AMD Test Results: OCZ PC3700 Gold Rev. 3

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 3700 Gold Rev. 3 (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 2-3-3-10
2.5V
503.3 INT 2577
FLT 2673
INT 6063
FLT 6014
82 109.0
11.5x209 400.4* 2-3-3-10
2.6V
500.4 INT 2506
FLT 2660
INT 6023
FLT 5982
82 108.2
11x218 438 DDR 2-3-3-10
2.8V
510.0 INT 2687
FLT 2845
INT 6413
FLT 6350
81 109.8
10.5x229 437.2* 2.5-3-3-10
2.6V
506.5 INT 2639
FLT 2801
INT 6435
FLT 6343
81 109.5
10x240 480 DDR 2.5-3-3-10
2.6V
517.6 INT 2814
FLT 2985
INT 6659
FLT 6551
80 111.2
9.5x253 480.6* 2.5-3-3-10
2.6V
519.7 INT 2866
FLT 3020
INT 6662
FLT 6584
80 111.5
9x267 533 DDR 3-3-3-10
2.7V
524.9 INT 3013
FLT 3234
INT 6959
FLT 6871
79 112.5
8.5x282 533* 3-3-3-10
2.75V
524.9 INT 3036
FLT 3218
INT 6926
FLT 6838
79 112.5
8.5x290
(2.46GHz)
HIGHEST
548* DDR
3-3-3-10
2.85V
539.6 INT 3112
FLT 3310
INT 7130
FLT 7044
78 115.5
9x273
(2.46GHz)
HIGHEST
546 DDR
3-3-3-10
2.85V
536.2 INT 3071
FLT 3298
INT 7110
FLT 7002
77 115.1

*During testing, we discovered that while half-ratios do reflect CPU settings accurately, they are not really linear for memory speed. Memory speeds at full ratios are reported accurately. The asterisk values are the actual memory speeds at half ratios - not the reported memory speeds. Special thanks to Oskar Wu of DFI for his help in determining true half ratio memory speeds.

We have become accustomed to memory often reaching much lower overclocks on Athlon 64 than what we have found on the Intel 478 platform. It was, therefore, a pleasant surprise to find the OCZ 3700 Gold Rev. 3 actually performing slightly faster on the Athlon 64 Dual Channel 939 board than what we found on the Intel platform. OCZ claims that the 3700 Gold Rev. 3 performs equally well on A64 and Northwood/Prescott, and we were certainly able to confirm that claim in our memory tests.

AMD Performance Test Configuration Final Words
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  • Rags - Thursday, September 30, 2004 - link

    I was debating between this and the Crucial Ballistix 3200 for my new machine. Which you guys think I should go with? Hope the October high end buyer's guide comes out soon...
  • KrazyDawg - Sunday, September 26, 2004 - link

    Can someone recommend me a cheap pair of 1GB RAM capable of running at 250? The charts on here aren't clear as to exactly what module I should purchase. If I were to cross reference it with newegg, you would see different names and prices and that doesn't help me. The deal time search engine on here only shows some memory prices and they're only for 512MB.
  • Pumpkinierre - Saturday, September 25, 2004 - link

    Why does the dual channel a64 have a lower unbuffered Sandra score than the intel when its buffered score is clearly much higher (up to 40% higher). SSE2 implementation on K8 was supposed to be not all that good from early reviews, so you'd expect a worse buffered result. Maybe the real world meaning of these tests should be revisited for the different cpus.


  • Anemone - Wednesday, September 22, 2004 - link

    Well the Ballistix 4000 is cheaper so that makes it a "better buy" in terms of price. It certainly clocks fairly high in the tests, and at rather tight timings. The 3700 EB while rated 3700 vs the 4000 seems to clock quite high but at looser timings. I have, maybe just due to people talking about the newer 4000, been reading more high clock success stories (A64's) with the 4000 than I have read about the 3700EB. Maybe OCZ will grace us with 4000EB or 4200EB? Maybe but probably they would have if they could have.

    Anand will clear us all up soon with some kind of a grand review of memories on the A64 I hope. This article did have that new A64 testbed up and running so there is hope!

    Right now a tie between the 4000 cheaper but slightly lower clocks but always seems to clock that well vs the 3700EB which is more expensive and seems to "usually" get a higher possible clock at looser timings than the 4000.

    Thus, a tie.
  • saechaka - Wednesday, September 22, 2004 - link

    so which would be the better buy right now for an abit AI7 the crucial ballistix or ocx 3700 eb? thanks
  • OCedHrt - Wednesday, September 22, 2004 - link

    Oops! Wow blank post. Anyways, doesn't the Crucial Ballistix already cost less? Crucial sells their 512 PC4000 stick at 144.99.
  • OCedHrt - Wednesday, September 22, 2004 - link

  • ciwell - Wednesday, September 22, 2004 - link

    Wondering the same thing as #2...

    Can't wait for a "Value" RAM Roundup.
  • Anemone - Wednesday, September 22, 2004 - link

    It has become rather important since am building a system now to see that Athlon 64 memory review you've mentioned was coming :)

    3700EB is the old standby but it seems that like this 3700, and the Ballistix 4000, there are some memories out lately that do particularly well at 500-550 speeds on the A64's.

    As always this article was a very good read and I learned yet another memory of interest.

    Now I'd like to see them all layed out and compared so I can refine my choices to go with a nice FX-55 :)

    Ty!
  • mkruer - Wednesday, September 22, 2004 - link

    I want to know if its better to get one gig of "cheep" 2.5,3,3,7 DDR400 (2x512) ram vs a smaller (2x256) of high prefromance DDR533 with ram.

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