OCZ VX Revisited: DDR Updates on DFI nForce4
by Wesley Fink on March 30, 2005 12:05 AM EST- Posted in
- Memory
Test Results: Corsair XMS4404v1.1
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.| Corsair XMS4404v1.1 (DDR550) - 2x512Mb 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 | 400DDR | 2-3-3-6 2.6V 1T |
536.5 | INT 2653 FLT 2839 |
INT 6113 FLT 6066 |
82 | 113.2 |
| 11x218 | 436DDR | 2-3-3-6 2.6V 1T |
543.2 | INT 2772 FLT 3023 |
INT 6488 FLT 6419 |
81 | 114.0 |
| 10x240 | 480DDR | 2-3-3-6 2.8V 1T |
553.7 | INT 3037 FLT 3243 |
INT 6723 FLT 6645 |
80 | 115.9 |
| 9x267 | 533DDR | 2.5-3-3-6 2.8V 1T |
562.0 | INT 3196 FLT 3477 |
INT 7084 FLT 7004 |
77 | 117.2 |
| 9x303 (2.73 Ghz) |
Highest Memory Speed | 2.5-4-4-6 2.9V 1T |
620.7 | INT 3403 FLT 3660 |
INT 7742 FLT 7683 |
73 | 131.1 |
| 10x280 (2.8 GHz) |
Highest CPU/Mem Performance | 2.5-4-3-6 2.9V 1T |
626.0 | INT 3409 FLT 3611 |
INT 7799 FLT 7707 |
71 | 135.8 |
Corsair was reviewed in Corsair 4400C25: Taking Samsung TCCD to New Heights. It is very interesting to see that the DFI board opens up performance of the Corsair a bit more, allowing use to reach a high of 303 (DDR606) at 1T compared to the 295 (DDR590) top 1T performance in the past review. However, the fastest performance was achieved at 10x280 at faster memory timings of 2.5-4-3-6 and a higher CPU speed of 2.8GHz.
Corsair selected Samsung TCCD chips for absolute best performance at the top and they succeeded in reaching this goal. The compromise was a bit less performance at DDR400 - at least with the modules that we tested. However, we suspect that the timings used by DFI are not the best match to this Corsair memory, since regular TCCD memory rated at DDR400 outperforms the Corsair at the top - results that are the opposite of what we have seen on other nVidia chipset boards. It looks as if Corsair and DFI could squeeze more performance from this combination with some tweaking.
It is interesting in these test results that the faster 9x303 (2.73GHz) cannot match OCZ VX at 2.67GHz. However, at 2.8GHz (10x280), the Corsair TCCD can roughly match performance of VX at 2.67GHz. It is clear that faster 2-2-2 memory timings of the OCZ VX do matter when it comes to performance.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
53 Comments
View All Comments
NotoriousGIB - Wednesday, March 30, 2005 - link
Thanks for the great review & follow-up. I purchased 2GB of this stuff (based off your initial review), well 1GB, but the Egg rocks so hard they sent me 1GB free :) I'm having issues breaking 250FSB.Wesley, I was wondering what DRAM settings & Genie BIOS settings you are using in this comparison. I've tried a bunch of settings posted at DFI Street & Bleeding Edge, but to no avail. I'm also curious as to whether active cooling is being used on the memory. Anything past 3.2V on my OCZ VX RAM gives me errors.
NotoriousGIB - Wednesday, March 30, 2005 - link
ChineseDemocracyGNR - Wednesday, March 30, 2005 - link
#20, he wasn't talking specifically about this article.And he makes a point. AnandTech is lacking reviews for AMD PCI-E boards, so far there's only a 4-boards SLI roundup, an article for the DFI boards and reviews of pre-production Gigabyte boards. That's too little for a site like AnandTech and I have to say I'm a little disapointed.
Scott66 - Wednesday, March 30, 2005 - link
#10 The reason no other boards are reviewed in the article, as it plainly states, is they don't have enough memory voltage. The only way they can be used is with the OCZ voltage adapter. This would not be a comparable test though.L3p3rM355i4h - Wednesday, March 30, 2005 - link
TCCD isn't the holy grail of RAM anymore. Too bad you need a DDR booster or a DFI mobo to take advangtage though.Viper4185 - Wednesday, March 30, 2005 - link
Thanks for the reply guys, i'll check it out now :PSpacecomber - Wednesday, March 30, 2005 - link
When you run MemTest86, you'll notice in the upper left part of the screen that it gives you some information, including memory bandwidth numbers for the cache and the system memory. The system memory number is what AnandTech is looking at to determine if certain memory timing settings are increasing the memory bandwidth or not.Space
bigtoe36 - Wednesday, March 30, 2005 - link
#15 have a look at www.memtest86.org, download either the floppy version or thr cd ISO file and create the memtest disk. Set to boot from it.once running memtest you can press C then 9 for the advanced options, this will allow you to set memory timings from within memtest its self without the need to reboot.
you can also press c 9 then 5 for the advanced A64 memory options and tweak your ram even further.
All this is done before you load the OS so your HDD will not be at risk of data corruption.
Also the latest builds of the DFI bios files have memtest85 incorperated into them in genie bios so you don't have to compile a disk at all, just set enabled and the pc will boot to memtest on its own.
Viper4185 - Wednesday, March 30, 2005 - link
Sorry to be a n00b but are you saying that the memtest86+ program that fits on a floppy can actually tell me the best settings for my setup? If so how? As soon as i boot the computer and run it it just goes through all those 8 tests it does...Wesley Fink - Wednesday, March 30, 2005 - link
Ozzimark -We have been running Everest in our memory tests to start to build a database. We just weren't ready to introduce a new bench in this update.
I did notice a very interesting trend in Everest while testing these memories. The Read values were pretty close at the same speed, but VX had a significantly higher Write score than any other memory tested here. At DDR400 the write scores for TCCD were in the 2100 MB/s range where VX write was 2661. Ballistix scores were closer to VX than TCCD.