Athlon 64 Memory: Rewriting the Rules
by Wesley Fink on October 1, 2004 12:45 AM EST- Posted in
- Memory
Test Results: OCZ PC3200 Platinum Rev. 2
To be considered stable for test purposes, Quake3 benchmark, UT2003 Demo, Super PI, Aquamark 3, and RTCW had to complete without incident. Any of these, and in particular Super PI and Return to Castle Wolfenstein, will crash a less-than stable memory configuration.| OCZ PC3200 Platinum Rev 2 (DDR466) - 2 x 512Mb 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 | 400 DDR | 2-2-2-10 2.6V 1T |
516.3 | INT 2652 FLT 2805 |
INT 6131 FLT 6077 |
80 | 110.8 |
| 11x218 | 438 DDR | 2-3-2-10 2.75V 1T |
515.6 | INT 2747 FLT 2927 |
INT 6482 FLT 6411 |
80 | 110.8 |
| 10x240 | 480 DDR | 2.5-3-3-10 2.85V 1T |
520.8 | INT 2895 FLT 3123 |
INT 6685 FLT 6603 |
80 | 112.4 |
| 9x267 | 533 DDR | 2.5-4-3-10 2.85V 1T |
525.8 | INT 3022 FLT 3234 |
INT 6952 FLT 6894 |
79 | 112.7 |
| 8x300(2.4GHz) | Highest Mem Speed 600 DDR |
2.5-4-3-10 2.85V 2T |
526.6 | INT 2951 FLT 3123 |
INT 6911 FLT 6802 |
79 | 112.4 |
| 9x290(2.61GHz) | HIGHEST Performance 580 DDR |
2.5-4-3-10 2.85V 1T |
571.1 | INT 3258 FLT 3523 |
INT 7559 FLT 7474 |
73 | 122.4 |
The impact of the upgraded power supply on Athlon 64 memory testing is probably most obvious in our tests of OCZ Platinum Rev. 2. This is the second TCCD memory to reach DDR600 on the A64, much better than what the DDR 557 achieved in memory testing on the Intel test bed.
As impressive as DDR600 sounds, you should remember that this was achieved with a 2T Command Rate. Actual Performance at DDR600 was therefore about the same as 1T performance at DDR533.
The most impressive performance with 3200 Platinum Rev. 2 was the ability to run at a 1T Command Rate at DDR580 - the highest 1T performance achieved in this roundup. At that speed, performance was truly exceptional, with the highest benchmark results achieved.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
47 Comments
View All Comments
xeoph - Wednesday, March 9, 2005 - link
I also wanted to mention it in this artical if it hasnt been already.The pricing above the ultra X is for Ultra Platinum. The www.memory-up.com link is a little misleading because it doesnt give the exact tech specs.
simply a mistype. m-400-512x2glx1gb3200dc is what your looking for, little X between gl and 1gb.
mervine - Sunday, October 10, 2004 - link
hi WesleyYou mention the newer Samsung TCCD chips overclock better on AMD64 than the older ones, How long have these new chips been avaliable?
The reason I ask is I live in europe and stocks over here might not be as new as in the states. I'm looking to buy some ocz rev2 but is there any way to tell if its using old or new revision TCCD?
PrinceXizor - Tuesday, October 5, 2004 - link
Wesley:I appreciate your point. I suppose I would have been vaguer in my statements than you were, that is my only point (probably a matter of subjective opinion of course). Something like...
"In the course of testing, it was discovered that we were being adversely limited by the power supply used in our testing rig. Switching to a higher wattage power supply unlocked the potential of many of these DIMMS. While the actual problem with the original PSU requires more analysis time than we had for this review (lower wattage? lower rail amperage? lower rail tolernaces?), hard-core overclockers should carefully inspect the specifications on their PSU's if they plan on maxing out the OC on their memory modules. Switching power supplies, as we did, may help you to reach the overclocks attained in this review."
Something like that is all I would have liked to see, instead of a blanket recommendation for a higher wattage PSU. That was my point.
All this being said, I still enjoyed the review! I look forward to more memory module reviews in the future.
P-X
jynxycat - Tuesday, October 5, 2004 - link
good review, i was on the edge between the PQI and Crucial sticks, not really knowing what to expect from the PQI on an AMD setup.finally a full review of what the respective sticks will achieve on the AMD platform, very much appreciated.
Blappo - Sunday, October 3, 2004 - link
42:That is true. It might be interesting to see a comparison of PSUs to see which one would give the highest overclock. I would guess that the PSUs with high ratings would perform well, but there might be some lower power PSUs delivering good quality power that perform well, or some high output PSUs that perform poorly because of low quality power.
darkwaffle - Sunday, October 3, 2004 - link
41:I'm not sure how much of a direct comparison you could make between the 3 PowerStream models, because according to http://www.ocztechnology.com/products/PSUSpec.pdf the +5 rail differs on the 420 and 470, and the +12 rail is different on all of them.
Blappo - Saturday, October 2, 2004 - link
I would be curious if using either the 420W or 470W OCZ PowerStream models would change the amount the memory could be overclocked? Since they are in the same model line then any differences when OC would be attributed to the amount of power available, and not the quality of power available.LocutusX - Saturday, October 2, 2004 - link
I've got the one Wesley mentioned. It's the Enermax EG465P-VE - the *Q4 2001* model. That same model which is *currently* available in stores has slightly different specs. Anyways, I think I'll keep in mind a possible upgrade to the Powerstream since that would probably help my OC situation as well.KingofFah - Saturday, October 2, 2004 - link
#14,15,20,24(This is more directed to #20)
As Wesley said:
+3.3V - 38A
+5V - 44A
+12V - 20A
-5V - 2A
-12V - 1A
+5Vsb - 2.2A
are the specs of the 465 they used.
Considering they switched to 520W OCZ Powerstream:
+3.3V - 28A
+5V - 40A
+12V - 33A
-5V - .5A
-12V - .5A
+5Vsb - 2.0A
Even though there is a drop in amperage on the 3.3 and 5v rails, there is a great increase in the 12v. CPU, GPU, HDDs, Optical drives, fans all get there power off of the 12v line.
Since w = v x a, if you want a good power supply, it almost certainly will have a lot of watts on it, but you only find good amperage on high quality models... So maybe you can see why they said +500 quality PSU??
My question is: Which rail does the memory draw from? Is it still the 5v?
Marlin1975 - Saturday, October 2, 2004 - link
Wesley Fink, since it has been shown many times that more and more current systems need better power. Why not do a review of power supplys. Everything form top dollar name brand ones to cheaper high "watt" ones to see if they put out what they say at each rail and if they help or hurt a system when doing normal work to over clocking?I know power supplys are one of the most over looked items and I am building a HIGH power system right now and can not find any real reviews other then other people saying use or don;t use brand X
Thanks