Intel Core 2 Duo: Memory Performance Part Deux
by Gary Key on August 14, 2006 4:15 AM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
Memory Performance
Our ASRock 775Dual-VSTA motherboard provides two DDR2 and three DDR memory ratios. The ASRock 775i65G provides three DDR memory ratios although we could only get our DDR-400 memory modules to work at DDR-355 due to the front side bus ratios availability within the i865 BIOS. We are only testing this board at DDR-355 due to this issue. Our ASRock ConRoeXFire-eSATA2 board is based on the 945P chipset and features DDR2-400, DDR2-533, and DDR2-667 memory speeds. Our Biostar P965 and DFI 975X motherboards feature the same DDR2 memory speeds as the ASRock 945P board while adding DDR2-800. Even though our ASRock 775Dual-VSTA does not support DDR2-800 we are reporting these scores for comparison.
We are testing our motherboards at the fastest stable timings we can achieve and still pass our benchmark test suite. By increasing the memory voltage on the 775Dual-VSTA board we were able to run our Transcend modules at 3-4-3-9 at DDR2-667. With these set ratios, CPU speed remains the same at 1.86GHz in our test platform with memory speed being varied by selecting the different ratios.
Due to performance reasons we did not test the DDR-266 or DDR2-400 settings as we believe most people will not utilize these ratios. The balance of our comments in the first article about the Intel memory controller design and command rates with the VIA PT880 chipset still hold true. Our memory settings were derived from extensive stress testing with a variety of applications. While certain settings that allowed lower latencies worked well with some applications, the final settings we arrived at had to work with all applications.
The Intel 865G chipset offers greater DDR memory performance than the VIA PT880 Pro in our synthetic test results. Although the buffered Intel DDR-355 scores 18% better than the VIA DDR-400 setting, the unbuffered result is only 4% better. The SuperPI test is basically a tie with the memory latency results heavily favoring the Intel chipset. Although the i865 results are well below the DDR2 based chipsets, we will see this chipset perform very well in our application and game tests.
The Sandra bandwidth memory performance result of the VIA PT880 Pro at DDR2-533 (1:1 ratio) leads the DDR2-667 (4:5 ratio) by up to 30% although the memory timings are almost equal at both speeds. It is obvious the ASRock 775Dual-VSTA BIOS is tuned for DDR2-533. This particular setting delivered the best raw performance although we will see in our application and game benchmarks this advantage is negated by other platform components.
Overall, the VIA PT880 Pro is very competitive at DDR2-533 memory speeds with the Intel P965 showing a definite advantage at DDR2-667. The Intel 945P based ASRock ConRoeXFire-eSATA2 offers a nice balance of performance at both memory speeds while costing just $20 more than the VIA PT880 Pro board but does not allow you to use your DDR memory or AGP video card.
Our Biostar P965 board offers a 12% improvement in the Sandra Unbuffered test, though its buffered scores are less than our DFI 975X board along with higher latencies. As we have been saying for years, however, the Buffered benchmark usually does not correlate well with real performance in applications on the same computer. For that reason, our memory bandwidth tests have always included an Unbuffered Sandra memory score. The Unbuffered result turns off the buffering schemes, and we have found the results correlate well with real-world performance as we will see shortly.
Our ASRock 775Dual-VSTA motherboard provides two DDR2 and three DDR memory ratios. The ASRock 775i65G provides three DDR memory ratios although we could only get our DDR-400 memory modules to work at DDR-355 due to the front side bus ratios availability within the i865 BIOS. We are only testing this board at DDR-355 due to this issue. Our ASRock ConRoeXFire-eSATA2 board is based on the 945P chipset and features DDR2-400, DDR2-533, and DDR2-667 memory speeds. Our Biostar P965 and DFI 975X motherboards feature the same DDR2 memory speeds as the ASRock 945P board while adding DDR2-800. Even though our ASRock 775Dual-VSTA does not support DDR2-800 we are reporting these scores for comparison.
We are testing our motherboards at the fastest stable timings we can achieve and still pass our benchmark test suite. By increasing the memory voltage on the 775Dual-VSTA board we were able to run our Transcend modules at 3-4-3-9 at DDR2-667. With these set ratios, CPU speed remains the same at 1.86GHz in our test platform with memory speed being varied by selecting the different ratios.
Due to performance reasons we did not test the DDR-266 or DDR2-400 settings as we believe most people will not utilize these ratios. The balance of our comments in the first article about the Intel memory controller design and command rates with the VIA PT880 chipset still hold true. Our memory settings were derived from extensive stress testing with a variety of applications. While certain settings that allowed lower latencies worked well with some applications, the final settings we arrived at had to work with all applications.
 |
| Click to enlarge |
The Intel 865G chipset offers greater DDR memory performance than the VIA PT880 Pro in our synthetic test results. Although the buffered Intel DDR-355 scores 18% better than the VIA DDR-400 setting, the unbuffered result is only 4% better. The SuperPI test is basically a tie with the memory latency results heavily favoring the Intel chipset. Although the i865 results are well below the DDR2 based chipsets, we will see this chipset perform very well in our application and game tests.
 |
 |
| Click to enlarge |
The Sandra bandwidth memory performance result of the VIA PT880 Pro at DDR2-533 (1:1 ratio) leads the DDR2-667 (4:5 ratio) by up to 30% although the memory timings are almost equal at both speeds. It is obvious the ASRock 775Dual-VSTA BIOS is tuned for DDR2-533. This particular setting delivered the best raw performance although we will see in our application and game benchmarks this advantage is negated by other platform components.
Overall, the VIA PT880 Pro is very competitive at DDR2-533 memory speeds with the Intel P965 showing a definite advantage at DDR2-667. The Intel 945P based ASRock ConRoeXFire-eSATA2 offers a nice balance of performance at both memory speeds while costing just $20 more than the VIA PT880 Pro board but does not allow you to use your DDR memory or AGP video card.
 |
| Click to enlarge |
Our Biostar P965 board offers a 12% improvement in the Sandra Unbuffered test, though its buffered scores are less than our DFI 975X board along with higher latencies. As we have been saying for years, however, the Buffered benchmark usually does not correlate well with real performance in applications on the same computer. For that reason, our memory bandwidth tests have always included an Unbuffered Sandra memory score. The Unbuffered result turns off the buffering schemes, and we have found the results correlate well with real-world performance as we will see shortly.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
34 Comments
View All Comments
Questar - Monday, August 14, 2006 - link
Buy the cheapest memory you can find and spend the money you save somewhere else.deathwalker - Monday, August 14, 2006 - link
This does seem to validate from a cost vs. performance basis this motherboard..however I remain a tad sqeemish about making a platform jump from AMD to Intel using this board. Having said that though, if you are on a tight budget and you have to migrate parts I suppose giving this board a shot isn't a bad idea.Gary Key - Monday, August 14, 2006 - link
We will be reviewing some value/budget AMD AM2 combo motherboards in the future so the idea of incrementally upgrading to the newer platform from early S754/939 still holds true to a certain degree.
blppt - Monday, August 14, 2006 - link
On page 6..."Although AGP is basically dead and the most powerful card available is based on the 7800GS chipset, we can see that it is still a very competitive solution in the mid-range market as is low latency DDR memory with the right chipset."
What about the limited edition Gainward 7876 BLISS, which is supposedly actually based on the 7900GT? Thats considerably more powerful than a regular 7800GS.
http://www.gainward.net/products/product.php?produ...">BLISS
Last I checked, overlockers uk still had them in stock. Although at ~$445 american, you'd wonder if its worth it, or just upgrade to an X2 and PCI-E mobo instead.
Gary Key - Monday, August 14, 2006 - link
I have an inquiry into Gainward about the actual core used on this card. They still advertise it as a 7800GS based unit. Yes, it is very expensive when you can upgrade your CPU, motherboard, and memory for about the same price.blppt - Monday, August 14, 2006 - link
Yeah, they advertise it like that, but its a 24 pipe card clocked at 450/1250, which seems to be somewhere between a 7800GT and a 7900GT.poohbear - Monday, August 14, 2006 - link
"Who knew that AGP 8x and DDR would still be this competitive after a myriad of chipset, memory, CPU, and GPU enhancements over the last three years?"i thought it was pretty settled that the move from agp 8x was introduced for 1.) marketing reasons so ppl actually buy new chipsets we dont need and 2.) so nvidia could make some extra cash off their SLI gig. the bandwidth agp 8x provided was never saturated. great article nonetheless showing that value boards are still a nice option (i own the Asrock Dualsata2, great mobo btw after they fixed the 274htt cap).
on a sidenote i love the part "deux" in the title, we're so international @ anandtech aint we.;) or maybe u're just canadian, hafta include some french in everything.:p
bob661 - Monday, August 14, 2006 - link
I guess ATI doesn't count, huh? Also, would AGP provide the bandwidth necessary for SLI and Xfire setups? People keep making these sweeping "we don't need PCIe" statements without knowing or stating all of the factors involved.Kiijibari - Tuesday, August 15, 2006 - link
Have you red the last AGP 3.0 Specification ? If not look here at p. 115 / 5.2.3:http://members.datafast.net.au/dft0802/specs/agp30...">http://members.datafast.net.au/dft0802/specs/agp30...
In Short: Multiple video cards are possible with AGP 3.0 :)
cheers
Kiijibari
Gary Key - Monday, August 14, 2006 - link
I added my sarcastic comment notation at the end of the statement. ;-) While PCI Express is certainly a welcome technology and will be viable for a long time (in computer terms), it was introduced too early and abruptly in my opinion. Except for SLI/CrossFire type setups, there was no real "engineering" requirement for it on the desktop until recently. Yes, there is a French/Canadian influence in the household. :)