Test Results: OCZ PC3200 Platinum Rev. 2

To be considered stable for test purposes, Quake3 benchmark, UT2003 Demo, Super PI, Aquamark 3, and RTCW had to complete without incident. Any of these, and in particular Super PI and Return to Castle Wolfenstein, will crash a less-than stable memory configuration.

OCZ PC3200 Platinum Rev. 2 (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
2.6V 1T
549.5 INT 2850
FLT 3045
INT 6066
FLT 6034
80 114.9
11x218 436DDR 2-3-2-6
2.8V 1T
546.3 INT 2893
FLT 3065
INT 6452
FLT 6385
81 114.3
10x240 480DDR 2.5-3-3-6
2.8V 1T
550.2 INT 3016
FLT 3231
INT 6709
FLT 6631
80 115.1
9x267 533DDR 2.5-4-3-6
2.9V 1T
554.6 INT 3101
FLT 3331
INT 7026
FLT 6940
80 116.0
9x318
(2.86 GHz)
Highest CPU/Mem Performance 2.5-4-3-7
2.9V 1T
649.0 INT 3562
FLT 3752
INT 7828
FLT 7739
72 136.4

The OCZ PC3200 Platinum Rev. 2 was the only memory to achieve its best performance at a 9 ratio - reaching DDR636 in our DFI test bed. This was achieved at the more desirable 1T Command Rate. This level of performance is outstanding, but it is definitely worth noting that OCZ TCCD at DDR636 2.5-4-3-7 performance is roughly equivalent to OCZ VX Gold at 10x267 2-2-2-6. This is particularly interesting, since the CPU speed at 318x9 is 2.86GHz compared to 2.67GHz at 267x10.

OCZ PC3200 Platinum Rev.2 performs very well as the representative of fast TCCD memory. We checked results with G. Skill TCCD and achieved close to the same performance as OCZ with stable performance at DDR630 (315). This represents the kinds of normal variations that you will find in top-performing memory at the highest performance levels.

As impressive as DDR636 sounds, fast memory timings and a fast memory chip can offset both a higher memory speed and a slightly higher CPU speed. The best TCCD can perform just as well as VX, but it required DDR636 and a 119 MHz faster speed to match OCZ VX at 2-2-2-6 timings.

Test Results: Crucial Ballistix PC3200 Performance Comparisons
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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 lately
  • arswihart - 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:)

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