OCZ 3700EB: Making Hay with Athlon 64

AMD Test Results: Overclocked

We then looked at the highest overclocked speed that we could reach with our early 3200+ and OCZ 3700EB. While a stable 275x7 was possible, a higher processor speed was possible at a stable 268x8. As demonstrated in the review of the AOpen AK89 Max, the more recent 3200+ processors have much greater overhead and overclock much further.

While this is a modest processor overclock, the memory is running at a significantly higher speed as a result of the lower multipliers. In fact, we reached DDR536 to DDR550 (268 to 275) with the OCZ 3700EB on the Chaintech nForce3-250 compared to the DDR524 maximum reached on the Intel 875 using the same memory. In fairness, we are running single-channel on the Athlon 64 compared to Dual-Channel on the P4. Dual-Channel on Athlon 64 arrives next month with the new Socket 939 for Athlon 64.

Using the 2142MHz as the standard overclocked speed, we compared performance at the same overclocked processor speed and 3 different memory speeds: DDR428 (214), DDR478, and DDR536. The CPU is running at the same speed in all 3 tests; only the memory speed is varied by using different ratios.

Fixed CPU Overclock and Variable Memory Speed OCZ 3700EB (DDR466) - 1 x 512Mb Double-Bank
Benchmark	2142 MHz 214x10 4xHT 2.5-2-3	2142 MHz 238x9 3xHT 3-2-3	2142 MHz 268x8 3xHT 3-2-3
Super PI 2M Places	95 seconds	93 seconds	92 seconds
Quake 3 FPS	424.7	433.4	446.7
Sandra Memory Test Standard Buffered	INT 3306 FLT 3304	INT 3656 FLT 3653	INT 4137 FLT 4137
Sandra Memory Test Standard UNBuffered	INT 1913 FLT 1939	INT 2110 FLT 2142	INT 2354 FLT 2404
UT2003 FPS	Flyby 274.2 Botmatch 108.9	Flyby 276.6 Botmatch 110.8	Flyby 279.6 Botmatch 112.7
Aquamark 3 Standard Score Run	43,952	44,297	44,575

Lower memory timings and HyperTransport was required at the higher memory speeds. Despite those performance handicaps, you can see that higher memory speed is providing the best performance, even in simple calculation benchmarks like SuperPI.

The impact of Memory Speed on performance at a fixed CPU speed is even clearer in the Performance Charts.