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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Wesley Fink - Wednesday, March 30, 2005 - link
#9 - We reran everything in this review and took nothing for granted. Both results are the result of memtest86 on different BIOS, and a different pair of Platinum Rev. 3. I would guess the later BIOS is the difference. You can easily run the test yourself to check for best bandwidth, but 6 is the recomendation with this setup.#12 & #13 - You forgot that MSI won our nF3 Gold award and was our nF3 board of choice. The MSI also shared as the nF4 winner. With so many brands being pimped, it's hard to keep up :) We like the best performance - regardless of brand.
xsilver - Wednesday, March 30, 2005 - link
"anandtech is the biggest dfi propaganda site on the web"I noticed that too.... but is it possibly due to the fact that their nf4 board is so much better than everybody else's??
just like this memory is suprisingly better than the competition
I guess what they are saying may be you are crazy to buy anything else for the same price.... however not everybody can affor a dfi nf4, 6800ultra sli + 1gb ocz vx memory
arswihart - Wednesday, March 30, 2005 - link
i should say, before they were the biggest asus propaganda site, but tons of early problems with the sli have quieted them latelyarswihart - Wednesday, March 30, 2005 - link
anandtech is the biggest dfi propaganda site on the web, where's the attention to all the other nf4 boards?bigtoe36 - Wednesday, March 30, 2005 - link
#6 there is always value VX if you don't want the warranty to 250fsb etc, you pays your money you take your choice.PhoenixOrion - Wednesday, March 30, 2005 - link
what kind of cooling on the cpu for the test config?Viper4185 - Wednesday, March 30, 2005 - link
Nice follow up article but there has to be a mistake somewhere on this page...http://www.anandtech.com/memory/showdoc.aspx?i=238...
First you say this...
"In the SLI roundup, we found a tRAS of 7 to be ideal for memory based on Samsung TCCD chips."
Then...
Therefore, a tRAS setting of 6 was used for testing wherever possible.
I refer you to this article...
http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?...
It says 7 here??? So which is best 6 or 7?
Lonyo - Wednesday, March 30, 2005 - link
It would be nice to see some overall overclocking performances, using the FX-55 to see what the highest overclock you can gain is (obviously concentrating on the top memories).ie: If the VX was using with an overclocked FX55, how would it compare at max speed other RAM and the same CPU?
Zebo - Wednesday, March 30, 2005 - link
Getting late I stutterd while typing.Zebo - Wednesday, March 30, 2005 - link
Waste money on a hyped brand name? Or save $100 or Save $100 with "Twinmos speed premium"... Your choice and google is your friend:)