OCZ VX Revisited: DDR Updates on DFI nForce4
by Wesley Fink on March 30, 2005 12:05 AM EST- Posted in
- Memory
Performance Test Configuration
All four memories were tested on the DFI LANParty nF4 SLI-DR. The new DFI nForce4 SLI and Ultra are the only current production boards that support the voltages required for top VX performance. An OCZ DDR Booster can be used with motherboards without support for high memory voltages. nForce4 is PCI Express, so we used the PCIe version of our standard nVidia 6800 Ultra for testing. Other components remain the same as used in the memory setup in Athlon 64 Memory: Rewriting the Rules.The A64 test bed includes components that have been proven in Socket 939 Athlon 64 benchmarking, such as the Socket 939 4000+ (same specifications as FX53), the OCZ Power Stream 520 Power Supply, and the nVidia 6800 Ultra. We have found the 6800 Ultra to be a particularly good performance match to nVidia motherboards.
All other basic test conditions attempted to mirror those used in our earlier Intel memory reviews. However, test results are not directly comparable to tests performed on the Intel test bed.
| AMD nForce4 Performance Test Configuration | |
| Processor(s): | AMD 4000+ (FX53) Athlon 64 (2.4GHz, Socket 939, 1 MB cache, Dual Channel, 1000HT) |
| RAM: | OCZ EL PC4000 VX Gold (DS) 2X512MB Corsair TwinX1024-4400C25 (DS) 2X512MB Crucial Ballistix (DS) 2X512MB OCZ PC3200 Platinum Rev 2 (DS) 2X512MB |
| Hard Drives | Seagate 120GB SATA 7200RPM 8MB Cache |
| PCI/AGP Speed | Fixed at 33/66 |
| Bus Master Drivers: | nVidia nForce Platform Driver 6.39 |
| Video Card(s): | nVidia 6800 Ultra 256MB PCIe, 256MB aperture, 1024x768x32 |
| Video Drivers: | nVidia Forceware 71.84 Release |
| Power Supply: | OCZ Power Stream 520W |
| Operating System(s): | Windows XP Professional SP1 |
| Motherboards: | DFI LANParty nF4 SLI-DR |
| BIOS: | N4D310p Release (3/10/2005) |
With nForce3 motherboards, we achieved the fastest performance on AMD Athlon 64 chipsets (nForce3, VIA K8T800 PRO) at a Cycle Time or tRAS of 10. However, as we saw in the recent nForce4 SLI roundup, the nForce4 appears to behave a bit differently with memory. In the SLI roundup, we found a tRAS of 7 to be ideal for memory based on Samsung TCCD chips. Therefore, we ran a complete set of Memtest86 benchmarks with only tRAS varied to determine the best tRAS setting for OCZ VX.
| Memtest86 Bandwidth DFI nForce4, Athlon 64 4000+, OCZ VX |
|
| 2 tRAS | 2572 |
| 3 tRAS | 2572 |
| 4 tRAS | 2572 |
| 5 tRAS | 2640 |
| 6 tRAS | 2640 |
| 7 tRAS | 2640 |
| 8 tRAS | 2505 |
| 9 tRAS | 2505 |
| 10 tRAS | 2505 |
| 11 tRAS | 2441 |
| 12 tRAS | 2383 |
These tests are particularly easy to do with the DFI nF4 boards, since memtest86 is built-in to the BIOS. To boot memtest86, you only have to enable it in BIOS and the system will boot directly into memtest86. This makes it very easy to test various memory timings, but memtest86 should be disabled in BIOS when you are ready to boot into the system.
| Memtest86 Bandwidth DFI nF4, Athlon 64 4000+, OCZ 3200 Platinum Rev. 2 |
|
| 4 tRAS | 2191 |
| 5 tRAS | 2191 |
| 6 tRAS | 2242 |
| 7 tRAS | 2191 |
| 8 tRAS | 2191 |
| 9 tRAS | 2141 |
| 10 tRAS | 2092 |
Similar tests were also run on Crucial Ballistix, Corsair PC4400, and OCZ Platinum Rev.2. All 3 memories showed their best bandwidth at a tRAS setting of 6 - just like OCZ VX. Therefore, a tRAS setting of 6 was used for testing wherever possible.
Test Settings
All AMD Athlon 64 processors are unlocked downward, and the FX CPUs are unlocked up and down. This feature allows a different approach to memory testing, which truly measures performance differences in memory speed alone. All tests were run with CPU speed as close to the specified 2.4GHz of the 4000+/FX53 as possible, with CPU speed/Memory Speed increased at lower multipliers to achieve 2.4Ghz. This approach allows the true measurement of the impact of higher memory speed and timings on performance, since CPU speed is fixed, removing CPU speed as a factor in memory performance.The following settings were tested with the OCZ EL PC4000 VX Gold on the DFI nF4 test bed:
- 12x200/DDR400 - the highest stock memory speed supported on K8T800-Pro/nF3-4/SiS755-FX motherboards
- 11x218/DDR436 - a ratio near the standard DDR433 speed
- 10x240/DDR480 - a ratio near the standard rating of DDR466
- 9x267/DDR533 - a standard memory speed used in testing other high-speed memory
- Highest Memory Performance - the highest memory bandwidth and game performance that we could achieve with the memory being tested. This is rarely the highest memory speed that we could achieve; it is normally a lower speed with 1T Command Rate and tighter memory timings.
We ran our standard suite of memory performance benchmarks - Quake 3, Return to Castle Wolfenstein-Enemy Territory-Radar, Super Pi 2M, and Sandra 2004 Standard and UnBuffered.
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NotoriousGIB - Wednesday, March 30, 2005 - link
Thanks for the great review & follow-up. I purchased 2GB of this stuff (based off your initial review), well 1GB, but the Egg rocks so hard they sent me 1GB free :) I'm having issues breaking 250FSB.Wesley, I was wondering what DRAM settings & Genie BIOS settings you are using in this comparison. I've tried a bunch of settings posted at DFI Street & Bleeding Edge, but to no avail. I'm also curious as to whether active cooling is being used on the memory. Anything past 3.2V on my OCZ VX RAM gives me errors.
NotoriousGIB - Wednesday, March 30, 2005 - link
ChineseDemocracyGNR - Wednesday, March 30, 2005 - link
#20, he wasn't talking specifically about this article.And he makes a point. AnandTech is lacking reviews for AMD PCI-E boards, so far there's only a 4-boards SLI roundup, an article for the DFI boards and reviews of pre-production Gigabyte boards. That's too little for a site like AnandTech and I have to say I'm a little disapointed.
Scott66 - Wednesday, March 30, 2005 - link
#10 The reason no other boards are reviewed in the article, as it plainly states, is they don't have enough memory voltage. The only way they can be used is with the OCZ voltage adapter. This would not be a comparable test though.L3p3rM355i4h - Wednesday, March 30, 2005 - link
TCCD isn't the holy grail of RAM anymore. Too bad you need a DDR booster or a DFI mobo to take advangtage though.Viper4185 - Wednesday, March 30, 2005 - link
Thanks for the reply guys, i'll check it out now :PSpacecomber - Wednesday, March 30, 2005 - link
When you run MemTest86, you'll notice in the upper left part of the screen that it gives you some information, including memory bandwidth numbers for the cache and the system memory. The system memory number is what AnandTech is looking at to determine if certain memory timing settings are increasing the memory bandwidth or not.Space
bigtoe36 - Wednesday, March 30, 2005 - link
#15 have a look at www.memtest86.org, download either the floppy version or thr cd ISO file and create the memtest disk. Set to boot from it.once running memtest you can press C then 9 for the advanced options, this will allow you to set memory timings from within memtest its self without the need to reboot.
you can also press c 9 then 5 for the advanced A64 memory options and tweak your ram even further.
All this is done before you load the OS so your HDD will not be at risk of data corruption.
Also the latest builds of the DFI bios files have memtest85 incorperated into them in genie bios so you don't have to compile a disk at all, just set enabled and the pc will boot to memtest on its own.
Viper4185 - Wednesday, March 30, 2005 - link
Sorry to be a n00b but are you saying that the memtest86+ program that fits on a floppy can actually tell me the best settings for my setup? If so how? As soon as i boot the computer and run it it just goes through all those 8 tests it does...Wesley Fink - Wednesday, March 30, 2005 - link
Ozzimark -We have been running Everest in our memory tests to start to build a database. We just weren't ready to introduce a new bench in this update.
I did notice a very interesting trend in Everest while testing these memories. The Read values were pretty close at the same speed, but VX had a significantly higher Write score than any other memory tested here. At DDR400 the write scores for TCCD were in the 2100 MB/s range where VX write was 2661. Ballistix scores were closer to VX than TCCD.