As mentioned previously, real world testing is where users should be feeling the benefits of spending up to 13x on memory, rather than a synthetic test.  A synthetic test exacerbates a specific type of loading to get peak results in terms of memory read/write and latency timings, most of which are not indicative of the pseudo random nature of real-world workloads (opening email, applying logic).  There are several situations which might fall under the typical scrutiny of a real world loading, such as video conversion/video editing.  It is at this point we consider if the CPU caches are too small and the system is relying on frequent memory accesses because the CPU cannot be fed with enough data.  It is these circumstances where memory speed is important, and it is all down to how the video converter is programmed rather than just a carte blanche on all video converters benefitting from memory.  As we will see in the IGP Compute section of this review, anything that can leverage the IGP cores can be a ripe candidate for increased memory speed.

Our tests in the CPU Real World section come from our motherboard reviews in order to emulate potential scenarios that a user may encounter.

USB 3.0 Copy Test with MaxCPU

We transfer a set size of files from the 120GB OCZ Vertex3 connected via SATA 6 Gbps on the motherboard to the 240 GB OCZ Vertex3 SSD with a SATA 6 Gbps to USB 3.0 converter via USB 3.0 using DiskBench, which monitors the time taken to transfer.  The files transferred are a 9.2 GB set of 7539 files across 1011 folders – 95% of these files are small typical website files, and the rest (90% of the size) are precompiled installers.  In an update to pre-Z87 testing, we also run MaxCPU to load up one of the threads during the test which improves general performance up to 15% by causing all the internal pathways to run at full speed.

Results are represented as seconds taken to complete the copy test, where lower is better.

The difference between the slowest and the fastest is around 2%, or 1 second in our test, making the memory have little influence over intended USB speed (at load).

WinRAR 4.2

With 64-bit WinRAR, we compress the set of files used in the motherboard review USB speed tests.  WinRAR x64 3.93 attempts to use multithreading when possible, and provides as a good test for when a system has variable threaded load.  WinRAR 4.2 does this a lot better!  If a system has multiple speeds to invoke at different loading, the switching between those speeds will determine how well the system will do.

Up first, WinRAR 3.93, with results expressed in terms of seconds to compress.  Lower is better.

Using the older version of WinRAR shows a 31% advantage moving from 1333 C9 to 3000 C12, although 2400 C9/2666 C10/2800 C11 have a good showing.

WinRAR 4.2 results next:

We see similar results with the later version of WinRAR – here having at least 1866 MHz memory gets above the grade in terms of time, lower CAS Latency helping (1866 C8 / 2133 C9 / 2400 C9 / 2666 C11)

FastStone Image Viewer 4.2

FastStone Image Viewer is a free piece of software I have been using for quite a few years now.  It allows quick viewing of flat images, as well as resizing, changing color depth, adding simple text or simple filters.  It also has a bulk image conversion tool, which we use here.  The software currently operates only in single-thread mode, which should change in later versions of the software.  For this test, we convert a series of 170 files, of various resolutions, dimensions and types (of a total size of 163MB), all to the .gif format of 640x480 dimensions.  Results shown are in seconds, lower is better.

FastStone is purely a CPU limited benchmark, with little variation and no trend in the results.  Discrepancies are part of the statistical variation expected with any result.

Xilisoft Video Converter 7

With XVC, users can convert any type of normal video to any compatible format for smartphones, tablets and other devices.  By default, it uses all available threads on the system, and in the presence of appropriate graphics cards, can utilize CUDA for NVIDIA GPUs as well as AMD WinAPP for AMD GPUs.  For this test, we use a set of 33 HD videos, each lasting 30 seconds, and convert them from 1080p to an iPod H.264 video format using just the CPU.  The time taken to convert these videos gives us our result in seconds, where lower is better.

Similar to WinRAR, to avoid the ultra-slow speeds, anything above 1866 MHz seems to be the right way to go here.

Video Conversion - x264 HD Benchmark

The x264 HD Benchmark uses a common HD encoding tool to process an HD MPEG2 source at 1280x720 at 3963 Kbps.  This test represents a standardized result which can be compared across other reviews, and is dependent on both CPU power and memory speed.  The benchmark performs a 2-pass encode, and the results shown are the average frame rate of each pass performed four times.  Higher is better this time around.

The higher frequency memory performs the best, but to get at least 5% speed up, DDR3-1866 comes along again.

For whatever reason the 1333 C9 and 3000 C12 get a bad showing, but it seems as long as we avoid 1333 C9, any speed is reasonable for a 5-6% increase.

TrueCrypt v7.1a AES

One of Anand’s common CPU benchmarks is TrueCrypt, a tool designed to encrypt data on a hard-drive using a variety of algorithms.  We take the program and run the benchmark mode using the fastest AES encryption protocol over a 1GB slice, calculating the speed in GB/s.  Higher is better.

Similar to FastStone, there is nothing to differentiate the results.  The only oddball here is technically our slowest memory speed: 1333 C9.

Enabling XMP with ASUS, GIGABYTE, ASRock and MSI on Z87 Memory Scaling on Haswell: CPU Compute
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  • MrSpadge - Thursday, September 26, 2013 - link

    Is your HDD scratching because you're running out of RAM? Then an upgrade is worth it, otherwise not.
  • nevertell - Thursday, September 26, 2013 - link

    Why does going from 2933 to 3000, with the same latencies, automatically make the system run slower on almost all of the benchmarks ? Is it because of the ratio between cpu, base and memory clock frequencies ?
  • IanCutress - Thursday, September 26, 2013 - link

    Moving to the 3000 MHz setting doesn't actually move to the 3000 MHz strap - it puts it on 2933 and adds a drop of BCLK, meaning we had to drop the CPU multiplier to keep the final CPU speed (BCLK * multi) constant. At 3000 MHz though, all the subtimings in the XMP profile are set by the SPD. For the other MHz settings, we set the primaries, but we left the motherboard system on auto for secondary/tertiary timings, and it may have resulted in tighter timings under 2933. There are a few instances where the 3000 kit has a 2-3% advantage, a couple where it's at a disadvantage, but the rest are around about the same (within some statistical variance).

    Ian
  • mikk - Thursday, September 26, 2013 - link

    What a stupid nonsense these iGPU Benchmarks. Under 10 fps, are you serious? Do it with some usable fps and not in a slide show.
  • MrSpadge - Thursday, September 26, 2013 - link

    Well, that's the reality of gaming on these iGPUs in low "HD" resolution. But I actually agree with you: running at 10 fps is just not realistic and hence not worth much.

    The problem I see with these benchmarks is that at maximum detail settings you're putting en emphasis on shaders. By turning details down you'd push more pixels and shift the balance towards needing more bandwidth to achieve just that. And since in any real world situation you'd see >30 fps, you ARE pushing more pixels in these cases.
  • RYF - Saturday, September 28, 2013 - link

    The purpose was to put the iGPU into strain and explore the impacts of having faster memory in improving the performance.

    You seriously have no idea...
  • MrSpadge - Thursday, September 26, 2013 - link

    Your benchmark choices are nice, but I've seen quite a few "real world" applications which benefit far more from high-performance memory:
    - matrix inversion in Matlab (Intel MKL), probably in other languages / libs too
    - crunching Einstein@Home (BOINC) on all 8 threads
    - crunching Einstein@Home on 7 threads and 2 Einstein@Home tasks on the iGPU
    - crunching 5+ POEM@Home (BOINC) tasks on a high end GPU

    It obviously depends on the user how real the "real world" applications are. For me they are far more relevant than my occasional game, which is usually fast enough anyway.
  • MrSpadge - Thursday, September 26, 2013 - link

    Edit: in fact, I have set a maximum of 31 fps in PrecisionX for my nVidia, so that the games don't eat up too much crunching time ;)
  • Oscarcharliezulu - Thursday, September 26, 2013 - link

    Yep it'd be interesting to understand where extra speed does help, eg database, j2ee servers, cad, transactional systems of any kind, etc. otherwise great read and a great story idea, thanks.
  • willis936 - Thursday, September 26, 2013 - link

    SystemCompute - 2D Ex CPU 1600CL10. Nice.

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