Searching for the Memory Holy Grail - Part 2
by Wesley Fink on August 26, 2003 11:11 PM EST- Posted in
- Memory
Does Memory Speed really matter in the Real World?
There have been skeptics in the computer industry who have boldly stated that Dual-Channel 266 memory will give performance as fast as you can get — in the real world — with a Canterwood or Springdale motherboard. Another popular variation of this is that memory over DDR400 (PC3200) will make no difference in real-world performance of an 875/865 system. To determine whether these statements held any validity, we decided to first take a look at the influence of memory speed alone on our chosen benchmarks.
We wanted to isolate performance variation as much as possible to Memory. The very design of the Intel 875/865 chipsets makes this difficult, since we have very limited settings for memory ratio. We finally decided to test stock 800FSB settings with different memory speeds, and to also test the highest standard CPU FSB setting we could run at different memory timings. To keep variables at a minimum, we looked at our benchmark results for memory that would perform at both 533 and 400 at the same timings. We settled on two 512 MB DS OCZ 4000 DIMMs. We ran the memory at stock 2.4GHz at 2.5-3-4-6-1 and at a high overclock of 1066FSB at the same 2.5-3-4-6-1 timings. Since we required 2.75V for stable operation at 1066FSB at these timings, we decided for consistency to set the vDimm to 2.75V for all tests. At each setting, we varied only the memory speed at the available 1:1, 5:4, and 3:2 ratios.
Double-Sided Memory
| Standard 800FSB (2.4Ghz) Performance at Varied Memory Speeds — 2 x 512 MB DS DIMMs |
||||||
| Memory DDR Speed | Quake3 fps | UT2003 Flyby fps | UT2003 Botmatch fps | Sandra UNBuffered | Sandra Standard Buffered | Super PI 2M places (time in sec) |
| 266 MHz | 300.30 | 188.66 | 65.55 | INT 1854 FLT 1814 |
INT 3759 FLT 3787 |
144 |
| 320 MHz | 313.70 | 193.26 | 67.57 | INT 2138 FLT 2123 |
INT 4254 FLT 4256 |
138 |
| 400 MHz | 328.07 | 198.27 | 69.16 | INT 2594 FLT 2640 |
INT 4700 FLT 4724 |
132 |
| 1066FSB (3.2GHz) Performance at Varied Memory
Speeds — 2 x 512 MB DS DIMMs |
||||||
| Memory DDR Speed | Quake3 fps | UT2003 Flyby fps | UT2003 Botmatch fps | Sandra UNBuffered | Sandra Standard Buffered | Super PI 2M places (time in sec) |
| 355 MHz | 382.67 | 235.82 | 85.13 | INT 2415 FLT 2394 |
INT 5043 FLT 5039 |
107 |
| 426 MHz | 403.56 | 239.96 | 87.82 | INT 2924 FLT 2875 |
INT 5711 FLT 5688 |
104 |
| 533 MHz | 424.5 | 249.24 | 91.53 | INT 3532 FLT 3542 |
INT 6308 FLT 6252 |
100 |
Since there is much confusion about when and whether Intel’s PAT is activated, and its effect on performance, each setup was checked with CPU-Z 1.18C. Under the “Memory”’ tab, with this version of CPU-Z, there is a box for “Performance Mode”, which will indicate “enabled” or “disabled”.
In all configurations, except one, with the ASUS P4C800-E with 800FSB or higher selected, both Synchronous and Asynchronous, CPU-Z indicated Performance Mode “enabled”. We will talk more about the exception later.
As you can clearly see from the tables above, gaming performance continues to improve as memory gets faster on the Intel 875 motherboard. As we move from an 800FSB CPU running 266 memory to the CPU running the same speed with DDR400 memory, we see Quake3 frame rate increase a bit over 9%, while UNBuffered Sandra increases about 40% in memory bandwidth. At 1066 constant CPU speed with memory increasing from 355 to 533, we see a larger increase of 11% in Q3 frame rate, while Sandra UNBuffered increases about 46%. The increase in Quake3 frame rate from 800/266 to 1066/533 — which admittedly includes a large boost in CPU speed — is significant, at 41%.
UT2003 also shows a similar pattern of increases over the same range, with increases over the whole range of 32%-39%. Sandra UNBuffered measurement of memory bandwidth shows a 90% increase over the same range from 800/266 to 1066/533. As we would expect, both UT2003 and Quake3 appear to respond more to a CPU speed increase than a memory increase, but alone, the increases in game benches from memory speed increases are real and significant.
Our pure number-crunching benchmark, Super PI, is shown to be more sensitive to memory speed than you might expect. We saw increases of 7% to 9% in the “memory only” increases at a fixed CPU speed. These increases are only a little smaller than those found in our Quake3 tests.
It is conclusive from these benchmarks that Memory Speed does matter in real-world performance on Intel 875/865 motherboards. Game benchmarks, Super PI, and Sandra Memory Tests all benefit from increases in memory speed. This was true up to the highest memory speed that we tested — DDR533. The differences, when we looked at just the effect of memory alone, varied from 9% to 11% at a given CPU speed, with the limited memory ratios Intel has provided us on the 875/865 chipsets. You will have to decide if the increases in performance from using faster memory are worth the cost of that speedier memory. For some, these increases will matter a great deal, while for others, they will not be worth the cost.
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Anonymous User - Wednesday, August 27, 2003 - link
As an OCZ employee, it is hard for me to understand why somebody would blatantly trash us when they have nothing to gain from it. I spend countless hours doing my best to make sure our customers are happy. If you have had a problem with OCZ, as my colleague stated, OCZ will gladly take care of it.Our product and service speak for themselves. Try our memory, I am sure that you will enjoy your experience with OCZ.
-Sean Sinha
Marketing Specialist
OCZ Technology
Sean@OCZTechnology.com
Anonymous User - Wednesday, August 27, 2003 - link
I cant find any BBB complaintsAnonymous User - Wednesday, August 27, 2003 - link
I would like to add a note to the folks who are complaining ,I have added this before and will continue to repeat it ,If you have or have had in the past a problem with an OCZ product , take a minute to email me about it , It is certainly worth your while
oczguy@ocztechnology.com
If you have not , stop the bashing or at least bash with your real name. I have a strong feeling anyone saying anything negative , has never had a bad expirence with an ocz product or service.
Thanks
OCZGuy
Anonymous User - Wednesday, August 27, 2003 - link
Anandtech does not get paid directly for the those links to OCZ , a company named Industry Brains I beleive sells those pay per click links on a number of sites to OCZ , they are the same links that show up on toms hardware as well as numerous other sites and are purchased in bulk by OCZ who does not control where the links show up.In addition those links have been here for quite a while and I have just begun seeing positive ocz reviews here while I have been seeing positive feedback about ocz on several other sites for several months.
Maybe you all can consider the possibility that OCZ is doing something better that other people , Its not as if the win here was not nessarily a landslide , I beleive geil was only slightly trailing.
thanks
oczguy@ocztechnology.com
Anonymous User - Wednesday, August 27, 2003 - link
No point in complaining anymore. AT has gone down the same toilet as Tom's. Both are shining examples of what happens when a person who knows what he's talking about turns over his site to a bunch of people who don't.Anonymous User - Wednesday, August 27, 2003 - link
#19,What do you expect? They obviously think we are stupid people. We do know that OCZ Technology is a sponsor. It's SHOWING ON THE BOTTOM OF THE SITE FOR CRYING OUT LOUD!!!
This site is tainted. I'm so sick of these OCZ reviews. I'm sick of these biased and tainted reviews just to impress the company.
Anandtech needs to fire all his staff and hire people that "know something about the industry"...
Ryan Peterson is STILL with OCZ. He has a criminal record. That company decietfully left Indiana because of the BBB complaints. Can't complain if they are in another state now can ya?
Now you got to ask yourself. Why would Anandtech take them on a sponsor when other sites won't touch them? Money..... Straight up Money. If I see another fricken OCZ review on this site. Then I know that Anandtech sold himself to the devil.
It's quite comical. Kyle hates OCZ but yet deals with Anand. I guess it's true about big sites. It's all about the money and they lie straight to your face that it isn't. What a laugher
Wesley Fink - Wednesday, August 27, 2003 - link
#14 -With manufacturers supplying the memory, even if they ALL "Cherry-pick", the comparison is still valid. We would be comparing the best of the best.
In my next review of DDR400 memory performance, a different manufacturer was the fastest DDR400 memory available - because it TESTED the fastest. I report what I find, and if I didn't do that my reviews would not be credible. My integrity, and AnandTech's integrity, matter much more than any favorable review.
As for ads, our site software is designed to cluster related reviews and ad links around the item being reviewed - to make it easier for YOU - our readers - to find more information on what you are reading. As Editors, we have no idea what ad links will be associated with our reviews.
Anonymous User - Wednesday, August 27, 2003 - link
sorry for double postAnonymous User - Wednesday, August 27, 2003 - link
QUOTE~#11: OCZ is not a paid advertiser. If you pay attention to those links, you'll see its companies like ATACOM, Newegg, and SVC promoting OCZ memory. If you do not feel comfortable with OCZ, then I would suggest not using those merchants.
Kristopher
Kris umm where it says Sponsored Links (Get Listed) that link for OCZ memory is directly to there site no ATACOM, or newegg is promoting that site?So why say OCZ is not a paid advertiser??
Anonymous User - Wednesday, August 27, 2003 - link
#15 are u dumb? There is going to be a module that going to get the high rating and of course if Atacom sees which module from a specific company got the honors they are going to promote it!!! and anyway just because OCZ was shining in the review that did'nt mean there where others modules that were'nt shining as well ex Geil, and Corsair