Crucial Ballistix DDR2: The New DDR2 Standard?
by Steve Carmel & Wesley Fink on February 21, 2006 12:05 AM EST- Posted in
- Memory
Crucial PC2-6400: Gaming Performance
Several games were chosen to help determine the stability of Crucial's Ballistix DDR2-800 memory:
Quake 4 was used, set to ultra quality, and benchmarked with results in frames per second (FPS) at 1024x768, 1280x1024, and 1600x1200 resolutions. Comparisons were made between stock, default settings, and using a front side bus speed of 335 times a multiplier of 13. The EVGA 7800 GTX KO video card was not overclocked during these tests, as memory stability was the main key.
Valve Software's HL2 Lost Coast turned out to be an effective memory test, and it was set to maximum quality, with HDR effects on, at 1024x768 and 1280x1024 resolutions. The old standby, Doom 3, is more sensitive to memory, thus it was benchmarked in game at 1024x768 resolutions. Finally, Far Cry was configured with max quality settings. Our benchmark test utilized 1024x768 and 1280x1024 resolutions.
The results are in the table below. No glitches, hitching or artifacts occurred during game testing at these settings.
Futuremark's PCMark05 was configured to run with the full test suite option and delivered an overall score of 7432 PCMarks. The memory test suite score was 5897. These tests were also run at a front side bus speed of 335 with a 13x multiplier as used in the gaming tests above. The entire test results can be seen here.
Synthetic 3D benchmarking programs such as 3DMark06, 3DMark05, 3DMark03, and 3DMark 2001 SE were run, with no problems even at high clock speeds using this memory.
Several games were chosen to help determine the stability of Crucial's Ballistix DDR2-800 memory:
Quake 4 was used, set to ultra quality, and benchmarked with results in frames per second (FPS) at 1024x768, 1280x1024, and 1600x1200 resolutions. Comparisons were made between stock, default settings, and using a front side bus speed of 335 times a multiplier of 13. The EVGA 7800 GTX KO video card was not overclocked during these tests, as memory stability was the main key.
Valve Software's HL2 Lost Coast turned out to be an effective memory test, and it was set to maximum quality, with HDR effects on, at 1024x768 and 1280x1024 resolutions. The old standby, Doom 3, is more sensitive to memory, thus it was benchmarked in game at 1024x768 resolutions. Finally, Far Cry was configured with max quality settings. Our benchmark test utilized 1024x768 and 1280x1024 resolutions.
The results are in the table below. No glitches, hitching or artifacts occurred during game testing at these settings.
| Quake 4 | Default settings | 335 x 13 = 4361 MHz |
| 1024 x 768 | 145.0 FPS | 171.5 FPS |
| 1280 x 1024 | 123.7 FPS | 152.7 FPS |
| 1600 x 1200 | 117.1 FPS | 122.5 FPS |
| Lost Coast | Default settings | 335 x 13 = 4361 MHz |
| 1024 x 768 | 73.0 FPS | 85.3 FPS |
| 1280 x 1024 | 56.9 FPS | 61.0 FPS |
| Far Cry | Default settings | 335 x 13 = 4361 MHz |
| 1024 x 768 | 70.65 FPS | 76.66 FPS |
| 1280 x 1024 | 66.32 FPS | 70.76 FPS |
| Doom 3 | Default settings | 335 x 13 = 4361 MHz |
| 1024 x 768 | 83.1 FPS | 127.3 FPS |
Futuremark's PCMark05 was configured to run with the full test suite option and delivered an overall score of 7432 PCMarks. The memory test suite score was 5897. These tests were also run at a front side bus speed of 335 with a 13x multiplier as used in the gaming tests above. The entire test results can be seen here.
| PCMark05 | 335 x 13 = 4361 MHz |
| Memory Read 16 MB | 9274.5 Mb/s |
| Memory Read 8 MB | 9573.61 Mb/s |
| Memory Write 16 MB | 6768.83 Mb/s |
| Memory Write 8 MB | 6734.91 Mb/s |
Synthetic 3D benchmarking programs such as 3DMark06, 3DMark05, 3DMark03, and 3DMark 2001 SE were run, with no problems even at high clock speeds using this memory.
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gudodayn - Tuesday, February 21, 2006 - link
Not to take anything away from Crucial or OCZ but DDR2~800 @ 4-4-4-12 has been on the market since last year!!!Like the article said "Other competing manufacturers such as Corsair and OCZ Technology will be able to source the same IC's......". This isnt just Corsair and OCZ, there are others. Mind you these US memory companies get their work done a lot by Taiwan manufacturers. How about Geil and PQI?? PQI have TurboMemory DDR2~900 @ 4-4-4-12 and a DDR2-1000 @ 5-5-5-15 and both are 1Gb sticks.
What makes these Crucial sticks special?? Nothing apparently according to the benchmarks. It is nothing more than a publicity advertisement for them......New DDR2 Standard?? I think not!!!!
Unless you have a rare batch of TCCD equivalent in DDR2 form, the playing field seems pretty even between memory manufacturers to me at the moment.
Xenoterranos - Tuesday, February 21, 2006 - link
Ah winbond megachips, where have you gone to??ozzimark - Tuesday, February 21, 2006 - link
slightly confused because i don't think i ever see the pc2-6400 running at 400mhz? just give me a chart with the max speed with varying timings and i'll be happy. if not, i'll get some myself and do it :pAvalon - Tuesday, February 21, 2006 - link
No, I'm with you Zebo. I can't wait for DDR2 on AMD's AM2. I'll be getting one of those 35w X2 3800+ CPUs and some phase change ;)BrownTown - Tuesday, February 21, 2006 - link
why the heck would anyone get phase change on a 35W CPU, thats complete freaking overkill. I hope its not because you intend to overclock it becasue then you will be sorely disapointed. How do you think AMD got it down to 35W? they replaced the current highspeed transistors with ones that sacrifice speed for power consumption. OF course with the FX-62 they have to go the other way and therefore get 125W, but great speed. Seeing as that only a 50% clock increase for more then 3x the power consumption. The new low power transistors will be low-voltage, low-power, and low-speed. Sorry, no free lunch, everything comes at a cost, and here its power for speed.Leonidas1 - Tuesday, February 21, 2006 - link
Haha, lower speed transistors, you think they would honestly engineer two versons? I highly doubt it, I don't know a lot about CPU's but my guess is that these low power chips are got the same way the turions are they are tested and binned for speed and voltage. The ones that work at lower voltages at high speeds become these special low wattage CPUs and the others become regulars. I dont know about overclocking but I would guess they would overclock better too. Just a guess because no one knows yet though.BrownTown - Wednesday, February 22, 2006 - link
its always interesting when people mock you and then follow it by saying "I don't know a lot about CPU's". But, you are right, they will do the same that they did with Turion. And what they did with Turion was to use differnet transistors than they did in the A64... Before making statements its best to confirm with Google, takes 10 seconds and make you not look like an idiot...ozzimark - Tuesday, February 21, 2006 - link
there are "fast" and "slow" transistors actually.. ;)Zebo - Tuesday, February 21, 2006 - link
Am I the only pne who can't wait for DDR2 to be supported by AMD on 6/6/6? Rumour has it unofficial DDR2-800 support - combined with A64 superior memcontroller 3-2-2 800 possible? I hope it's tested Wes.Googer - Wednesday, February 22, 2006 - link
Zebo, I think I am staying away form any RAM that has Satanic Memory Timings.As for the Socket AM2 Tomshardware has already benchmarked it.
http://www.tomshardware.com/2006/02/21/a_look_at_a...">http://www.tomshardware.com/2006/02/21/a_look_at_a...