Athlon 64 Memory: Rewriting the Rules
by Wesley Fink on October 1, 2004 12:45 AM EST- Posted in
- Memory
Test Results: Crucial Ballistix PC3200
To be considered stable for test purposes, Quake3 benchmark, UT2003 Demo, Super PI, Aquamark 3, and Comanche 4 had to complete without incident. Any of these, and in particular Super PI, will crash a less-than stable memory configuration.| Crucial PC3200 Ballistix (DDR400) - 2 x 512Mb Double-Bank | |||||||
| CPU Ratio at 2.4GHz | Memory Speed | Memory Timings & Voltage |
Quake3 fps |
Sandra UNBuffered | Sandra Standard Buffered |
Super PI 2M places (time in sec) |
Wolfenstein - Radar - Enemy Territory fps |
| 12x200 | 400 DDR | 2-2-2-10 2.6V 1T |
514.0 | INT 2622 FLT 2799 |
INT 6082 FLT 6033 |
81 | 110.3 |
| 11x218 | 438 DDR | 2-2-2-10 2.6V 1T |
520.9 | INT 2815 FLT 2952 |
INT 6471 FLT 6402 |
80 | 111.5 |
| 10x240 | 480 DDR | 2.5-2-2-10 2.7V 1T |
526.2 | INT 2917 FLT 3101 |
INT 6703 FLT 6625 |
79 | 112.6 |
| 9x267 | 533 DDR | 2.5-3-3-10 2.75V 1T |
529.1 | INT 3029 FLT 3258 |
INT 6960 FLT 6870 |
79 | 113.2 |
| 8x297(2.38GHz) | Highest Mem Speed 594 DDR |
3-4-3-10 2.85V 2T |
513.8 | INT 2897 FLT 3080 |
INT 6708 FLT 6647 |
80 | 110.3 |
| 9x278(2.5GHz) | HIGHEST Performance 556 DDR |
3-4-3-10 2.85V 1T |
536.5 | INT 3117 FLT 3299 |
INT 7165 FLT 7109 |
76 | 116.1 |
As we first saw on the Intel test bed, Ballistix continues to astound with fast memory timings at the DDR438 (2-2-2) and 480 (2.5-2-2) speeds. The biggest surprise, however, was the added bandwidth that we achieved on the Athlon 64 test bed. Where Ballistix topped out at DDR514 on our Intel tests, we were able to reach DDR594 - right at DDR600 - on the Socket 939 testbed. While this did require a 2T Command Rate, we still achieved DDR556 at a 1T rate.
We have asked AMD to provide some insight into why we are getting much higher speeds with the Micron chips on the Athlon 64 Socket 939 platform that we have seen in testing on the Intel platform.
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Bugler - Friday, October 1, 2004 - link
I ordered from Newegg today. I did not see a place on their site for just a 512mb stick. I ordered the 1gb kit.http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?desc...
Bugler - Friday, October 1, 2004 - link
saechaka - Friday, October 1, 2004 - link
hey bugler where are you ordering your ocz platinum rev. 2 from? is there any way to find a place where you can order 1 512mb stick only?darkwaffle - Friday, October 1, 2004 - link
I'm curious, for a socket754 user, is there really any reason why we couldn't (generally) follow these results? I realize that some of the overclocks may not be able to be achieved, but is it safe to say that the modules that perform highly on s939 will also perform highly also on s754 (In comparison to the other modules)?Wesley Fink - Friday, October 1, 2004 - link
#32 -Corsair and Kingston DDR400 2-2-2 were both included in our recent 2-2-2 roundup. Frankly we did test both Kingston and Corsair in the early going for these tests and both did quite poorly on the Athlon 64 test bed compared to other recent TCCD modules.
However, the Kingston and Corsair were early TCCD dimms and we are confident more recent dimms from these two major manufacturers would perform more like the OCZ, Geil, and G. Skill. Unfortunately we didn't have those more recent dimms to test, and we felt reporting what we had found would have been very unfair to Corsair and Kingston, who both produce excellent memory products.
ImJacksAmygdala - Friday, October 1, 2004 - link
I'm sure OCZ and Geil are great memory for A64, but all I got out of that article was buy OCZ memory, buy Geil Memory, o ya and buy a top of the line OCZ power supply....What about Corsair and Kingston? How do they compete?
This site is smothered with advertisement. Why make it so obvious in the articles? Thanks for the article though...
einsig - Friday, October 1, 2004 - link
And re: the robust +12v rails. They are most crucial for A64 overlocking. I have an Enermax with 31A on two +12v rails and it makes the world of difference.einsig - Friday, October 1, 2004 - link
One thing that really needs to be stated is that Clawhammer cores automatically set a command rate of 2T at speeds from DDR400 and up. you need to use A64 Tweaker to make the change (can be loaded at startup). I have a Clawhammer 3400+ that has been run on an ASUS K8V Deluxe and MSI K8N Neo Platinum. I was running XMS 2x512 3200LL Corsair, but it didn't want to OC even on the K8N (nothing OCs on the K8V because of the chipset). I now run Crucial ballistix PC4000 and it is incredible, however (as the article states) the command rate of 1T is really ideal. They should just tell people how to set that if they have a Clawhammer.Shinei - Friday, October 1, 2004 - link
What's really exciting is that the two DDR600 overclockers are board-limited before they top out in speed (K8N Neo2s go to 300MHz on the RAM). I'd like to see what the RAM could do on a more extreme overclocking board, since it seems like these new RAM chips are capable of pushing on to DDR667 or even higher...With that said, I agree that the prices for this stuff is getting ridonculous. Cheaper RAM means more sales and increased usage of that 8 exobyte storage capacity the Athlon 64 has. ;)
Bugler - Friday, October 1, 2004 - link
Thank you AnandTech. I have been waiting for greater clarification since you last recommended OCZ 3700 enhanced bandwidth ram and none could be found. I was balancing between that and ballistix. After today's review, I ordered OCZ Plat, rev 2 for the system I am putting together.Now if we could get some reviews and testing of the newer 90 speed AMD processors, hint, hint...
I appreciate this site very much.