OCZ VX Memory + DFI nForce4 = DDR533 at 2-2-2
by Wesley Fink on March 4, 2005 6:45 AM EST- Posted in
- Memory
Final Words
There is some interesting creative thinking going on at OCZ these days. OCZ threw CAS out the window and brought us their EB, or Enhanced Bandwidth, memory. Now, we see the standard JEDEC voltage of 2.6V (or 2.5V from the past) thrown out the window with VX, or eXtended Voltage, memory taking its place. Breaking rules is one way of making performance gains in this industry, but it only matters if the results justify the rule-bending. EB proved to be a great performer, and now OCZ VX extends the envelope even further. If I sound excited, it is because I am. The new OCZ EL PC4000 VX Gold is a mouthful of a name and a pot-load of new performance records.Some of you may recall in the last days of BH5 memory last year that BH5 actually performed faster than the new Samsung TCCD at the exact same memory timings. This is a pattern that we have seen before, but OCZ 4000 VX Gold blows the hinges off the door of this concept. What can you say about a memory that outperforms the fastest memory that you have previously tested, except "wow"? What replaces "wow" when you realize that OCZ VX running at DDR533 outperforms the previous best running at DDR610? There are no superlatives that really do justice to this kind of performance. We are absolutely blown away with the performance of the OCZ DDR500 VX.
Across the board from DDR400 to DDR538, VX manages to perform with stability in all our benchmarks at 2-2-2-6 timings. In addition, it is faster at the same timings than any memory that we have tested so far. This is why DDR533 outperforms the top TCCD memory - even those specially binned for highest-speed performance. We would also add that we did try slower timings to see where we could go, but this memory is very interesting in its performance curves. It can do, at 2-2-2 at high voltage, essentially the same as the highest OC at lower timings at any voltage. This is another way of saying that there is absolutely no reason to run VX at any timings other than 2-2-2 - unless you simply don't have the voltage to reach 2-2-2 performance.
This brings us to the handicap with VX, and it will be a huge one for many users. VX requires high voltage to stand out from crowd - voltages not generally available on standard motherboards. You will need to start about 3.0V and extend to at least 3.5V to 3.6V to get the most from VX memory. The good news is that OCZ still provides a lifetime warranty on VX even if you run it all day long at 3.5V.
The new DFI nForce4 motherboards, both Ultra and SLI, supply voltages at stock to 4.0V. They are a very good match to VX and will take VX to whatever heights it can reach in your setup. If you have a board that you love or you're thinking of one without these extreme voltage ranges, then you can still feed VX what it needs with the OCZ DDR Booster, but you will give up a DIMM slot (translate to pair in dual-channel) to run the DDR Booster. At least there are options available, and for many enthusiasts, it will be worth the effort to find a way to use VX.
In the end, OCZ VX Gold is the best performing memory that we have tested on the Athlon 64 platform. At the same speed and same timings, it significantly outperforms any other memory that we have tested on A64. VX does not run at the fastest memory speeds that we have found in our benchmarks - quite a few memories based on Samsung TCCD or Hynix memory chips reach significantly higher speeds than the DDR538 of OCZ VX Gold. However, at DDR534 2-2-2-6 timings, no memory that we have tested outperforms VX. VX is so fast that 533 actually outperforms memory that have achieved DDR600 or more in our memory tests.
If you are a raving enthusiast, you will have to have OCZ VX memory. If you are considering a DFI nForce4 purchase, then VX should be at the top of your memory list. If you want top performance, then you should at least consider OCZ Gold VX even if it requires a DDR Booster to run. Yes, OCZ PC4000 VX Gold is that good!
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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.