OCZ VX Memory + DFI nForce4 = DDR533 at 2-2-2
by Wesley Fink on March 4, 2005 6:45 AM EST- Posted in
- Memory
Performance Test Configuration
The OCZ VX DDR500 was tested with the DFI LANParty nF4 SLI-DR Athlon 64 Socket 939 motherboard. The new DFI nForce4 SLI and Ultra are the only current production boards that support the voltages required for top VX performance. An OCZ DDR Booster can be used with motherboards without support for high memory voltages. Other components remain the same as used in the memory setup in Athlon 64 Memory: Rewriting the Rules .All other memory tests were run earlier on the MSI K8N Neo2, based on the nForce 3 Ultra. We have already shown performance of the nF3 and nF4 to be virtually identical in our launch reviews of the nForce4 chipset. Similarly AGP and PCIe performance has been shown to be virtually the same using the same video card (6800 Ultra AGP vs. 6800 Ultra PCIe. For these reasons we did not retest earlier memory on the DFI. However, we were concerned about the potential performance difference in 61.77 video drivers compared to 71.80, so we ran a quick set of comparisons. 71.80 drivers were slightly faster in game benchmarks than 71.80 and slightly slower than 61.77 in memory bandwidth tests. However, the differences were small enough that we were confident the results were not seriously distorted by using the 71.80 drivers.
The A64 test bed for testing the OCZ VX and the standard MSI test bed both include components that have been proven in Socket 939 Athlon 64 benchmarking, such as the Socket 939 FX53 (same specifications as current 4000+), and the OCZ Power Stream 520 Power Supply. Since the Athlon 64 tests represent a new series of DDR testing, we have chosen the current generation nVidia 6800 Ultra video card for benchmarking. We have found the 6800 Ultra to be a particularly good performance match to nVidia motherboards.
All other basic test conditions attempted to mirror those used in our earlier Intel memory reviews. However, test results are not directly comparable to tests performed on the Intel test bed.
| AMD nForce4 Performance Test Configuration | |
| Processor(s): | AMD FX53 Athlon 64 (2.4GHz, Socket 939, 1 MB cache, Dual Channel, 1000HT) |
| RAM: | OCZ EL PC4000 VX Gold (DS) 2X512MB Corsair TwinX1024-4400C25 (DS) 2X512MB G. Skill TCCD (DS) 2X512MB PQI 3200 Turbo (DS) 2X512MB Crucial Ballistix (DS) 2X512MB Geil PC3200 Ultra X (DS) 2X512MB OCZ PC3200 Platinum Rev 2 (DS) 2X512MB OCZ PC3700 Gold Rev 3 (DS) 2X512MB |
| Hard Drives: | Seagate 120GB PATA (IDE) 7200RPM 8MB Cache |
| PCI/AGP Speed: | Fixed at 33/66 |
| Video Card(s): | nVidia 6800 Ultra 256MB, 256MB aperture, 1024x768x32 |
| Video Drivers: | nVidia Forceware 71.80 nVidia Forceware 61.77 |
| Power Supply: | OCZ Power Stream 520W |
| Operating System(s): | Windows XP Professional SP1 |
| Motherboards: | DFI LANParty nF4 SLI-DR MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum (nForce3) |
With nForce3 motherboards, we achieved the fastest performance on AMD Athlon 64 chipsets (nForce3, VIA K8T800 PRO) at Cycle Time or tRAS of 10. However, as we saw in the recent nForce4 SLI roundup, the nForce4 appears to behave a bit differently with memory. In the SLI roundup, we found a tRAS of 7 to be ideal for memory based on Samsung TCCD chips. Therefore, we ran a complete set of Memtest86 benchmarks with only tRAS varied to determine the best tRAS setting for OCZ VX.
| Memtest86 Bandwidth DFI nForce4, Athlon64 4000+, OCZ VX |
|
| 2 tRAS | 2572 |
| 3 tRAS | 2572 |
| 4 tRAS | 2572 |
| 5 tRAS | 2640 |
| 6 tRAS | 2640 |
| 7 tRAS | 2640 |
| 8 tRAS | 2505 |
| 9 tRAS | 2505 |
| 10 tRAS | 2505 |
| 11 tRAS | 2441 |
| 12 tRAS | 2383 |
These tests are particularly easy to do with the DFI nF4 boards, since memtest86 is built into the BIOS. To boot memtest86, you only have to enable it in BIOS and the system will boot directly into memtest86. This makes it very easy to test various memory timings, but memtest86 should be disabled in BIOS when you are ready to boot into the system.
The best memory bandwidth with VX and the 4000+ was achieved in the tRAS 5 to tRAS 7 range. Therefore, all VX testing was done with a tRAS setting of 6.
Test Settings
All AMD Athlon 64 processors are unlocked downward, and the FX CPUs are unlocked up and down. This feature allows a different approach to memory testing, which truly measures performance differences in memory speed alone. All tests were run with CPU speed as close to the specified 2.4GHz of the 4000+/FX53 as possible, with CPU speed/Memory Speed increased at lower multipliers to achieve 2.4Ghz. This approach allows the true measurement of the impact of higher memory speed and timings on performance, since CPU speed is fixed, removing CPU speed as a factor in memory performance.The following settings were tested with the OCZ EL PC4000 VX Gold on the DFI nF4 test bed:
- 2.4GHz at 12x200 (DDR400) - the highest stock memory speed supported on K8T800-Pro/nF3-4/SiS755-FX motherboards.
- 2.4GHz at 11x218 (DDR436) - a ratio near the standard DDR433 speed
- 2.4GHz at 10x240 (DDR480) - a ratio near the standard rating of DDR466
- 2.4GHz at 9x267 (DDR533) - a standard memory speed used in testing other high-speed memory
- Highest Memory Speed - the highest memory speed that we could achieve regardless of the multiplier. This setting was achieved at a 1T command rate with the VX, so this is also the result that produces the best memory performance.
We ran our standard suite of memory performance benchmarks - Quake 3, Return to Castle Wolfenstein-Enemy Territory-Radar, Super Pi 2M, and Sandra 2004 Standard and UnBuffered. Since the results for Athlon 64 tests are new, we are now including Sandra Buffered (Standard) test results and Sandra UnBuffered test results. RTCW Enemy Territory has also been added as a standard memory benchmark.
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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.