FAST 2GB DDR Kits - Part 2

Performance Test Configuration

The six 2GB kits were tested with the DFI LANParty nF4 SLI-DR Athlon 64 Socket 939 motherboard. Other components remain the same as used in the memory setup in Athlon 64 Memory: Rewriting the Rules.

The A64 test bed includes components that have been proven in Socket 939 Athlon 64 benchmarking, such as the Socket 939 90nm 4000+, the OCZ Power Stream 520 Power Supply, and the NVIDIA 7800 GTX video card. We used an AMD 4000+ 90nm processor with a Revision E type memory controller. All other basic test conditions attempted to mirror those used in our earlier Athlon 64 memory reviews.

Since the video card, and platform/video drivers are upgraded from past memory testing, we found that the results were not completely consistent with past memory test results. For that reason, we retested the three 2GB kits that were previously tested. Results are still broadly comparable to past memory test results in earlier reviews, but we decided to include just the nine 2GB kit results in this roundup.

AMD nForce4 Performance Test Configuration
Processor(s):	AMD 4000+ Athlon 64(90nm) 2.4GHz, Socket 939, 1 MB cache, Dual Channel, 1000HT
RAM:	TWINX2048-4000PT (DS) 2X1GB Crucial Ballistix CLIII5N.32 (DS) 2X1GB G. Skill F1-3200PHU2-2GBZX (DS) 2X1GB KHX3200AK2/2G (DS) 2X1GB Mushkin 2GB Redline XP4000 (DS) 2X1GB Team XTreem TXDR 1024M400HC2 (DS) 2X1GB Corsair TWINX2048-3500XL PRO (DS) 2X1GB Gigaram 2GB Dual Channel PC-4200 (DS) 2X1GB OCZ PC4000 2x1024MB EB Platinum (DS) 2X1GB
Hard Drives:	Seagate 120GB SATA 7200RPM 8MB Cache
PCI/AGP Speed:	Fixed at 33/66
Bus Master Drivers:	NVIDIA nForce Platform Driver 6.70
Video Card(s):	NVIDIA 7800 GTX 256MB PCIe, 256MB aperture, 1024x768x32
Video Drivers:	NVIDIA Forceware 81.98 Release
Power Supply:	OCZ Power Stream 520W
Operating System(s):	Windows XP Professional SP2
Motherboard:	DFI LANParty nF4 SLI-DR
BIOS:	7/06/2005

As discussed in other memory reviews, we ran a complete set of Memtest86 benchmarks with only tRAS varied to determine the best tRAS setting for these memories on the nForce4 chipset. The NVIDIA nForce4 has the best bandwidth at tRAS settings ranging from 5 to 8. Therefore, a tRAS setting of 7 was used for testing.

Test Settings

All AMD Athlon 64 processors are unlocked downward, and the FX CPUs are unlocked up and down. This feature allows a different approach to memory testing, which truly measures performance differences in memory speed alone. All tests were run with CPU speed as close to the specified 2.4GHz of the 4000+ as possible, with CPU speed/Memory Speed increased at lower multipliers to achieve 2.4 GHz. This approach allows the true measurement of the impact of higher memory speed and timings on performance, since CPU speed is fixed, removing CPU speed as a factor in memory performance.

The following settings were tested with the six 2GB kits on the DFI nF4 test bed:

1. 2.4GHz-12x200/DDR400 - the highest stock memory speed supported on nF3-4/SiS755-FX/ATI Radeon Xpress 200/VIA 939 motherboards
2. 2.4GHz-11x218/DDR436 - a ratio near the standard DDR433 speed
3. 2.4GHz-10x240/DDR480 - a ratio near the standard rating of DDR466
4. 2.4GHz-9x267/DDR533 - a memory speed achieved by only a few top memories on the Athlon 64
5. 2.4GHz-8x300/DDR600 - with recent improvements in OC abilities, a very few memories can reach this next multiple with the 8 multiplier
6. Highest Memory Performance - the highest memory bandwidth and game performance that we could achieve with the memory being tested. This is the highest memory speed that we could achieve with 1T Command Rate.

Command Rate is a concern in Athlon 64 performance. A Command Rate of 1T is faster on Athlon 64 than a 2T Command Rate. For this reason, all testing was at 1T Command Rate. Voltage and memory timings are reported for each memory speed setting.