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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NotoriousGIB - Wednesday, March 30, 2005 - link
Thanks for the great review & follow-up. I purchased 2GB of this stuff (based off your initial review), well 1GB, but the Egg rocks so hard they sent me 1GB free :) I'm having issues breaking 250FSB.Wesley, I was wondering what DRAM settings & Genie BIOS settings you are using in this comparison. I've tried a bunch of settings posted at DFI Street & Bleeding Edge, but to no avail. I'm also curious as to whether active cooling is being used on the memory. Anything past 3.2V on my OCZ VX RAM gives me errors.
NotoriousGIB - Wednesday, March 30, 2005 - link
ChineseDemocracyGNR - Wednesday, March 30, 2005 - link
#20, he wasn't talking specifically about this article.And he makes a point. AnandTech is lacking reviews for AMD PCI-E boards, so far there's only a 4-boards SLI roundup, an article for the DFI boards and reviews of pre-production Gigabyte boards. That's too little for a site like AnandTech and I have to say I'm a little disapointed.
Scott66 - Wednesday, March 30, 2005 - link
#10 The reason no other boards are reviewed in the article, as it plainly states, is they don't have enough memory voltage. The only way they can be used is with the OCZ voltage adapter. This would not be a comparable test though.L3p3rM355i4h - Wednesday, March 30, 2005 - link
TCCD isn't the holy grail of RAM anymore. Too bad you need a DDR booster or a DFI mobo to take advangtage though.Viper4185 - Wednesday, March 30, 2005 - link
Thanks for the reply guys, i'll check it out now :PSpacecomber - Wednesday, March 30, 2005 - link
When you run MemTest86, you'll notice in the upper left part of the screen that it gives you some information, including memory bandwidth numbers for the cache and the system memory. The system memory number is what AnandTech is looking at to determine if certain memory timing settings are increasing the memory bandwidth or not.Space
bigtoe36 - Wednesday, March 30, 2005 - link
#15 have a look at www.memtest86.org, download either the floppy version or thr cd ISO file and create the memtest disk. Set to boot from it.once running memtest you can press C then 9 for the advanced options, this will allow you to set memory timings from within memtest its self without the need to reboot.
you can also press c 9 then 5 for the advanced A64 memory options and tweak your ram even further.
All this is done before you load the OS so your HDD will not be at risk of data corruption.
Also the latest builds of the DFI bios files have memtest85 incorperated into them in genie bios so you don't have to compile a disk at all, just set enabled and the pc will boot to memtest on its own.
Viper4185 - Wednesday, March 30, 2005 - link
Sorry to be a n00b but are you saying that the memtest86+ program that fits on a floppy can actually tell me the best settings for my setup? If so how? As soon as i boot the computer and run it it just goes through all those 8 tests it does...Wesley Fink - Wednesday, March 30, 2005 - link
Ozzimark -We have been running Everest in our memory tests to start to build a database. We just weren't ready to introduce a new bench in this update.
I did notice a very interesting trend in Everest while testing these memories. The Read values were pretty close at the same speed, but VX had a significantly higher Write score than any other memory tested here. At DDR400 the write scores for TCCD were in the 2100 MB/s range where VX write was 2661. Ballistix scores were closer to VX than TCCD.