V-Color Manta XSky RGB DDR5-7200 “ROG Certified” Memory Kit Review

Many of our US readers may not have heard of V-Color but the company was established in 2006 by a team of experts, specializing in DRAM module testing. V-Color's primary based on operations is situated in Taipei, Taiwan but their products are available across the globe. The company has a primary focus on the DRAM and Flash product markets, with their lead products more often being memory kits and SSDs.

The V-Color Manta XSky RGB DDR5 memory kit is a high-end design that caters to overclockers and hence features the ROG certification. The kit I received is optimized at a clock speed of 7200 Mbps (PC5-57600) but you can unlock an additional ROG-Certified DDR5-7400 profile when running on a high-end Z790 motherboard from the ASUS ROG family. The memory kit consists of dual 16 GB DIMMs which make up a total of 32 GB in capacity.

The memory kit has a tested latency spec of CL38 and the timings are 36-46-46-105 for this specific kit. The voltage set at reference is 1.45V and the memory kit comes in an unbuffered package with an on-die ECC (Error Correction) design. The memory kit is fully compliant with Intel's XMP 3.0 and can be easily set to its rated clock speeds through the BIOS shipped on the Z790 motherboards.

The ROG certification is definitely interesting and we are glad to have an ASUS ROG Maximums Z790 HERO motherboard in our hands to test both profiles although V-Color recommends that overclockers pair this kit up with the top Z790 APEX motherboard.

The V-Color Manta XSky RGB memory kit comes in a small cardboard package. It has orange and black accents all over it. The front of the package has the name and specifications sticker plus a picture of the memory itself. The front also lists the ROG Certification for this particular memory kit.

The back of the package has a nice story about the evolution of V-Color's memory brand from the Stingray during the DDR4 generation to Manta in the DDR5 generation. The back also lists down a series of specs and both, standard and ROG, profiles.

The DIMMs come in a plastic shell casing that holds them firmly and can already see the premium design quality that V-Color has embedded in these modules.

The V-Color Manta XSky RGB series memory modules feature a large diffuser that is embedded on the top of the DIMMs.

The front side of the V-Color Manta XSky RGB memory has the XSky and ROG Certification logos on the sides. There are also the specifications listed on the top left side of the heatsink. You can notice the V logo etched in the middle which represents the V-Color brand.

The simplistic and glossy metallic touch of these DIMMs is very nice to look at and the way the surrounding colors just diffuse within the glossy frame looks great. The top RGB diffuser adds another layer of customization to the DIMMs.

The good thing about these memory kits is that they come in the standard height package which means that compatibility with certain air coolers won't be much of an issue.

Following is how the V-Color Manta XSky RGB DDR5 memory kits look like when installed on your PC:

For testing, I used the latest Intel Core i9 13900K processor along with the Gigabyte Z790 AERO G motherboard which can support higher frequencies memory without any issues. The XMP profile for each respective ram kit was enabled. That's 7200 Mbps CL36 for the V-Color as standard and 7400 Mbps CL38 in the ROG Certified mode.

The memory kit comprises 2 DIMMs that operate in dual-channel mode. Since we were running a Z790 platform, the memory was operating in dual-channel mode.

I have separated the performance tests into two sections. The first section consists of pure synthetic and general workload tests while the second section would be focusing on gaming performance and how different games are affected by higher-clocked memory sticks.

For AIDA64 memory tests, I ran the kits at both stock and overclocked speeds. The stock speed was configured at the XMP 3.0 profile of 6000 Mbps CL40 for the T-Force memory kit.

Super PI is used by many overclockers to test the performance and stability of their computers. In the overclocking community, the standard program provides a benchmark for enthusiasts to compare “world record” pi calculation times and demonstrate their overclocking abilities. The program can also be used to test the stability of a certain overclock speed.

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Gaming applications generally don't see huge gains with different memory kits but DDR5 has enabled a huge gain in memory frequency which can impact gaming performance. Moving from the stock 2133 Mbps (DDR4) to 6000+ Mbps can have a huge effect on performance and the improved CAS timings on some of the high-end SKUs can result in better overall FPS and system responsiveness.

Furthermore, while 8 GB has become the standard for gaming PCs, modern applications such as editing software and multi-tasking users can benefit hugely from 16 GB and 32 GB kits which have become more common in the gaming market over the last couple of years.

The V-Color Manta XSky RGB memory kit surprised me by the fact that the company is not only offering some really fast Hynix A-die designs but also going one step ahead with the ROG-certified positioning that offers an even higher profile for motherboards that can sustain higher memory overclocks. DDR5-7200 is already pretty fast so pushing for an extra with DDR5-7400 is going to give a nice boost to overclockers, especially when pairing this with higher-end Intel CPUs like the Raptor Lake series.

As for the design choice, I would say that this is V-Color's best implementation yet with a sleek & stylish aluminum frame with a mirrored-silver finish and a diffuser that keeps the RGB subtly lit. The overall design is great but we have to talk about the most important thing and that's the price.

At $284.99 US, this is definitely not the cheapest DDR5-7200/7400 kit around but it rivals the likes of Kingston's FURY Renegade and Corsair's Vengeance series. Those don't offer a secondary ROG-certified profile so if you have invested in a ROG Z790 motherboard and looking to grab a fast & good-looking kit, the V-Color Manta XSky is definitely a choice to consider.

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