=<em>F-A-S-T</em>= DDR Memory: 2-2-2 Roars on the Scene
by Wesley Fink on August 5, 2004 12:05 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. We have included results for RCW-ET using the Radar benchmark.| Crucial PC3200 Ballistix (DDR400) - 2 x 512Mb Double-Bank | ||||||
| Speed | Memory Timings & Voltage | Quake3 fps | Sandra UNBuffered | Sandra Standard Buffered | Super PI 2M places (time in sec) |
Wolfenstein - Radar - Enemy Territory fps |
| 400DDR 800FSB |
2-2-2-5 2.5V |
329.6 | INT 2906 FLT 2919 |
INT 4511 FLT 4511 |
129 | 70.5 |
| 433DDR 866FSB |
2-2-2-5 2.65V |
358.7 | INT 3167 FLT 3193 |
INT 4923 FLT 4917 |
119 | 76.7 |
| 466DDR 933FSB |
2.5-2-2-5 2.65V |
384.3 | INT 3287 FLT 3332 |
INT 5237 FLT 5251 |
111 | 82.4 |
| 500DDR 1000FSB |
2.5-2-2-5 2.65V |
410.2 | INT 3481 FLT 3557 |
INT 5623 FLT 5638 |
104 | 88.4 |
| 514DDR 1028FSB |
2.5-2-2-5 2.85V |
419.3 | INT 3600 FLT 3638 |
INT 5752 FLT 5779 |
100 | 90.7 |
It wasn't even a year ago that we considered 3-4-4 timings to be pretty good at DDR500, so what can we say about Crucial's Ballistix that does DDR500 at 2.5-2-2-5? The only word that comes to mind is "astounding"! Crucial is the only memory in the DDR400 2-2-2 roundup using Micron chips, and the performance across the effective range of DDR400 to DDR514 is incredible. Even the highest speed of 514 is achieved at 2.5-2-2-5 timings. What's more, nothing even came close to the 2-2-2 headroom of the Crucial Ballistix, as 2-2-2 timings were possible all the way to DDR460!
It is very interesting that the Micron chips do not really respond well to higher timings, and that is not necessarily a bad thing. Seeing how these Micron chips perform, we understand why OCZ EB, based on the same family Micron chips, performs so well. We have seen reports of some variability in the performance of the Ballistix memory, and overclocking results are never guaranteed. However, our results with another pair of Ballistix DIMMs were very similar.
It looks like Crucial has a winner with their new Ballistix PC3200. What's more, Ballistix 3200 is also one of the more reasonable DDR400 memories in the roundup, which spells value in capital letters.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
47 Comments
View All Comments
Wesley Fink - Thursday, August 5, 2004 - link
#26 - DDR460 2-2-2 at 2.75V according to my review notesbabyelf - Thursday, August 5, 2004 - link
HiIt's said that the crucial did 2-2-2 up till DDR460. At what voltage is that?
DreamInBlue - Thursday, August 5, 2004 - link
crucial has always been highly overclockable. my regular cas3 ddr400 crucial does cas 2.5 at 250fsb.bigtoe33 - Thursday, August 5, 2004 - link
vie2233hilYou quoting performance series and not Platinum rev2
Platinum rev2 uses TCCD and was used for this roundup.
vie2233hil - Thursday, August 5, 2004 - link
OCZ would like to to announce a revision change in our PC-3200 Performance Series line of memory. PC-3200 Revision 2 has been discontinued and replaced by OCZ PC-3200 Revision 3 DDR.OCZ PC-3200 Revision 3 DDR is specified for CL2-3-3-6 timings on Intel-based systems and CL2.5-3-3-6 timings on AMD based systems. The lifetime warranty of existing PC-3200 Revision 2 modules will not be invalidated by this change.
Pumpkinierre - Thursday, August 5, 2004 - link
Nice article, nice charts and nice memory. With all the extra work from the new components let's hope you're still having fun, Wesley. Keep the i875 going. I'm not sure about the nf3 if the tRAS has to be set to >10. Any chance OCZ might be releasing a CAS2 DDR500 in the near future with that new batch of Samsung chips?Potem - Thursday, August 5, 2004 - link
#19 - From page 9: "We have seen reports of some variability in the performance of the Ballistix memory, and overclocking results are never guaranteed. However, our results with another pair of Ballistix DIMMs were very similar."JustAnAverageGuy - Thursday, August 5, 2004 - link
#18As long as it is a reputable vender, quantity is often better than quality. :)
i.e. 256MB of 3500 level 2 mushkin extreme blah blah is probably going to perform worse than 1GB of corsair value ram.
Lazzydog - Thursday, August 5, 2004 - link
Wesley you have still yet to comment on the question of whether or not the crucial sticks were cherry picked or not. I know in a lot of reviews you try and get your products as anonymously as possible is this true with the crucial ram or not? If not these could hardly be indicative of ram that the rest of us could get and should be known for people who plan on purchasing ballistix ram.GabeyD - Thursday, August 5, 2004 - link
Is there a comparison anywhare of "Value" memory against this high end, high $ stuff. For example, I cag get 1G of Coorsair Value for $180 and the lest expensive high end memory is about $280, a $100 difference. How much real performance is this $100 getting me?