OCZ VX Revisited: DDR Updates on DFI nForce4
by Wesley Fink on March 30, 2005 12:05 AM EST- Posted in
- Memory
Test Results: Crucial Ballistix PC3200
Crucial gets a new lease on life on the DFI nForce4 motherboards with memory performance that blows past our previous results with Ballistix on A64.| Crucial PC3200 Ballistix (DDR400) - 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 | 400DDR | 2-2-2-6 3.0V 1T |
547.8 | INT 2922 FLT 3067 |
INT 6112 FLT 6060 |
80 | 115.2 |
| 11x218 | 436DDR | 2-2-2-6 3.1V 1T |
550.2 | INT 3037 FLT 3210 |
INT 6538 FLT 6462 |
80 | 115.6 |
| 10x240 | 480DDR | 2.5-2-2-6 3.2V 1T |
562.3 | INT 3131 FLT 3333 |
INT 6792 FLT 6712 |
79 | 117.0 |
| 9x267 | 533DDR | 2.5-3-3-6 2.8V 1T |
559.8 | INT 3220 FLT 3473 |
INT 7043 FLT 6959 |
79 | 116.9 |
| 10x280 (2.8 GHz) |
Highest CPU/Mem Performance | 2.5-3-3-6 2.9V 1T |
633.7 | INT 3532 FLT 3754 |
INT 7798 FLT 7738 |
71 | 133.8 |
We were able to reach stable memory speeds in the 295 to 300 CPU speed range (DDR590 to DDR600) at slower timings, but the best combination of Memory Speed/CPU Speed/Performance was achieved at 10x280. At 10x280 (2.8GHz) and the still excellent timings of 2.5-3-3-6, Crucial Ballistix turns in performance equivalent to VX at 10x267 2-2-2-6. There is no doubt that the Athlon 64 platform can be a very good match to Crucial Ballistix. When price is considered, Ballistix is still a very attractive choice on the latest nForce4 platforms. It is also interesting that as a memory chip, the Micron chips used in Ballistix are very close in performance to the Winbond chips used in VX at the same timings and speed.
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AnnihilatorX - Wednesday, March 30, 2005 - link
This memory rocks. Can someone please do me a favour of buying this memory for me from newegg, ship it to me (UK/HK) and I'll pay him cost + postage + a bit extra via paypal. Thanks very much. It's a bit annoying since you cannot buy this ram from HK. No suppliers.Just e-mail me at annihilator@x-annihilation.com
Thanks again
ozzimark - Wednesday, March 30, 2005 - link
*notes that it's 245mhz at 2.5-2-2-10ozzimark - Wednesday, March 30, 2005 - link
#28my ballistix can go to 245mhz with 2.7v before my memory controller starts hating me and having some serious stability issues. though they seem to scale nicely with voltage, i can't really test it out, because even at 3-4-4-10 with 2T, i can't get over 250mhz.
n yusef - Wednesday, March 30, 2005 - link
AnandTech should do a review of the TwinMOS UTT chips that cost $150 less than the VX. I bought VX before I heard about the TwinMOS stuff, but my friend is doing 2-2-2-6 at 255MHz with 3.4 volts at 1:1. My VX can do 260MHz, but I would give 5MHz RAM/FSB bandwidth and 50MHz core for $150 any day.JoKeRr - Wednesday, March 30, 2005 - link
one more thing, I've heard from many ppl that they're running their BH5 sticks (2x512) to 250 2-2-2-5 with like 3.1 to 3.2V, if u still do have some old BH5, would it be possible to lay a show down between bh5 and VX?? I think I saw a guy on xtremeresouce /or maybe system doing ddr293 with 4V with mushkin BH5 at 2-2-2-5 timing, that's crazy.JoKeRr - Wednesday, March 30, 2005 - link
How does the Ballistix react to voltage?? I've heard that Tccd doesn't react very well, but the old EB stuff could do 2.5-2-2-5 at ddr500 once u give it 3.1V. Could you plz try that and see how the Ballistix scale with voltage plz?? thankQ in advance.JoKeRr - Wednesday, March 30, 2005 - link
Rapsven - Wednesday, March 30, 2005 - link
23-If you are trying to get 2 gigabytes to do those speeds in tandem with the CPU, you'll have problems. Try using the regular 2*512 instead of 4*512 and see you can hit 250 fsb at 2-2-2.
Or ask the OCZ guys, they're very helpful.
ozzimark - Wednesday, March 30, 2005 - link
hmm, my bad, the [img] tags don't work here. just copy and paste that link :)and since it seems that some posts have been deleted, my above comment is in response to #13
ozzimark - Wednesday, March 30, 2005 - link
#14-that's quite interesting. maybe the spd's on the ram sticks are changing important values other than the cas, trcd, trp? i know that there are a lot of values that effect ram performance other than those three. i actually went through most of them on the dfi board, and found that lower isn't always better, similar to tras. though with that you said, i may have to go through and re-tweak my setup with the write benchmark in mind too. i never really gave it much thought assuming that it would scale similarily to read bandwidth.
also, i noticed some inconsistancies at various multipliers. i tested at two speeds, 230mhz (near the limit of my memory controller) at 2.5-2-2-10, and 200mhz at 2-2-2-10. (i use 2x512mb of crucial ballistix)
the only thing changed between runs is the cpu mutliplier. the ram is 1:1, and everything else remains constant.
[img]http://www.freewebs.com/cfeclipse/latency.PNG[/img]