RGB 32GB DDR5 7200MHz CAS34 has a lead here, having an overall score of 2.77 KPT.

Performance Test

The V-Color Manta xPrism RGB 32GB DDR5 7200MHz CAS34 has a lead here, having an overall score of 4157.

Super PI

The V-Color kit took 306 seconds to complete the calculation of 32M of PI numbers.

3DMARK Time Spy

We have used the Time Spy benchmark and are reporting CPU Score. We would want to see the impact of using different speed and timing kits on CPU score.

The V-Color Manta xPrism RGB 32GB DDR5 7200MHz CAS34 has a solid lead here, having a CPU score of 21997.

Overclocking

Let me start by saying that this kit likes to be overclocked. The only limiting factor would be your motherboard and CPU. Obviously, we can’t rule out the ICs own limitation in overclocking, but this kit is a good overclocker. Everyone’s mileage would be different; hence it is important to know the configuration on which the overclocking is done. We were able to push this kit to 8000MHz from 7200MHz, giving us a +800MHz boost over the XMP profile using the same timings. This results in a performance boost and better latencies even without touching the timings.

This kit easily pushed to 7800MHz using System Agent Voltage of 1.350V and VDD/VDDQ of 1.450V. However, for a stable 8000MHz on this 13700k and motherboard, we needed 1.51V on VDQ and VDDQ in addition to pushing VCCSA to a massive 1.50V. Here are the results from this overclock.

In the AIDA64 Memory benchmark, we are seeing a good boost in scores compared to the stock run. There is a performance boost of 6.8% in Copy benchmark. There is a performance boost of 9.2% in the Write benchmark. There is a performance boost of 9.1% in the Read benchmark.

The latency was further improved with this overclock. We are seeing a performance boost of 10.41% here.

We are seeing a performance boost of 2.67% in Time Spy CPU Scores with this overclock.

Conclusion

In our next take on the DDR5 kit, we have taken a look at the V-Color DDR5 kit. V-Color has been in the memory business for over 17 years. This is the first time that we have tested any of their products. In this article, we have tested the following:

• Manta xPrism RGB DDR5 16GBx2 7200MHz CAS34 kit
• RGB Non-DRAM FillerKit
• 2 PCIe RGB Fulfill Kit

Our main interest is certainly in the DDR5 kit. This is the second 7200MHz kit on our test bench after having tested Kingston Fury Renegade RGB 32GB DDR5 7200MHz CAS38 kit. The Manta xPrism is V-Color’s high-performance, enthusiast-grade memory kit featuring handpicked ICs and a 10-layer PCB design, offering massive capacities ranging from 16GB per module to 48GB per module. These are available in DUAL kits. V-Color also carries ROG certified line of xPrism. The minimum available operating frequency on these kits is 6000MHz going as high as 8000MHz. They are available in white and black color.

Our kit conforms to JEDEC 5600MHz, operating at a minimum of 46-45-45-90 timings. This kit supports Intel XMP 3.0 and AMD EXPO 9.0, meaning a single kit offering both technologies. These profiles have:

• Intel: 7200MHz 38-45-45-112 1.40V
• AMD: 6400MHz 34-38-38-90 1.350V

This kit has a part number TMXPL1672834KWK. We have tested a black version kit rated for 7200MHz at CAS34 using 1.40V. This is a kit of two 2G x 64-bit (32GB) DDR5-7200 CAS34 SDRAM (Synchronous DRAM) 1Rx8 memory modules based on eight 2G x 8-bit FBGA components per module. Putting it simply, we have got a 2x16GB DDR5 kit rated for 7200MT/s at CAS 34 using 1.40V with Intel XMP. The game is different when on the AMD. EXPO profile is best supported at 6400MHz using CAS34 at 1.350V. For the sake of this kit’s testing, we are strictly comparing this kit against the Kingston Fury Renegade RGB DDR5 32GB 7200MHz CAS38 kit. One key difference between both kits is the timings. The V-Color kit operates at 34-45-45-112, whereas the Kingston kit operates at 38-44-44-105, giving Kingston kit a bit of an advantage when it comes to latencies.

The V-Color kit has a dimension of 138×41.7x9mm (LxHxW). Here 41.7mm is the overall height of this kit which is less than the height of the Kingston kit. You would need to check for clearance with the air cooler on these kits. Also, this kit has more width (9mm) compared to other kits that we have tested. This kit has a scintillating diamond-cut design on the diffuser that V-Color refers to as a Prism. Each module has 16 RGB LEDs for some vivid and dynamic lighting effects. There is no dedicated software which is a wise implementation, in my opinion, as we can control the lighting of this kit using the RGB sync technology of the motherboard manufacturer like we have controlled the RGB lighting using RGB FUSION 2.0 from GIGABYTE on Z790 AORUS ELITE AX motherboard.

The main heat spreader is made of aluminum material, and it is black in color. It has a simple design. There is a V shape raised surface in the middle for the V-Color branding. There is xPrism branding on one side, along with the part number and speed of the module. V-Color has kept the overall layout simple except for the top, where all the magic is done for RGB lighting. This kit is a single-rank design. Only one side of a black color PCB is populated with memory chips and a PMIC controller.

All components have a thermal pad sitting between them and a heat spreader. This kit uses Hynix A-Die having a part number H5CG48AGBDX018. The PMIC is from RICHTEC, having a part number of RTQ5132GQWF. This kit is manufactured in July 2023 (Week 28). Interestingly, this kit was shown not to have integrated temperature sensors, according to Thaiphoon, but HWInfo64 actually showed the temperature of both modules. What is even more interesting is that the Thaiphoon readout of the filler kit shows an integrated temperature sensor using SPD Hub SPD5118 from Montage Technology.

V-Color is also providing a Fillerkit for the users who would want to populate all 4 DIMM slots of the motherboards. This kit is available in white and black colors. These have the same design layout, and each has 16 RGB LEDs under the diffuser. These kits don’t have DRAM chips and controllers. However, there is a catch. These filler kits will work with Intel XMP only, and V-Color has suggested using 6000MHz speed with these kits with a maximum overclock of 6600MHz due to added voltage using two more modules. In our testing, we could not overclock the main kit above 7200MHz with the filler kit. We had to remove the filler kit to overclock the main kit. Each kit costs USD $66.88

V-Color is also providing M.2 PCIe RGB Fulfill kit. It is a dummy SSD that can be installed on an empty M.2 slot. It has a diffuser with the same design as is on the xPrism RAM kits, and it has RGB LEDs. We can’t control the RGB lighting effect on this SSD filler kit. Also, note that this kit is a dummy PCB conforming to the 2280 form factor, but the diffuser extends the standard width of the M.2 PCIe SSDs. This is why you can’t use these filler kits on adjacent M.2 slots. This kit is for aesthetic purposes and costs USD $9.99.

Please make a note that running a memory kit above JEDEC Default is considered overclocking, and despite XMP coming from Intel, Intel will not honor a warranty if the CPU gets damaged with the XMP profile loaded. As strange as it sounds, it is what it is!

We have tested the V-Color Manta xPrism RGB DDR5 32GB 7200MHz CAS34 kit on GIGABYTE Z790 AORUS ELITE AX using Intel i7 13700k. This kit has given a tough time to a Kingston Fury Renegade RGB DDR5 32GB 7200MHz CAS38 kit, and overall, this kit has performed better than the Kingston kit though the margin is narrow. RGB lighting is vivid and brilliant. However, we have noted that the color tone on the filler kit slightly differs from the color tone on the V-Color Manta xPrism RGB DDR5 32GB 7200MHz CAS34 kit. Speaking of overclocking, we managed to push this bad boy to 8000MHz without changing the timings. This gave a good performance boost.

This V-Color kit is listed at USD $239.99, and it comes with a limited lifetime warranty. This is a steep price for this kit, but still, it is way better than the USD $365 pricing of the Kingston kit operating at the same frequency. Still, V-Color needs to make this kit competitive at this price point.

Learn more about Tech4Gamers Awards

Nauman Siddique

[Hardware Reviewer & Editor]

Meet Nauman Siddique, a highly experienced computer science graduate with more than 15 years of knowledge in technology. Nauman is an expert in the field known for his deep understanding of computer hardware.

As a tech tester, insightful reviewer, and skilled hardware editor, Nauman carefully breaks down important parts like motherboards, graphics cards, processors, PC cases, CPU coolers, and more.

• 15+ years of PC Building Experience
• 10+ years of first-hand knowledge of technology
• 7+ years of doing in-depth testing of PC Hardware
• A motivated individual with a keen interest in tech testing from multiple angles.
• I majored in Computer Science with a Masters in Marketing
• Previously worked at eXputer, EnosTech, and Appuals.
• Completed Course in Computer Systems Specialization From Illinois Tech

Get In Touch: nauman@tech4gamers.com