Intel Core 2 Duo: Memory Performance Part Deux
by Gary Key on August 14, 2006 4:15 AM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
Memory Specifications
We continue to utilize a 2x512MB memory configuration in order to stay consistent with our previous test results. Our choice of memory remained the same for both our DDR and DDR2 base tests. All test results with DDR2-667 at 3-4-4-10 and DDR2-800 at 4-4-4-12 were generated with the voltage increased to 2.1V on the Transcend modules that performed admirably throughout our testing regimen. We would also like to mention that we tested our TwinMos Twister DDR2-667 512MB modules at even lower latencies at DDR2-667/800 with results being provided in our final article.
Our DDR memory is from Patriot Memory and resided in one of our test systems for several weeks. The memory features low latencies at DDR-400 (PC3200) and costs around $100 for a 1GB kit.
Additional Information on these very popular DIMMs is available at the Patriot website. We have memory that offers additional headroom for overclocking and also memory that was representative of PC3200 modules shipped a couple of years ago with 2.5 CAS ratings. However, we felt like this memory is a good blend of performance and pricing for our testing.
Our DDR2 memory is from Transcend and was utilized in some extensive HTPC testing for our upcoming Intel DHCAT article. The memory features average latencies at DDR2-667 but was able to perform at much lower latencies in our testing with increased voltages at DDR2-667 and DDR2-800 while costing around $70 for a 1GB kit.
Transcend has additional specifications for this memory at their website. We highly recommend you take a look at Transcend's memory offerings and once again we found our particular test modules to offer the perfect blend of price and performance in our budget ASRock platform.
We also completed testing with 512MB memory modules from TwinMos and Corsair that offer much lower latencies but with costs nearing the 2GB ultra value kits based on Elpida memory.
Our ASRock motherboards offer the following options for each memory speed. Although DDR-266 and DDR2-400 is fully supported depending upon board choice we will not be testing at these memory speeds. The current BIOS options from ASRock offer a wide array of memory setting options but are very limited in voltage options with low, normal, and high being the choices.
Our Biostar TForce P965 Deluxe and DFI Infinity 975X/G motherboards offer full support for DDR2-400, DDR2-533, DDR2-667, and DDR2-800 memory speeds. Additional details on these boards can be found in our Conroe Buying Guide.
We continue to utilize a 2x512MB memory configuration in order to stay consistent with our previous test results. Our choice of memory remained the same for both our DDR and DDR2 base tests. All test results with DDR2-667 at 3-4-4-10 and DDR2-800 at 4-4-4-12 were generated with the voltage increased to 2.1V on the Transcend modules that performed admirably throughout our testing regimen. We would also like to mention that we tested our TwinMos Twister DDR2-667 512MB modules at even lower latencies at DDR2-667/800 with results being provided in our final article.
Our DDR memory is from Patriot Memory and resided in one of our test systems for several weeks. The memory features low latencies at DDR-400 (PC3200) and costs around $100 for a 1GB kit.
| Patriot PDC1G3200LLK Memory Specifications | |
| Number of DIMMs & Banks | 2 DS |
| DIMM Size | 512MB |
| Total Memory | 1 GB |
| Rated Timings | 2-3-2-5 1T at DDR-400 |
| Rated Voltage | 2.6V |
Additional Information on these very popular DIMMs is available at the Patriot website. We have memory that offers additional headroom for overclocking and also memory that was representative of PC3200 modules shipped a couple of years ago with 2.5 CAS ratings. However, we felt like this memory is a good blend of performance and pricing for our testing.
Our DDR2 memory is from Transcend and was utilized in some extensive HTPC testing for our upcoming Intel DHCAT article. The memory features average latencies at DDR2-667 but was able to perform at much lower latencies in our testing with increased voltages at DDR2-667 and DDR2-800 while costing around $70 for a 1GB kit.
| Transcend JetRam Memory Specifications | |
| Number of DIMMs & Banks | 2 DS |
| DIMM Size | 512MB |
| Total Memory | 1 GB |
| Rated Timings | 5-5-5-12 at DDR2-667 |
| Rated Voltage | 1.8V |
Transcend has additional specifications for this memory at their website. We highly recommend you take a look at Transcend's memory offerings and once again we found our particular test modules to offer the perfect blend of price and performance in our budget ASRock platform.
We also completed testing with 512MB memory modules from TwinMos and Corsair that offer much lower latencies but with costs nearing the 2GB ultra value kits based on Elpida memory.
Our ASRock motherboards offer the following options for each memory speed. Although DDR-266 and DDR2-400 is fully supported depending upon board choice we will not be testing at these memory speeds. The current BIOS options from ASRock offer a wide array of memory setting options but are very limited in voltage options with low, normal, and high being the choices.
| ASRock 775Dual-VSTA | ||||||
| Auto | DDR2-533 | DDR2-667 | DDR-266 | DDR-333 | DDR-400 | |
| FSB 1066 | X | X | X | X | X | X |
| FSB 800 | X | X | X | X | X | X |
| FSB 533 | X | X | X | X | X | X |
| ASRock ConRoeXFire-ESATA2 | ||||
| Auto | DDR2-400 | DDR2-533 | DDR2-667 | |
| FSB 1066 | X | X | X | X |
| FSB 800 | X | X | X | X |
| FSB 533 | X | X | X | X |
| ASRock 775i65G | ||||
| Auto | DDR-266 | DDR-333 | DDR-400 | |
| FSB 1066 | X | X | X | X |
| FSB 800 | X | X | X | X |
| FSB 533 | X | X | X | X |
Our Biostar TForce P965 Deluxe and DFI Infinity 975X/G motherboards offer full support for DDR2-400, DDR2-533, DDR2-667, and DDR2-800 memory speeds. Additional details on these boards can be found in our Conroe Buying Guide.
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randytsuch - Monday, August 14, 2006 - link
HiI am thinking about upgrading my old P4 to a low end conroe, and after reading the article, was also thinking about the 775i65G.
Application will be mostly video rendering, and as a music server for my squeezebox, no gaming.
I am wondering how well the 775i65G overclocks, compared to something like a Gigabyte 865-DS3. I was thinking about the Gigabyte, but the Asrock would save a fair amount of money, will let me keep my AGP card and RAM, as well as being cheaper than the DS4.
Thanks,
Randy
kmmatney - Monday, August 14, 2006 - link
From what I understand, the low multiplier of the Conroe hurts its overclocking chances with this motherboard. People have gotten very good overclocks with Prescotts and Celeron D's with the ADrock board, but only becuase those processors have much higher multipliers. I don't think the lack of voltage adjustment hurts it as much as the fact that you just can't take the FSB very high.Paladin165 - Monday, August 14, 2006 - link
I just want to add that I bought an ASRock 775 Dual-VSTA with a celeron D 326 to hold me over until I get a conroe, and I'm running some old DDR266 with no problems. I'm using an old Geforce 4 ti 4400 AGP in it and it works with most games (not Oblivion though unfortunately). So if you still have some DDR 266 laying around you'd like to use go ahead and buy this board. It has a ton of memory settings including some kind of memory compatability mode so it should work with just about anything.However, even with the Celeron D 326 overclocked to 3.3GHZ, super pi 1M takes 59sec...roughly equal to my sempron 1.6ghz at stock speed. It is definitely a slow POS. Temps are still very low, going to try to get it up higher, 3.8 or 4.0ghz, but I'm not sure I can while keeping the memory at such low speed.
Another thing nice about this board which I haven't seen mentioned in the reviews is that it can run AGP and PCI-E at the same time, so you can have 4 moniters without needing a slow PCI graphics card.
Also, it seems that the AGP is only 4X. The settings in the bios only go up to 4X and Everest or something told me it was running my card at 4X, I doubt it makes any difference though.
cdalgard - Monday, August 14, 2006 - link
I am wondering how a 6800 Ultra would compare to the 7600GS on these platforms. How might the benchmarks look? Is the 6800 Ultra faster than the 7600GS to begin with?ChronoReverse - Monday, August 14, 2006 - link
The 7600GT would be a good match against the 6800U but the 7600GS is definitely behind the 6800U.xsilver - Monday, August 14, 2006 - link
but if i'm not mistaken, the 7600gs and gt only differ in clock speeds, so trying your luck with overclocking the gs may achieve stock gt resultsSixFour - Monday, August 14, 2006 - link
Cooling would stop first before the actual video card did.ChronoReverse - Monday, August 14, 2006 - link
Not to mention the much slower memory. Typically you get GDDR3 with GT while you get GDDR2 (clocked lower as well) with the GS.cdalgard - Monday, August 14, 2006 - link
How does the memory compare on the 6800 Ultra? There does not seem to be any good benchmarks comparing the 3 cards (6800U, 7600GS, 7600GT). Does anyone have a link to a table for specifications (core clock, memory clock, pipelines)? Thanks.Gary Key - Monday, August 14, 2006 - link
The memory on the 6800 Ultra runs at 1.10GHz compared to 400MHz on the 7600GS. We will have scores up for the PCI-E versus AGP on the 6800 Ultra and 7600GS cards shortly.