Portal 2

A stalwart of the Source engine, Portal 2 is the big hit of 2011 following on from the original award-winning Portal.  In our testing suite, Portal 2 performance should be indicative of CS:GO performance to a certain extent.  Here we test Portal 2 at 1920x1080 with High/Very High graphical settings.

Portal 2 IGP, 1920x1080, Very High, 8xMSAA

Portal 2, like Dirt3, seems to find something else the limiting factor other than memory fairly quickly.  On our 2400 C11 kit we are within 0.05 fps of the peak frame rate on the IGP.

Batman Arkham Asylum

Made in 2009, Batman:AA uses the Unreal Engine 3 to create what was called “the Most Critically Acclaimed Superhero Game Ever”, awarded in the Guinness World Record books with an average score of 91.67 from reviewers.  The game boasts several awards including a BAFTA.  Here we use the in-game benchmark while at the lowest specification settings without PhysX at 1920x1080.  Results are reported to the nearest FPS, and as such we take 4 runs and take the average value of the final three, as the first result is sometimes +33% more than normal.

Batman: AA IGP, 1920x1080, Ultra Low

As we saw in our memory overview, Batman:AA seems to love memory boosts when playing on IGP, and using our 2400 C11 kit puts frame rates right up there with our top performing kits.

Overall IGP

Taking all our IGP results gives us the following graph:

We see a distinct dichotomy in our testing.  In some tests (Metro, Civilization, Dirt3) despite having the high MHz modules, the low command rate number makes the 2400 C11 kit act more like the 1866 C9 kit.  In contrast, Portal 2 and Batman: AA seem to prefer the high MHz over the lower CL, and the kit performs more like the 2133 C9 and 2400 C10 kits.

Gaming Tests: Metro 2033, Civilization V, Dirt 3 Throughput Testing
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  • mmstick - Saturday, October 27, 2012 - link

    Actually, yes you can tell the difference depending on the applications you run. In fact, the distributed OpenCL GPU computing projects I use over at BOINC, the biological research, requires extreme frequencies. The higher the processor frequency, the higher your GPU load and ability to install more GPUs for the project becomes. If I run my RAM at 1333Mhz with my 7950, I need to run 8 work units in order to get that memory to get 80% efficiency. After overclocking my RAM to 1800Mhz I was able to get the efficiency up to 95%. With faster memory, I could run less work units, and install a second graphics cards, although I would likely need 2133Mhz quad channel memory in order to saturate two 7950s in the HCC project. In POEM, I would actually need 4266Mhz quad channel DDR3 in order to saturate a single 7950 more than likely.

    Another scenario is AMD APUs, where FPS almost scales linearly based on RAM frequency because it uses system RAM as VRAM. GPUs are very memory intense, which is why GPUs have 256-384 bit memory interfaces. With an APU, the GPU on the die is restricted to the lame 64 bit memory interface we have with our system RAM.

    RAM kits like these are sold to people who need them, if you don't need them, buy the lower frequency RAM.
  • mmstick - Saturday, October 27, 2012 - link

    "The higher the processor frequency" I meant "The higher the memory frequency"
  • mmstick - Saturday, October 27, 2012 - link

    "to get that memory to 80%" should be "to get GPU utilization to 80%"
  • Impulses - Thursday, October 25, 2012 - link

    What's with the cost analysis of all these high speed $150 kits? Would you actually shell out that amount of money for a run of the mill gaming/enthusiast system when there's a ton of 1600 4x4GB or even 2x8GB kits on Newegg selling for $75-85?

    I've wishlisted like half a dozen G.Skill kits within that range AND with blue spreaders specifically... If I width the search there's tons more obviously, just hoping one of those goes on sale during Thanksgiving for like $50-60, even tho I'm in no dire need to upgrade from 8GB.

    (and yeah, looking at blue purely for aesthetic reasons obviously!)
  • mmstick - Saturday, October 27, 2012 - link

    I would because it would cut my research rate in half. I run OpenCL GPU projects on my systems, where if I had 2400Mhz memory I could output twice as many work units with my graphics cards per day in Help Conquer Cancer.
  • n0x1ous - Thursday, October 25, 2012 - link

    Green PCB? Really? Yuk

    Black or Nothing
  • bigboxes - Thursday, October 25, 2012 - link

    Do you ever look at your ram once you install it?
  • JonnyDough - Friday, October 26, 2012 - link

    That's how I feel. I used to care about the color of my computer case, etc but I realized that its more about longevity and ease of installation for me. It's nice to go with a color theme, but the extra cost each time I upgrade just isn't worth it. So now that I've matured a bit I've decided on mostly black boxes and hardware as its plentiful and price competitive.
  • saturn85 - Thursday, October 25, 2012 - link

    how about adding a folding on cpu benchmark?
  • valnar - Friday, October 26, 2012 - link

    Memory companies will continue to put out insanely spec'ed pieces so they get reviewed by Hardware sites, because it's the only way to get their name out there. Otherwise, memory as a whole is a pretty boring component. Why else do they also need to have interesting names and brightly colored heatsinks? Marketing at its best (or is it worst?)

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