Memory Scaling on Haswell CPU, IGP and dGPU: DDR3-1333 to DDR3-3000 Tested with G.Skill
by Ian Cutress on September 26, 2013 4:00 PM ESTOur final set of tests are a little more on the esoteric side, using a tri-GPU setup with a HD5970 (dual GPU) and a HD5870 in tandem. While these cards are not necessarily the newest, they do provide some interesting results – particularly when we have memory accesses being diverted to multiple GPUs (or even to multiple GPUs on the same PCB). The 5970 GPUs are clocked at 800/1000, with the 5870 at 1000/1250.
Dirt 3: Average FPS
It is pretty clear that memory has an effect: +13% moving from 1333 C9 to 2133 C9/2400 C10. In fact, that 1333 C9 seems to be more of a sink than anything else – above 2133 MHz memory the performance benefits are minor at best. It all depends if 186.53 FPS is too low for you and you need 200+.
Dirt 3: Minimum FPS
We see a similar trend in minimum FPS for Dirt3: 1333 C9 is a sink, but moving to 2133 C9/2400 C10 gives at least a 20% jump in minimum frame rates.
Bioshock Infinite: Average FPS
While differences in Bioshock Infinite Minimum FPS are minor at best, 1333 MHz and 1600 C10/C11 are certainly at the lower end. Anything 1866 MHz or 2133 MHz seems to be the best bet here, especially in our case if we wanted to push for 120 FPS gaming.
Bioshock Infinite: Minimum FPS
Similar to Bioshock on IGP, minimum frame rates across the board seem to be very low, with minor differences giving large % rises.
Tomb Raider: Average FPS
Tomb Raider remains resilient to change across our benchmarks, with 1 FPS difference between the top and bottom average FPS results in our tri-GPU setup.
Tomb Raider: Minimum FPS
With our tri-GPU setup being a little odd (two GPUs on one PCB), Tomb Raider cannot seem to find much consistency for minimum frame rates, showing up to a 15% difference when compared to our 1600 C10 result which seems to be a lot lower than the rest.
Sleeping Dogs: Average FPS
Similar to other results, 1333 and 1600 MHz results give lower frame rates, along with the slower 1866 MHz C10/C11 options. Anything 2133 MHz and above gives up to 8% more performance than 1333 C9.
Sleeping Dogs: Minimum FPS:
Minimum frame rates are a little random in our setup, except for one constant – 1333 MHz memory does not perform. Everything beyond that seems to be at the whim of statistical variance.
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Nagorak - Thursday, September 26, 2013 - link
Why did memory prices fluctuate so much since the end of last year and now? The Hynix fire looks to have next to no impact, but the price of memory has nearly doubled since last November/December.aryonoco - Thursday, September 26, 2013 - link
Ian, I do not want to disparage your work, please take this as nothing but constructive criticism. You do amazing work and the wealth of technical expertise is very clear in your articles.But you have a terrible writing style. There are so many sentences in your articles that while technically grammatically correct, are the most awkward ways of saying what you mean. Take a very simple sentence: "In terms of real world usage, on our Haswell platform, there are some recommendations to be made." There are so many ways, much simpler, much cleaner, much shorter to say what you said in that sentence.
I really struggle with your writing style. I know journalism isn't really your day job and you have a lot of important things to attend to, but please, if you care about this side job of yours as a technical writer, being technical is only half the story. Please consider improving your writing style to make it more readable.
Bob Todd - Friday, September 27, 2013 - link
I'd wager most of the readers didn't struggle as mightily as you. If you want to critique another's wordsmithery, you might want to find a classier way to do it. Our first exhibit will be sentence one of paragraph two. Surely you could have strung together a couple of words that got your point across without sounding like an ass?Impulses - Friday, September 27, 2013 - link
Yeah, I'm pretty sure that starting a sentence with a But is something you'd typically avoid...Dustin Sklavos - Friday, September 27, 2013 - link
"You have a terrible writing style."Constructive!
How would you like it if someone came to your place of business and told you "Look, I don't mean to disparage your work, but it makes my cat's hair fall out in clumps."
ingwe - Friday, September 27, 2013 - link
Yep. This definitely wasn't constructive.Ian, I don't see anything wrong with your writing, and I would rather you concentrate on getting articles out than on spending lots of extra time on editing your work.
jaded1592 - Sunday, September 29, 2013 - link
Your first sentence is grammatically incorrect. Stones and glass houses...Sivar - Thursday, September 26, 2013 - link
What a great article. Tons of actual data, and the numerous charts weren't stupidly saved as JPG. I love Anandtech.soccerballtux - Thursday, September 26, 2013 - link
so bandwidth starved apps with predictable data requests (h264 p1) really like it but when the CPU has enough data to crunch (winrar) the lower real-world latency time in seconds is worth having.gandergray - Thursday, September 26, 2013 - link
Ian: Thank you for the excellent article. You provide in depth and thorough analysis. Your article will undoubtedly serve as a frequently referenced guide.