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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theOracle - Saturday, March 5, 2005 - link
sorry, of odes = or does!intirely = entirely
Any ideas when this RAM is available\where from?
theOracle - Saturday, March 5, 2005 - link
Some of the figures show over 10% performance increase (the actual game benchmarks, not just memory benches) - is this performance intirely attributable to the RAM of odes the motherboard\gfx come into play at all?Previously high-end RAM with tight timings has shown an improvement of a couple of fps - say max 2% overall, yet this is showing figures of 10% improvement - which like I say is like going from a 3500+ to a 4000+ - and I'm pretty certain that the DFI board, this ram and a 3500+ would be cheaper than a 4000+, generic ram and a cheaper mobo.
Wesley - can I suggest a follow up, with this RAM on other boards and a direct comparison of RAM on the same setup, because I think the benchmarks you have shown certainly warrant this being done. You cant blame me for being sceptical when the figures are so unbelievably awesome!
Wesley Fink - Saturday, March 5, 2005 - link
#34 - The other RAM did NOT perform identically, it is just that there was much smaller variation in the results than we saw with the leap in VX performance.Perhaps it will be easier to swallow if I point out that the OCZ 3200 Platinum R2, PQI 3200 Turbo, G. Skill TCCD, Geil PC3200 Ultra X, and Corsair TwinX1024-4400C25 are all based on the same Samsung TCCD memory chips. The Crucial Ballistix is based on Micron chips, and the OCZ 3700 Gold R3 is based on Hynix DT-D5 chips. Until VX, all recent memory has had to compete with Samsung TCCD, which quickly became the performance standard for current memory. If we had results from older BH5 chips you would likely have seen BH5 perform between Samsung TCCD and OCZ VX.
Rand - Saturday, March 5, 2005 - link
I find some of these results rather difficult to believe, not so much the results of the OCZ DRAM but I'm confused as to how the other DRAM in this test managed to perform identically in every test on the MSI K8N Neo2 that was used in your last DRAM review and the DFI motherboard utilized in this review.It would seem rather unlikely that every piece of DRAM would perform exactly the same in every test on two different motherboards.
Forsa - Saturday, March 5, 2005 - link
I have the 3200vx and they perform very similarly(i think they are the same ram but just different auto settings lol) I will post screenie and stuff on forums when i can run some concrete bench marks.Live - Friday, March 4, 2005 - link
These are winbond chips that can also be found in twinmos. Dont know if this is mentiond in the article as I did not read all :)Check out this link for info on speeds and which ones to get:
http://www.akiba-pc.com/article.php?45.0
slashbinslashbash - Friday, March 4, 2005 - link
Wesley: I'm confused by your answers to #15/#17. Did you actually test all 8 types of RAM on the DFI LANParty nF4 SLI-DR with nVidia 71.80 drivers, or did you take the benchmark results for the other 7 sticks of RAM from the previous review of the Corsair 4400C25, which used an MSI nF3 motherboard and the 61.77 drivers? (All the numbers seem to be the same, which I find hard to believe with a new motherboard, chipset, and video drivers. I would expect at least a couple of variations of 0.1 fps or something.)Jeff7181 - Friday, March 4, 2005 - link
Awesome... I always wondered about Tras and the Athlon-64... this answers my question! :)Slaimus - Friday, March 4, 2005 - link
These are Winbond chips. The BH/CH-5/6 chips were their own branded chips, while these are unlabelled OEM chips that are sold for relabelling. The supply of the labelled Winbond chips are gone, but there are still plenty of these unlabelled chips.This really gives you an idea of the cartel nature of the memory industry. Small memory makers like Winbond, despite having a superior product, cannot really stay alive in this market of giants.
ozzimark - Friday, March 4, 2005 - link
thanks for the info wes. if it's not too much trouble, how about a test with the VX on the neo2 with a ddr booster? you say that it's just a better performing ram chip, i'd like to believe you, but it really is difficult to swallow.and.. the fact that this ram is so much faster really is piquing my interest, and shows that even if you don't have extreme voltage, this ram may be nice to have for the higher performance at the same speed/timings.
if it doesn't take too much time, i, and i'm sure a few other people, would be very apprecitative of some benches of vx on the neo2. thanks wes.