Searching for the Memory Holy Grail: Part 1
by Wesley Fink on July 27, 2003 11:13 PM EST- Posted in
- Memory
Performance Test Configuration
| Performance Test Configuration | |
| Processor(s): | Intel Pentium 4 3.00GHz (800MHz FSB) Intel Pentium 4 2.6GHz (800MHz FSB) |
| RAM: | 4 x 256MB OCZ3700 GOLD (DS) 2 x 512MB Winbond BH5 PC3500 (DS) 2 x 256MB Crucial DDR400 (Samsung chips) (SS) 4 x 256MB OCZ4000 Beta (SS) |
| Bus Master Drivers: | 875P: Intel INF Update v5.00.1012, RAID IAA drivers not installed on 875P board for consistency in test results |
| Video Card(s): | ATI 9800 PRO 128MB ATI 9700 PRO 128MB |
| Video Drivers: | ATI Catalyst 3.5 |
| Operation System(s): | Windows XP Professional SP1 |
| Motherboards: | DFI 875PRO LAN Party (875P) with 6/25/03 release BIOS Asus P4P800 Deluxe (865PE) with 1.009.004 BIOS |
Two motherboards tested at Anandtech were used in tests to determine the best memory configuration for 875/865 chipsets. All testing at DDR400 and DDR466 were with a 3.0Ghz 800FSB CPU on the DFI 875PRO LanParty. The DFI benchmarks used either one, two, or four OCZ3700 GOLD 256MB DS modules, or 2 OCZ3700 GOLD DS and 2 Crucial 400 SS 256Mb/Winbond BH5 DS 512MB for mixed mode testing. All Benchmarks at DDR500 were run with a 2.6GHz 800FSB CPU on the Asus P4P800 Deluxe, which we reviewed in our 865PE/875P Motherboard Roundup June 2003. We used one, two, or four OCZ4000 GOLD beta modules, which are single-sided.
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jsalpha2 - Tuesday, July 29, 2003 - link
Pardon me, cause I'm tired. Did the article say if 4x(256) is better or worse than 2x(512). Assuming identicle brand and speed of RAM.I think I heard somewhere to go with just two sticks for better performance. Plus then you have open slots for later.
Question #2 Would 2x(512) of cheaper DDR333 be better than 2x(256) of DDR400?
thanks
Anonymous User - Tuesday, July 29, 2003 - link
Great article, it's just missing latency benchmarks.Anonymous User - Tuesday, July 29, 2003 - link
Ok - pardon the newbie question, but - I'm building a P4c with Asus P4P800 board. I want 1 gig of DDR400 ram - what brand/model number do I buy - ?Thanks for your help.
Anonymous User - Tuesday, July 29, 2003 - link
This is all nice and good, but what does it all mean in the real world, run some benchmarks in these various modes and show us whether we should care about it :) bottom line to me is what it does for the games, if i'm losing/gaining 4 FPS i'm more likely to care about the price differences then memtest.Wesley Fink - Tuesday, July 29, 2003 - link
These are quoted form Intel's White Paper, p.13 "NOTES: Ranks per Dimm (1 Rank is a single-sided DIMM, 2 Ranks is a double-sided DIMM)". The common practice of using higher-density Dimms every other Dimm on both sides (4 chips per side) is FUNCTIONALLY a Single Bank or Single-Sided Dimm.As for confirming that 4 dimms was faster, only the tests on the 3.0 were CPU-limited. We also determined maximum overclock on a 2.4C which was not CPU-Limited. Please check Page 7.
Philippine Mango - Thursday, January 25, 2007 - link
Wrong, you didn't use a 2.4C, you used a 2.6 processor which from what I know doesn't overclock as well as the 2.8C or 2.4C..Anonymous User - Tuesday, July 29, 2003 - link
"...we confirmed that the added memory bandwidth more than makes up for the slightly lower overclock with four double-sided DIMMs"To say you 'confirmed it' is quite a leap indeed... as you notably stated, you were CPU limited in going any higher for 1 and 2 sticks, whereas you clearly reached a blockade with the 4 sticks of memory. It could be that 4 sticks of memory causes a blockade in the chipset performance at some GHz, but with a better CPU you might have gone much higher with the opposing configurations.
-Robert
Anonymous User - Tuesday, July 29, 2003 - link
"If you plan to run DDR400 as your base memory speed with an 800FSB processor, your best memory performance will clearly be with four matched double-sided DIMMs"Can somebody help me to understand this?
I have only heard about 2 matched DIMMs...
Four matched DIMMs is 2 X 2 matched DIMMS?
Thank you very much!
Anonymous User - Tuesday, July 29, 2003 - link
While the article was interesting in that it at least confirmed Intel's white paper, I would be interested in your also testing ECC. I have a machine which does double duty as a backup server (plug the disks in the SCSI port and away it goes!). I am just curious as to the performamce hit when ECC is being used.Anonymous User - Tuesday, July 29, 2003 - link
The writer does not distinguish between DS and double bank module ;)