Athlon 64 Memory: Rewriting the Rules
by Wesley Fink on October 1, 2004 12:45 AM EST- Posted in
- Memory
Test Results: Crucial Ballistix PC3200
To be considered stable for test purposes, Quake3 benchmark, UT2003 Demo, Super PI, Aquamark 3, and Comanche 4 had to complete without incident. Any of these, and in particular Super PI, will crash a less-than stable memory configuration.| Crucial PC3200 Ballistix (DDR400) - 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 |
514.0 | INT 2622 FLT 2799 |
INT 6082 FLT 6033 |
81 | 110.3 |
| 11x218 | 438 DDR | 2-2-2-10 2.6V 1T |
520.9 | INT 2815 FLT 2952 |
INT 6471 FLT 6402 |
80 | 111.5 |
| 10x240 | 480 DDR | 2.5-2-2-10 2.7V 1T |
526.2 | INT 2917 FLT 3101 |
INT 6703 FLT 6625 |
79 | 112.6 |
| 9x267 | 533 DDR | 2.5-3-3-10 2.75V 1T |
529.1 | INT 3029 FLT 3258 |
INT 6960 FLT 6870 |
79 | 113.2 |
| 8x297(2.38GHz) | Highest Mem Speed 594 DDR |
3-4-3-10 2.85V 2T |
513.8 | INT 2897 FLT 3080 |
INT 6708 FLT 6647 |
80 | 110.3 |
| 9x278(2.5GHz) | HIGHEST Performance 556 DDR |
3-4-3-10 2.85V 1T |
536.5 | INT 3117 FLT 3299 |
INT 7165 FLT 7109 |
76 | 116.1 |
As we first saw on the Intel test bed, Ballistix continues to astound with fast memory timings at the DDR438 (2-2-2) and 480 (2.5-2-2) speeds. The biggest surprise, however, was the added bandwidth that we achieved on the Athlon 64 test bed. Where Ballistix topped out at DDR514 on our Intel tests, we were able to reach DDR594 - right at DDR600 - on the Socket 939 testbed. While this did require a 2T Command Rate, we still achieved DDR556 at a 1T rate.
We have asked AMD to provide some insight into why we are getting much higher speeds with the Micron chips on the Athlon 64 Socket 939 platform that we have seen in testing on the Intel platform.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
47 Comments
View All Comments
Zebo - Friday, October 1, 2004 - link
http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=328636mkruer - Friday, October 1, 2004 - link
If you get the chance, can you please test with 2GB of PC3200? I’m sure most would love to see what type of performance hit there will be with the larger modules vs. the smaller ones. Looking at the benches so far, it looks like even buying the cheap 1GB PC3200 modules will have negligible impact on the performance as long as the times are kept relatively low (under 3cls.) And one more big IF you could test 4x512 PC3200 with lower clock timings (2-2-2-5) vs 2x1024 PC 3200 with timings of (3-3-3-8) I’m sure that for the average user they would rather blow $400 for 2GB of slow memory then $400 for 1GB of fast memory.Zebo - Friday, October 1, 2004 - link
spensive!:(p/p is horrendous for this stuff. It's too bad you don't include micron/crucial 8t in there which can also clock to 260 for half the price.
Kishkumen - Friday, October 1, 2004 - link
I've loved all of these recent memory articles. For a while now, the current state of memory in general has been the fuzziest for me. Now I'm starting to get a clearer picture of where things are at and which direction to go. I'm still nursing along my old P4 Northwood, but the A64 plunge is imminent. Nice to see that memory development is keeping up at a strong pace what with 600 MHz speeds now a strong reality.RaistlinZ - Friday, October 1, 2004 - link
Thank you for the great article! From your tests it looks like the OCZ 3200 Rev.2 is the best of the best. It performed near the top in every test and edged out the Crucial Ballistix at the highest speeds.I guess my choice for a memory upgrade is clear now. :)
klah - Friday, October 1, 2004 - link
Seems you cut something off at the end of page 9"We have asked AMD to provide some insight into why we are "...
skiboysteve - Friday, October 1, 2004 - link
excellent article, ill keep this in mind when I upgrade... im still pluggin on a TbredB @ 2.2 w/ a modded 9500nonpro