OCZ PC2-4200EB: Reaching for DDR2-800
by Wesley Fink on December 21, 2004 3:37 PM EST- Posted in
- Memory
1066FSB Performance: OCZ PC2-4200EB
OCZ is a well-known supplier of Enthusiast DDR memory. However, OCZ has not until now delivered the kind of "killer" product in DDR2 that is their trademark in DDR memory. OCZ tells us that this product, their PC2-4200EB, is the product that stands above the crowd.
Test DIMMs were a matched pair of double-sided 1024MB DDR2 DIMMs with platinum-colored heatspreaders. We would be surprised, but not astounded, by 512MB DDR2 DIMMs rated at 3-2-2-8, when the rest of the competition is at 3-3-3 or slower timings. However, these are 1GB DIMMs rated at 3-2-2-8, which is an incredible achievement. All performance tests were run with 2X1GB DIMMs.
OCZ also markets these same PC2-4200EB modules in a 1GB kit with 2x512MB single-sided DIMMs. Other testers have claimed that the single-sided 512MB DIMMs are even faster than the DS 1GB versions, but we did not find that in our tests. While we did test both SS and DS DIMMs, we did not find the single-sided to perform much differently than the double-sided modules. This makes the 1GB OCZ DDR2 DIMMs the first 1GB memory that we have tested - DDR or DDR2 - where the 1GB performance is as good as, or better than, any available 512MB module.
OCZ did not share the maker of the memory chips on the PC2-4200EB. They said that they were made for them by a major chip-maker, but the information was proprietary. The memory chips are BGA, so we weren't comfortable trying to remove the heatspreaders to check. We recently destroyed some BGA memory when we removed a heatspreader and these DDR2 chips were just too good to risk destroying them in order to report the memory chip maker. They behave like Micron chips in some benchmarking, but we cannot be certain of their origin. We will report more when we find out the memory chip maker.
Test Results: OCZ PC2-4200EB
The full suite of benchmark tests were run at all six benchmark speeds. This includes Quake3, Super PI, Sandra 2004 SP2 Memory Tests, and Return to Castle Wolfenstein-Enemy Territory. We also ran UT2003, Aquamark 3, and Comanche 4 at every memory speed to verify stability of the reported memory timings. All benchmarks and additional tests had to complete without incident for the memory settings to be considered stable.| OCZ PC2-4200EB (DDR2 533) - 2x1024Mb Double-Bank | ||||||
| Speed | Memory Timings & Voltage |
Quake3 fps |
Sandra UNBuffered | Sandra Standard Buffered |
RCW-ET Radar |
Super PI 2M places (time in sec) |
| 533DDR2 200x12 - 2.4GHz 800FSB |
3-2-2-8 1.80V |
402.4 | INT 2738 FLT 2812 |
INT 4754 FLT 4749 |
78.7 | 126 |
| 600DDR2 200x12 - 2.4GHz 800FSB |
3-2-2-8 1.85V |
404.4 | INT 2922 FLT 3007 |
INT 4917 FLT 4915 |
79.2 | 124 |
| 711DDR2 237x12 - 2.84G 948FSB |
4-2-2-8 2.05V |
480.0 | INT 3412 FLT 3529 |
INT 5742 FLT 5743 |
93.6 | 106 |
| 533DDR2 266x12 - 3.2GHz 1066FSB |
3-2-2-8 1.80V |
522.5 | INT 3015 FLT 3092 |
INT 5759 FLT 5755 |
102.3 | 98 |
| 711DDR2 266x12 - 3.2GHz 1066FSB |
4-2-2-8 2.05V |
529.6 | INT 3473 FLT 3604 |
INT 6129 FLT 6122 |
103.9 | 96 |
| 821DDR2 308x12 - 3.7GHz 1232FSB |
4-2-3-8 2.1V |
608.4 | INT 4013 FLT 4057 |
INT 7055 FLT 7048 |
119.8 | 84 |
What can you say about a memory that is rated at DDR2-533 and reaches a stable overclock of DDR2-821? That's an overclock of 54% - an unbelievable performance. To put this in perspective, we have been overwhelmed at the ability of some DDR400 rated Samsung TTCD to reach DDR580. That is an overclock of 180FSB and 45%. Perhaps that puts in perspective how remarkable this overclock of 288FSB and 54% really is!
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
22 Comments
View All Comments
MS - Tuesday, December 21, 2004 - link
JasonIt is certainly true that if you have a system backbone that is not capable of taking advantage of the peripherals it will put a little damper on the enthusiasm. On the other hand, don't blame the components for that.
One of the biggest issues is that the P4, no matter what you do cannot take advantage of latencies or bandwidth. The Prescott is a little better than the Northwood in that respect but it is still the bottleneck. Chances are that Intel finally will wake up and do something about this problem but maybe not. However, from the standpoint of a memory manufacturer, all we can do is try to provide THE very best solution and I firmly believe that we have done just that. Whether anybody wants it or not is a different story --- even though the latter could become our problem... :)
Wesley Fink - Tuesday, December 21, 2004 - link
#9 - We don't often mention exact price in a review because it is always changing and reviews are read and reread in the future. This is particularly true with memory. Right now, a 2x1GB kit is about $818. The 1GB kit with SS 512MB dimms is about $435.As we said in the review, this is expensive memory.
formulav8 - Tuesday, December 21, 2004 - link
This was most likely a HAND-Picked Dimm that OCZ sent to anandtech. Wait until there is real experiance with this memory to see if it is real or not.Jason
skunkbuster - Tuesday, December 21, 2004 - link
how much does this cost? i dont think i saw it mentioned in the reviewbcoupland - Tuesday, December 21, 2004 - link
What I find ironic with all this huge bandwidth on the 1066 fsb p4's, is that a S754 3700+ with 3.2 GB/s can still beat it in most tests, some more than others. Nice Ram, though.bigtoe36 - Tuesday, December 21, 2004 - link
GuysI haven't seen any other DDR2 clock as good as these dimms. Running 3-2-2- at DDR700+ is pretty impressive. Maybe we need to blame the boards or the cpu's for the lack of speed. Im sure if AMD moves to DDR2 running dimms at DDR700 3-2-2 would be pretty damned fast.
CBone - Tuesday, December 21, 2004 - link
How did the other sticks do in the 1066 FSB bench? I'm going to guess that if there was a difference, it was so slight as to be negligible.It seems that everyone is waiting for the great white hope in DDR2, but manufacturers are delivering the great white hype. So far it looks like ALL DDR2 performs and overclocks about the same so you should buy as cheap as you can and not bother getting the overpriced Corsair or OCZ.
formulav8 - Tuesday, December 21, 2004 - link
Was it mainly just for the oc or the lower timings? I guess if for ocing it is nice. But for timings it is worthless?? That is what I was trying to understand with my above post.Jason
formulav8 - Tuesday, December 21, 2004 - link
Unless I was looking at the wrong numbers, this memory is worthless. There was NOT EVEN 1% increase in performance? It increased the points in some benches but by a wopping 0.5%-0.9% on average???I am not sure why this review is so excited about this memory??
You get a much higher performance increase with DDR1 at low timings compared to high timings. Up to 4-5% increase in almost every bench.
Did I compare the wrong numbers or something??
Jason
Icehawk - Tuesday, December 21, 2004 - link
I'm very impressed that they got dual channel 1gb sticks working so well in DDR2 - wish they could do the same for DDR :( A64 + 2gb DC would be nice...