OCZ 3500EB: The Importance of Balanced Memory Timings

Conclusion

OCZ is breaking new ground with their latest Enhanced Bandwidth series. Many readers will likely find it disturbing that their long-held beliefs that the lowest CAS is always the best performer is no longer completely true. Based on the results we see with OCZ 3500EB, you will now need to look deeper than CAS timings to evaluate memory performance.

In general, 3500EB performed exactly as OCZ claimed it would in our benchmarks. It is not as fast as some current CAS 2 memory at DDR400, but its performance is very close to the best, even though EB is rated at CAS 2.5. However, by the time we reached the DDR433 to DDR466 range, 3500EB performed neck-and-neck with the best memory that we have tested, even though the CAS latency was slower. By the time we reached DDR500, OCZ 3500EB was reaching the highest bandwidth we have yet seen at DDR500, even though it ran at CAS 3 and the other fast memories were at CAS 2.5. It appears that the more you overclock 3500EB, the greater the impact of the EB optimizations.

The other surprising finding is that this DDR433 module has no problem at all running at DDR500 and providing the best performance we have measured at that frequency. In fact, we were able to reach a stable DDR510 with a memory rated at DDR433. Perhaps OCZ should use EB to also stand for Extended Bandwidth because we have never seen a DDR433 memory capable of performance at these DDR500+ speeds.

There are other memories that perform well in the same DDR400-510 range as OCZ 3500EB. At the DDR400-454 range, Mushkin 3200 2-2-2 Special performs well. Across the entire DDR400-510 range, OCZ 3700 Gold Rev.2 and Kingmax DDR500 are neck-and-neck. Also, Corsair XMS4000 PRO, Mushkin 4000 High Performance, and OCZ 4200EL perform well across the same range and reach even higher frequencies than OCZ 3500EB. However, all-in-all, there is no memory we have tested that can deliver the kind of extended and enhanced bandwidth we have found in our tests of 3500EB.

Certainly the six memories we listed are the best we have tested so far that you can still buy. OCZ 3500EB belongs in that list, if your motherboard can support the required memory voltage of about 2.8V. You should look at these 6 carefully to determine what best meets your needs. However, all 6 are also among the most expensive memories available from each memory manufacturer - except for OCZ 3500EB. OCZ has priced all EB memory at about 10% less than the other top OCZ memory products. 3500EB is also designed to be more compatible with fast performance timings on nForce2/3 and VIA AMD chipsets, so you should definitely look closely at OCZ 3500EB for an Athlon or Athlon 64 motherboard.

EB is an interesting and successful technology for OCZ. You should definitely add it to your short list if you are looking for DDR memory. For the broad range of DDR400 to DDR510, 3500EB is a remarkable performer.