PMI DDR533: A New Name in High-Performance Memory
by Wesley Fink on March 25, 2004 9:16 AM EST- Posted in
- Memory
Final Words
It is very clear that PMI has borrowed from the competition with their DDR533 Gold. PMI4200 Gold appears in almost every way to be a copy of OCZ memory. This applies to packaging, memory names, and even little things like the package insert and lifetime warranty wording. A close look at the PCB's indicates PMI is also likely using the same PCB OCZ is using for DDR533 memory. If copying is the sincerest form of flattery, as the old saying goes, then OCZ should be very flattered. For a new high-end memory company, however, copying a high-end memory supplier like Corsair, OCZ, or Mushkin is not necessarily a bad thing. Buyers are familiar with things that are already working, and PMI is showing a willingness to chart new territory with their introduction of DDR566, which is currently the fastest memory that we have seen.PMI4200 Gold is honestly rated and performs with complete stability at its rated speed and timings. It also performs very well at DDR400 with 2-3-3-6 timings at 2.7V. This is not faint praise for a new name in performance memory. If performance of the PMI DDR533 that we tested is typical of the PMI memory line, then you should have no problem achieving the rated performance of PMI memory modules.
However, any memory that calls itself Turbo with the computer enthusiast as the target must be compared to the best available. Compared to similar memory from OCZ, Corsair, and Mushkin, we found that PMI does not have quite the headroom or timing margin flexibility exhibited by the best of the competition. This could be nothing more than how PMI chooses to rate their memory, since PMI's ratings are a little more aggressive than the competition. In this case, PMI533 performs like many of the very best DDR500 modules that we have tested.
Another way to say the same thing is that PMI binning, or speed grading during chip testing, is not quite up to the standards of the best of the competition. PMI is definitely on the right track and the memory is a solid performer, but most enthusiasts would prefer a little more headroom.
PMI memory proved solid and reliable in all our benchmarks, and certainly PMI has entered the high-end memory market with a bang. While it is not quite the equal in performance timings or headroom with the best from Mushkin, OCZ, and Corsair, it is a very competitive product in the high-end memory market. The early pricing that we have seen also indicates PMI plans to price their "Turbo Memory" aggressively. A great price could turn average high-end performance into an outstanding value.
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KillaKilla - Saturday, March 27, 2004 - link
[q]Why is my dinghy smaller after I go swimming? Why cant I buy pork boullion? Why cant I buy toast in the store?[/q]I too would like to know! Damnit, wes, Stop witholding information from the public!
bldkc - Friday, March 26, 2004 - link
color, color, color. Did I mention that I'm a sociopathic liar?bldkc - Friday, March 26, 2004 - link
You may have told us before about the inability of the software to change the color, but I missed it. Thank you for doing so again. I am aware of the stratospheric bandwidth usage at Anand, and that is because you guys rock. Thanks for the excellent articles, and keep up the good work Wesley. I won't mention the colors again.Visual - Friday, March 26, 2004 - link
The graphs really could use some colour coding though.Wesley Fink - Thursday, March 25, 2004 - link
TrogdorJW -The flash charts are much smaller than JPEG would be but I don't have any numbers to share. Email Jason Clark, who does our IT reviews, and I'm sure he can give you some idea of the bandwidth savings.
TrogdorJW - Thursday, March 25, 2004 - link
Damn, Wesley... this is the first I've heard of this, and after looking back at the charts, I am only now discovering that you use Flash files for the graphs. Cool! I'm guessing that there's a Java application that is used to generate the graphs from some spreadsheet? Or are all the graphs generated in real time? Meaning, if there were an error in a graph, like a misplaced decimal or something, could you simply update the spreadsheet, or do you have to run the Java Graph utility as well? Either way, that's pretty friggin' cool. But then, I'm a programmer geek and like seeing such uses of technology.If you don't mind answering, how large are the generated graph files? I would guess that in JPEG format they would be on the order of 30-50K each. What sort of savings do you get out of this?
Anyway, back to the memory being tested here. After the results not too long ago showing that low latency DDR400 timings with a 5:4 ratio on a P4 resulted in similar performance to 1:1 ration and higher timings, I really don't see much need for these "faster" DIMMs right now. My Mushkin can run 2-3-2-6 at PC3200, which is pretty close to the top. Seems like I can just run the system bus faster while keeping the memory bus at 400 MHz (200 MHz, actually) and still get similar performance. Or is that only the case with P4 systems?
RuStYwAvE - Thursday, March 25, 2004 - link
Probably PMI and OCZ go through the same manfacture like Dell or Alienware Laptops aren't really design by them. They just buy laptops from Clevo or Compro and retag their names on them. Creative Labs and PNY video card are retaged MSI cards. The only thing I see PMI copying is the packaging, if the price is lower then OCZ I would buy PMI.RuStYwAvE - Thursday, March 25, 2004 - link
kamper - Thursday, March 25, 2004 - link
They're never going to make it. Not with a name like Pmi and a logo with nice rounded letters and a halo(?) around the 'i'. With all the big companies as close as they are at the top why would you buy this when you could have cool looking names like "HyperX" or "OCZ" on your memory?Ok, I'm just kidding. It's weird how there's suddenly so much memory that is so close right around the top. I bet pricing plays the biggest factor in their success.
Pumpkinierre - Thursday, March 25, 2004 - link
Go on wesley, now that you're off the beaten track, get hold of some of that 2-3-3-6 Xtreme DDR PC3700+ (http://www.xtremeddr.com/products/x_pc3700+.shtml) and tell me if it is any good.