Value DDR2-800 from Super Talent: Where Can You Go?
by Wesley Fink on November 29, 2006 12:05 AM EST- Posted in
- Memory
Game Performance Comparison
Real-world benchmarks - specifically gaming benchmarks - provide the most useful measure of memory performance if you keep in mind what they represent. Memory is just one small part of overall gaming performance, and the AnandTech benchmarks keep everything the same except memory speed. Even the CPU speed is kept constant (except for the Highest Speed (overclocking) test). As a result performance improvements in FPS are very small because the only factor influencing the test results is memory speed. Many factors affect system performance, and memory speed is just one of those factors.
Results for high-end memory were very close at tested speeds. Therefore, the scale range was reduced to better show the small differences in these memory benchmark results at each speed. Please keep this in mind when viewing the charts. A normal zero scale would make performance differences appear much smaller than these expanded scale charts. Values for the tested memories are included below each chart for reference.
The AnandTech memory test suite uses Far Cry, Half Life 2 and Quake 4 for memory testing because these games are sensitive to memory performance and they are generally not GPU bound.
We have said before that the Core 2 Duo chips are not memory starved, and if you look closely you will see that the real world performance of this value RAM is only a bit slower in games than tested memory that costs twice as much. The Super Talent can't reach DDR2-1066, but with a modest overclock at DDR2-1000 the performance is still competitive with the top DDR2 memory we have tested at speeds to DDR2-1000 or higher.
There is no doubt the best memory gives you a few frames per second better gaming performance at all speeds, and it will also allow your system to reach higher CPU overclocks due to the added latitude of the memory. However, the real world difference between 4-4-4 timings and 3-3-3 timings at DDR2-800 is quite small.
It is interesting that memory is varying from 3-2-2-6 timings at DDR2-400 all the way to 5-5-5-15 timings at DDR2-1000. Despite the rapid drop in memory timings, all three games continue to show improvement in frame rates as memory speed increases. Put another way, performance continues to improve as memory speed increases. The Super Talent T800UX2GC5 performance was pretty much as expected. Results were virtually the same as the best DDR2 we have tested to DDR2-800, with a slight drop off due to slower timings at DDR2-800. The Super Talent could not reach DDR-1067, but it did perform well to DDR2-1000 with an 889 ratio pushed to a 300 bus setting (from the stock 266). Memory speed can definitely improve system performance, but not to the extent of an upgraded video card or a higher speed processor.
Real-world benchmarks - specifically gaming benchmarks - provide the most useful measure of memory performance if you keep in mind what they represent. Memory is just one small part of overall gaming performance, and the AnandTech benchmarks keep everything the same except memory speed. Even the CPU speed is kept constant (except for the Highest Speed (overclocking) test). As a result performance improvements in FPS are very small because the only factor influencing the test results is memory speed. Many factors affect system performance, and memory speed is just one of those factors.
Results for high-end memory were very close at tested speeds. Therefore, the scale range was reduced to better show the small differences in these memory benchmark results at each speed. Please keep this in mind when viewing the charts. A normal zero scale would make performance differences appear much smaller than these expanded scale charts. Values for the tested memories are included below each chart for reference.
The AnandTech memory test suite uses Far Cry, Half Life 2 and Quake 4 for memory testing because these games are sensitive to memory performance and they are generally not GPU bound.
We have said before that the Core 2 Duo chips are not memory starved, and if you look closely you will see that the real world performance of this value RAM is only a bit slower in games than tested memory that costs twice as much. The Super Talent can't reach DDR2-1066, but with a modest overclock at DDR2-1000 the performance is still competitive with the top DDR2 memory we have tested at speeds to DDR2-1000 or higher.
There is no doubt the best memory gives you a few frames per second better gaming performance at all speeds, and it will also allow your system to reach higher CPU overclocks due to the added latitude of the memory. However, the real world difference between 4-4-4 timings and 3-3-3 timings at DDR2-800 is quite small.
It is interesting that memory is varying from 3-2-2-6 timings at DDR2-400 all the way to 5-5-5-15 timings at DDR2-1000. Despite the rapid drop in memory timings, all three games continue to show improvement in frame rates as memory speed increases. Put another way, performance continues to improve as memory speed increases. The Super Talent T800UX2GC5 performance was pretty much as expected. Results were virtually the same as the best DDR2 we have tested to DDR2-800, with a slight drop off due to slower timings at DDR2-800. The Super Talent could not reach DDR-1067, but it did perform well to DDR2-1000 with an 889 ratio pushed to a 300 bus setting (from the stock 266). 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 - Wednesday, November 29, 2006 - link
Pretty is not good by itself, but pretty IS an indication that a company has the resources to compete in the market and that they are proud enough of their product to make it want to stand out.Our past experience has been that memory that is amateurishly packaged either improves in "pretty" and stays in the market, or dwindles away in the ugly packaging in which it was introduced.
peldor - Wednesday, November 29, 2006 - link
If pretty is an indication of something about a company then I'm worried about AnandTech. Those line graphs in this article are hideous, and the front page ain't too hot. At least that expanding Crossfire ad isn't running anymore.brshoemak - Wednesday, November 29, 2006 - link
this is a little OT but I sincerely hope their enthusiast memory is of a higher quality than their standard DDR memory.We bought around 30 sticks of Super Talent DDR memory and some Corsair ValueRam from a couple different distributors to build PC's with less than a year ago. So far, 16 (over half) of the Super Talent sticks have gone bad and every time I hear of a new PC problem it's almost always Super Talent memory inside.
If the enthusiast memory is better quality that's great, but due to my own personal experience I would be wary of their value-segment offerings. JMO
Xajel - Wednesday, November 29, 2006 - link
Users are AMD and Intel, how an Article like this be helpfull if it cover only less than half of the market ?? I hope to see three variants, Intel Core 2, Intel P4 & D and AMD's AM2 platform...Frumious1 - Wednesday, November 29, 2006 - link
In related news, reading comprehension is on the decline so things need to be pointed out with bold flashing text:Page 2:
DDR2 memory performance, in timings and required voltage, are equivalent on the AM2 and Core 2 Duo platforms. This was clearly illustrated in Conroe vs. AM2: Memory & Performance. However, the first generation of AM2 on-processor memory controller does not support any memory timings below 3, or memory speeds above DDR2-800, while both these features are supported on the Intel platform. Timings of 2 are available for RAS-to-CAS and RAS Precharge, and DDR2-1067 is a memory speed option on most Intel motherboards. The lack of extended memory timings and memory speeds makes it more difficult to test the newest high-speed DDR2 memories on an AM2 platform.
In other words, the memory timings and voltages you can get are the same on both platforms. Performance with AM2 while keeping CPU speed constant is going to improve slightly with more bandwidth just like on Core 2. Most people after high-end memory are going to overclock anyway, at which point it's just a matter of determining how high you can go with the various RAM.
Core 2 could use a 1:1 ratio and run with this RAM at up to 2000 FSB. Athlon AM2 could do "1:1" at up to DDR2-1000 as well, but there's no way the HyperTransport bus is going to run at 500 MHz base speed. So you can go with the DDR2-800 divider and get up to around 250 MHz HT speed (a 25% overclock), or you could drop to a lower divider like DDR2-667 and probably hit the limits of your motherboard. If not with the 667 setting then certainly with the DDR2-533 setting. Actual memory speeds on AM2 are a bit different then what you select anyway, depending on CPU, as the final RAM speed is derived from the CPU speed an not from the bus speed.
This is all beside the point, as the main thing to note is that this value RAM will work extremely well for all but the most demanding enthusiasts.
AndyKH - Wednesday, November 29, 2006 - link
As far as I understand, 533MHz DDR2 will theoretically max out the bandwidth on a 1067MHz FSB, as the memory interface is 128 bits, while FSB is 64 bits. Thus, the only reason that the faster memories perform better is that the timings are relative to the clock speed and will therefore get faster with increased memory clock speed. Is this correct?Wesley Fink - Wednesday, November 29, 2006 - link
This is partly true. Memory is Double Data Rate so DDR2-533 is the 1:1 match to a quad-pumped FSB base of 266 (1067). Memory ratios run the memory faster, and it performs better, while the base FSB clock remains the same. However, there is also overclcoking. At 1:1 or any given ratio, you can overclock the bus, which overclocks the memory in lock step at the settings you have chosen.With the nVidia 680i, for example, we reached a FSB of 2100 (525 quad-pumped), which is almost a 100% FSB overclock. In that case we had to drop memory ratios so the final memory speed would work with a 2100 bus.
Memory can be clocked higher by ratios or FSB overclocks, or a combination of both. This gives many options in squeezing the most performance from your memory and system.
Xajel - Wednesday, November 29, 2006 - link
the point is not about working and overclockablity or not, it's about compatibility as main concern, some mobos like MSI has hard compatibility with some DDR's like OCZ, some reports they can't even hit DDR2-800 speeds so how about overclocking ??some mobos, like those from ASUS ( mainly K8N's ) need BIOS update to make it possible to work with OCZ memories in DDR2-800 in Dual channel mode, a lot of users start there rigs with two stick on only one channel then do BIOS flash update and then rearrange the stick to enable DualChannel.
some guys need to upgrade but they don't know about compatibility issues they may have with such brand new memory !!
JarredWalton - Wednesday, November 29, 2006 - link
The major concern with compatibility almost always comes from default required voltages. Since this Super Talent requires 1.8V by default, it should work on any DDR2 platform that recognizes the DDR2-800 speed. I'm sure Wes has played with the RAM on more than one motherboard, so if he hasn't made comments about incompatibilities (and he actually mentions the benefits of the 1.8V requirement) then it's about as "safe" as you can get.Cali3350 - Wednesday, November 29, 2006 - link
When might this be available, and perhaps more inportantly if it already is does anyone know where? I cannot find it anywhere.