The Memories
OCZ VX is unique in being the only memory available that is rated at 2-2-2 timings at DDR500. The memory is based on Winbond memory chips, most likely CH5 die. The downside is that this level of performance requires a rated 3.3V of memory voltage. The only production motherboards to supply this level of voltage are the new DFI LANParty nF4 SLI-DR and the lower cost sister, DFI LANParty UT nF4 Ultra-D. We reviewed these motherboards in
DFI nForce4: SLI and Ultra for Mad Overclockers. We also compared the DFI nF4 SLI-DR to other nF4 SLI boards in
nForce4 SLI Roundup: Painful and Rewarding.
The other 3 memories were chosen for comparison because they were top performers in our memory tests and they were representative of a memory chip or class of memory.
The OCZ PC3200 Platinum Rev.2 is our Reference test memory. It has been a consistent top performer in Athlon 64 tests and is based on Samsung TCCD chips on a Brainpower PCB. This means that performance of the OCZ should be comparable to the similarly configured G. Skill, Corsair, Mushkin, PDP Patriot, PQI and Geil TCCD, which are generally rated at DDR400, but often perform to DDR600 or higher on the Athlon 64 nF4 platform.
The Corsair TwinX1024-4400C25A is also based on Samsung TCCD and the Brainpower PCB, but it is TCCD specifically binned for high-speed performance. This memory is representative of the performance of the best TCCD rated at DDR500 to DDR550. This memory is not always capable of 2-2-2 performance at DDR400, but the mid- to high-end memory timings are usually very good for TCCD-based memory.
Our final contender is Crucial Ballistix PC3200. The Ballistix is based on Micron chips, and the performance curves are similar to the now-discontinued OCZ EB memory, which was also based on similar Micron chips. After we completed testing, we learned that DFI had been working with Crucial to improve performance of Crucial Ballistix on the DFI nF4 motherboards. Therefore, for best performance of Ballistix, make sure that you are using BIOS version 310 (March 10, 2005) or later.
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tkeoki - Wednesday, March 30, 2005 - link
I was curious why new video drivers would make a difference in speed in the tests where the video subsystem is not involved. Anyone?StormGod - Wednesday, March 30, 2005 - link
In soviet Russia memory overvolts you!ozzimark - Wednesday, March 30, 2005 - link
*claps*you're my hero Wesley. thanks for going through and redoing the benches with the dfi. looks like you were right about the VX being faster at the same timings and speed.. though it still doesn't make sense to me. i'll have to do a bit of research into it.
two things i'd like to say about the review though:
first, a recommendation for an additional test. use the memory latency benchmark in everest ( http://www.lavalys.com/products/overview.php?pid=1... ). i have found that in my testing, the lower the latency, the better (duh) but if the latency is different for each ram at the same speeds and timings, it would definitly imply that not all ram is equal at equal settings.. which is what we're seeing here.
second: why so much voltage for ballistix at low speeds? i have two sticks of the stuff myself, and have found that it helps tremendously if the drive strength is lowered to level 1 or level 2 on my dfi lanparty nf3-ut. i know the nf4 version is different, but it's something to keep in mind with tweaking.