OCZ VX Memory + DFI nForce4 = DDR533 at 2-2-2
by Wesley Fink on March 4, 2005 6:45 AM EST- Posted in
- Memory
In the past year, we have seen lots of memory rated at DDR500, so you may wonder why we are reviewing a new DDR500 memory today when there are now a few rare modules rated as high as DDR600. The answer is pretty simple, since OCZ PC4000 VX Gold is the only memory that we have ever seen rated at DDR500 2-2-2. While it is rated at DDR500 at these extraordinary 2-2-2 timings, it also carries a very high rated voltage of 3.3V - far beyond what most motherboards can supply.
A quick check of orbs at FutureMark will show that this new VX is the fast darling of the extreme overclocking market. For those who wondered why DFI included voltages to 4.0V in their new nForce4 Ultra and SLI motherboards, the answer is OCZ VX memory. With VX needing voltages as high as 3.7V to really reach top performance at certain speeds, the DFI LANParty nF4 SLI-DR and DFI LANParty UT nF4 Ultra-D are the first production motherboards to support the kind of extreme voltages needed by VX without modification.
With this promise of extraordinary DDR500 2-2-2 performance, we were very interested to see if this performance promise was real. Have we finally reached DDR500 with the fastest timings available? The answers in our benchmarks are very interesting.
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Quanticles - Sunday, March 6, 2005 - link
Wesley, it's disturbing that you refuse to re-test other memories on the same test set-up that you used for this memory, or make some other effort to do a fair test set-up.Anandtech really shouldnt be making any assumptions. I dont want to bash... but... how can anyone take these tests seriously? How do we know that OCZ didnt *ask* that this memory to be tested on the DFI board for boosted results? I dont want to say such things, but you're leaving yourself open to these questions.
Wesley Fink - Sunday, March 6, 2005 - link
#38, #40, #41 -In the review we never stated that the other memory chips were tested on the DFI. We pulled the results from our earlier benchmark, since we have already established that the nF3 and nF4 perform virtually the same, and the AGP and PCIe perform virtually the same. In fact, if you check closely, the DFI was a very average performer at stock speeds, so the DFI is not the reason for higher speeeds.
As much as it goes against the grain of many peoples thinking, 2-2-2 on one memory has never performed the same as 2-2-2 on another chip. There are performance differences that can only be explained by difference in the memory chips.
We would have tested on the MSI Neo2 had it supported the voltages needed by VX, but it can't supply them. We do not have a DDR Booster at present so we could not test on another motherboard, so we tested on the only production motherboard to supply voltages needed by the VX.
The 71.80 drivers ARE a bit faster than the 61.77 used for some earlier tests, but the difference is still small and does not change the performance pattern seen in this review. I have posted those benchmarks earlier in these comments.
bigtoe36 - Sunday, March 6, 2005 - link
#44BH5 is about the same speed as VX is
JoKeRr - Sunday, March 6, 2005 - link
I know most BH5 or BH6 will do 250fsb 2-2-2- timing as well with like 3.3Vs. Wesley, how does the BH5 at 250 2-2-2 compare with VX at 2-2-2 250? is bh5 slower or just as fast?? (since u mention "If we had results from older BH5 chips you would likely have seen BH5 perform between Samsung TCCD and OCZ VX", would that be at ddr400? or ddr500? Thankq for the great review, btw when are we goin to see the review for the 24'' and 20'' widescreen dell lcd??JoKeRr - Sunday, March 6, 2005 - link
Rand - Saturday, March 5, 2005 - link
Wesley, I understand the DIMM's are using the same chip and hence unsurprisingly they perform similarly.What I am finding hard to believe is that all of the DIMM's perform identically on two different motherboards, using different graphics drivers.
In every single test the bandwidth never deviates by even 1MB/s or so much as 0.1 FPS.
I would imagine the odds of two different platforms never devaiting in anything by even the sammest margin is bordering on non-existent.
cryptonomicon - Saturday, March 5, 2005 - link
this smells like winbond, especially the settings where it settled best around tras 5 or 6. that is unique to BH5/6. also the voltage is unique to BH5/6 only.a winbond chip if ive ever seen one.
slashbinslashbash - Saturday, March 5, 2005 - link
#35 - That's not what #34 was asking. It's no surprise that sticks of RAM using the same chips will perform similarly.What IS a surprise is that the PQI 3200 Turbo gave 512.9 FPS in Quake 3 Arena in a DFI nF4 motherboard with nVidia 71.80 drivers, and it also happened to get 512.9 FPS in Quake 3 Arena in an MSI nF3 motherboard with nVidia 61.77 drivers (as shown in your January 4th review of the Corsair PC4400). This exact sameness in benchmark numbers is the same down the line, with every type of RAM and every benchmark -- both gaming and synthetic. I checked every single number.
There's no need to re-test all of the 7 types of RAM in the DFI board with the newer drivers. Just a couple, say the Crucial and the Geil, so we can know that the conclusions are valid.
frodin - Saturday, March 5, 2005 - link
"With nForce3 motherboards, we achieved the fastest performance on AMD Athlon 64 chipsets (nForce3, VIA K8T800 PRO) at Cycle Time or tRAS of 10."Are you saying there are nForce3 motherboards out there with VIA chipsets? ;-) I know it is probably a typo, nevermind.
However, i thought the tras 10- thing was a odd behaviour of the nforce2/3 chipsets only, not the VIA K8T800 PRO too.
Otherwise, good review, as always. These chips would be something to look for here in Norway, considering the fact that vx3200- ram is no more expensive than TCCD- chipped ram.
ozzimark - Saturday, March 5, 2005 - link
#35-wes, you're right there, but it doesn't help explain the profound performance differencce seen in the gaming tests and unbuffered bandwidth... it all adds up to the dfi providing better memory/graphics performance in my mind.