DDR2 Roundup: Reaching for 667 and Beyond

Crucial PC2-4300U

Crucial is basically the retail sales arm of Micron, one of the world's largest manufacturers of memory. The Crucial DDR2 test modules were, therefore, essentially a retail version of the same Micron engineering samples supplied with the Intel 925X/915 launch kits from Intel. This allowed verification of the performance and also gave us a very good idea of the normal variations that you might find in memory modules based on the Micron memory chips.

Test DIMMs were a matched pair of double-sided 512MB DDR2 DIMMs without heat spreaders. The Crucial PC2-4300 appeared identical to the Micron PC2-4300 that we also tested.

Not surprisingly, Micron memory chips were used in the Crucial DDR2 533 DIMMs.

These are basic production DDR2 Crucial dimms, and they are not specially binned for top performance. Crucial has also hinted that they will soon be producing an even higher performing version of DDR2 memory based on specially selected higher speed micron DDR2 chips.

Test Results: Crucial PC2-4300U

The full suite of benchmark tests were run at all memory speeds. This includes Quake3, Super PI, Sandra 2004 SP2 Memory Tests, Aida 32 Memory Tests, and Return to Castle Wolfenstein-Enemy Territory. We also ran UT2003, Aquamark 3, and Comanche 4 at every memory speed to verify stability of the reported memory timings. All benchmarks and additional tests had to complete without incident for the memory settings to be considered stable.

Crucial PC2-4300U (DDR2 533) - 2 x 512Mb Double-Bank
Speed	Memory Timings & Voltage	Quake3 fps	Sandra UNBuffered	Sandra Standard Buffered	Super PI 2M places (time in sec)
533DDR 800FSB	3-3-3-10 1.9V	372.6	INT 3185 FLT 3244	INT 4949 FLT 4952	107
667DDR 1000FSB	4-4-4-10 1.9V	459.4	INT 3766 FLT 3833	INT 6167 FLT 6158	86
686DDR 258FSB	4-4-4-10 1.9V	472.4	INT 3997 FLT 4024	INT 6315 FLT 6318	83

Crucial PC2-4300U (DDR2 533)
Speed	RCW-ET Radar	Aida 32 Read	Aida 32 Write	Aida 32 Total
533DDR 800FSB	78.6	5437	2280	7717
667DDR 1000FSB	97.5	6639	2738	9377
686DDR 258FSB	100.5	6839	2916	9755

It was no surprise that CorsairXMS2 667 performed without incident at DDR2 667 and the highest Abit AA8 setting of DDR2 686. However, it was a complete shock that basic production Crucial DDR2 533 also ran without incident at DDR2 667, at the same aggressive 4-4-4-10 timings, and at the highest speed DDR2 686 with the same timings and modest voltage settings.