OCZ 3500EB: The Importance of Balanced Memory Timings

Test Results: Memory Timings & Bandwidth Comparison

Our standard memory tests allowed comparison of OCZ 3500EB to other memory tested at AnandTech, but the charts do not clearly show what is happening with timings and bandwidth with EB memory. Using the same data in a different way illustrates better the impact of Enhanced Bandwidth on performance.

We took a closer look at the test results from six currently available memories that have been top performers in our benchmarks. If you look closely at the memory timings, you will see that while OCZ 3500EB was at CAS 2.5 at DDR400, all the other 5 memories managed CAS 2. By DDR433, the 3500EB was still at CAS 2.5 and the Mushkin BH6, OCZ 3700 Gold Rev.2, and Kingmax DDR500 were still at CAS 2.

Memory Timings
Speed	OCZ 3500EB	Mushkin 3200 2-2-2 Special	OCZ 3700 Rev. 2	Kingmax DDR500	Corsair XMS4000 PRO	OCZ 4200EL
400DDR 800FSB	2.5-2-3-5 2.5V	2-2-2-5 2.65V	2-2-3-5 2.65V	2-2-2-5 2.5V	2-3-3-5 2.65V	2-3-3-5 2.55V
433DDR 866FSB	2.5-2-3-5 2.65V	2-2-3-5 2.75V	2-2-3-6 2.65V	2-2-3-6 2.5V	Not Tested	Not Tested
466DDR 933FSB	3-2-3-5 2.65V	NA	2.5-3-3-6 2.65V	2.5-2-3-7 2.5V	Not Tested	Not Tested
500DDR 1000FSB	3-2-3-5 2.85V	NA	2.5-3-3-7 2.75V	2.5-3-3-7 2.5V	2.5-3-4-6 2.75V	2.5-3-4-6 2.65V
Highest Speed	3-2-3-6 510 - 2.85V	2-2-3-7 454 - 2.85V	3-3-4-8 520 - 2.85V	3-3-4-8 528 - 2.85V	3-3-4-7 539 - 2.85V	3-3-4-7 560 - 2.85V

Yet, if we look at the bandwidth results from SiSoft Sandra Unbuffered Memory Test, the OCZ 3500EB is neck-and-neck with the CAS 2 Mushkin 3200 and OCZ3700 Gold Rev.2 by the time we reach DDR433. At DDR466 and DDR500, the EB is at CAS 3, while all 5 of the competing top memories are at CAS 2.5. Yet the EB outperforms ALL of the other 5 memories at DDR500 despite requiring the slower CAS 3 timing. It is worth mentioning that RAS Precharge remains at 2, and Ras-to-Cas delay remains at 3, throughout the stable bandwidth of OCZ 3500EB.

Sandra 2004 Unbuffered Bandwidth
Speed	OCZ 3500EB	Mushkin 3200 2-2-2 Special	OCZ 3700 Rev. 2	Kingmax DDR500	Corsair XMS4000 PRO	OCZ 4200EL
400DDR	2759	2907	2898	2911	2840	2834
433DDR	3014	3013	3091	3042	-	-
454	-	3280	-	-	-	-
466DDR	3229	-	3301	3267	-	-
500DDR	3484	-	3443	3365	3297	3371
510	3537	-	-	-	-	-
520	-	-	3493	-	-	-
528	-	-	-	3501	-	-
539	-	-	-	-	3551	-
560	-	-	-	-	-	3729

Looking at the memory bandwidth patterns, OCZ 3500EB is competitive at DDR400 with faster CAS memory, but it is still outperformed. However, by the time we reach DDR433 to DDR466 range, EB is neck-and-neck with the best memory that we tested. By DDR500, EB is the fastest memory that we have yet tested. It appears that EB gets better and better, the higher the bandwidth. It is also interesting that at its highest speed of DDR510, 3500EB has a greater bandwidth than OCZ 3700 R2 at DDR520, Kingmax DDR500 at DDR528, and is about the same as Corsair XMS4000 PRO at DDR539. It appears, at DDR510, that OCZ 3500EB is showing the same bandwidth we find with the best memory we have tested at about DDR540.

OCZ 3500EB was also designed for maximum compatibility with the wide variety of motherboards and chipsets available for Intel and AMD processors. The board used in our memory test bed is known to be one of the most compatible boards with a wide variety of memory, which is one of the reasons why we use the Asus P4C800-E. However, not all boards are as accommodating of different memory, as we often see in our motherboard memory test section. OCZ tells us that one of the major goals in the design of 3500EB was to provide the widest compatibility with the widest range of motherboards. This includes current Athlon 64 chipsets, some of which have proven to have problems with memory timings on current high-end memory.