Super Talent & TEAM Join the Fast DDR2 Club
by Wesley Fink on October 10, 2006 4:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Memory
Performance Comparison
While Sandra and Super Pi provide useful information on how memory performs, the real test is real-world benchmarks - specifically gaming benchmarks. We use Far Cry, Half-Life 2 and Quake 4 for memory testing because they are sensitive to memory changes, making them useful for examining memory performance.
Since the results were so close at all tested speeds, the scale range was reduced to better show the small differences in these memories. Please keep this in mind when viewing the charts, since a normal zero scale would make performance differences appear much smaller than these expanded scale charts. Values for each memory at each speed are included below each chart for reference.
All three games continue to show improvement in frame rates as memory speed increases, even though timings are looser the faster we go. Put another way, performance continues to improve as memory speed increases - to DDR2-1067 and a bit beyond. The TEAM is still capable of operating at 4-3-4 timings at DDR2-1067, and the Super Talent is only a bit slower at 4-3-5 timings. At the bottom of the scaling chart Super Talent requires a 3 RAS-to-CAS setting, while the other 3 memories are stable at a 2 setting. This is reflected in the general drop-off at the bottom and top for Super Talent, while the TEAM memory mirrors the results of the OCS and Corsair. The performance differences are admittedly very small - but still measurable. Memory speed can definitely improve system performance, but not to the extent of an upgraded video card or a higher speed processor.
While Sandra and Super Pi provide useful information on how memory performs, the real test is real-world benchmarks - specifically gaming benchmarks. We use Far Cry, Half-Life 2 and Quake 4 for memory testing because they are sensitive to memory changes, making them useful for examining memory performance.
Since the results were so close at all tested speeds, the scale range was reduced to better show the small differences in these memories. Please keep this in mind when viewing the charts, since a normal zero scale would make performance differences appear much smaller than these expanded scale charts. Values for each memory at each speed are included below each chart for reference.
All three games continue to show improvement in frame rates as memory speed increases, even though timings are looser the faster we go. Put another way, performance continues to improve as memory speed increases - to DDR2-1067 and a bit beyond. The TEAM is still capable of operating at 4-3-4 timings at DDR2-1067, and the Super Talent is only a bit slower at 4-3-5 timings. At the bottom of the scaling chart Super Talent requires a 3 RAS-to-CAS setting, while the other 3 memories are stable at a 2 setting. This is reflected in the general drop-off at the bottom and top for Super Talent, while the TEAM memory mirrors the results of the OCS and Corsair. The performance differences are admittedly very small - but still measurable. Memory speed can definitely improve system performance, but not to the extent of an upgraded video card or a higher speed processor.
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Wesley Fink - Tuesday, October 10, 2006 - link
As I stated in the review, we have yet to see a value DDR2-800 that will run at DDR2-1067. The value parts we have tested with Elpida chips can achieve 4-3-3 timings at DDR2-800. We tested and showed results in the Conroe Buying Guide. Part 2 of that guide is in the works and will include more value RAM.Guuts - Tuesday, October 10, 2006 - link
Thanks Wes.deathwalker - Tuesday, October 10, 2006 - link
These modules certainly appear to be a "no go" for most of the 1.8 vlt. C2D platforms...and there certainly seem to be many of them out there that only offer modest voltage settings above 1.8 vlts.Gary Key - Tuesday, October 10, 2006 - link
This would have been true early on with most of the P965 boards. However, as the bios and memory SPDs have matured this is no longer the case for the vast majority of P965 boards. I have not had an issue with the high end PC2-8000 and up modules booting properly at this time in most of the P965 boards with the latest bios, the lone exception being the Intel branded boards. However, unless you have a E6300/E6400, a very overclocking friendly board, and are benchmarking for money then there are better choices in the DDR2-800 family for the P965 setup. ;-)duploxxx - Tuesday, October 10, 2006 - link
We all know memory performance is much more important on AM2, so what's the point on reviewing it only on Core.You should add the performance benches of the fx to this chart. But I am sure you won't. Because many know what will happen to the performance crown when using such memory to the AMD system (without the trick of lowering cas to memoryspeed you did in your performance king review), but marketing is at a whole other level these days.....
Wesley Fink - Tuesday, October 10, 2006 - link
I stated in the review that AMD bandwidth goes up more than Core2Duo as memory speed increases. We showed that in our C2D vs. AM2 article. However, even with the massively increased bandwidth AM2 performance does not increase accordingly - and we also showed that in our earlier review. The fact is that the current AM2 design is not memory bandwidth starved, so the memory bandwidth improvements have almost no impact on performance. In the future AM2 die-shrink, with perhaps a memory controller update, we might see AM2 make better use of it's memory bandwidth advantage. When that happens, we will definitely report it.