Trying to Decide on 2GB??? Look here :-)

[RyderOCZ]

Hi Guys,

If you are looking to upgrade to 2GB of ram and can't decide about tight timings or high FSB with looser timings....I worked up a little comparison of our PC4000 Gold 2GB kit and the PC3200 Platinum 2GB kit.

All results are with the following setup:

3500+ Clawhammer CPU
XP-90 w/ Panaflo fan
DFI NF4 Ultra-D (SLI modded )
OCZ Powerstream 520
2 x MSI 6600GT TD128E

I have the 704-2BT bios loaded on the board.

DDR Voltage on the PC3200 Platinum kit is set to 2.6V in the bios.

Voltage on the PC4000 Gold kit is set to 2.5V with the +0.3 if not 3.2V set to enabled.

Both of these benchies are with the CPU underclocked to 2.0GHz....I wanted to show FSB and timings comparison only....A64 Tweaker included for Alpha timings and I believe I got them all the same...except for tREF since the FSB settings are different.

First one is the PC3200 Platinum 2GB kit P/N: OCZ4002048ELDCPE-K



Next the PC4000 Gold 2GB kit P/N: OCZ5002048ELGE-K

[RyderOCZ]

2001SE results:

Everything is the same as the first set...except CPU speed...I used Stock CPU speed for the 2001 runs.

PC3200 Platinum 2GB kit:



PC4000 Gold 2GB kit:

[Vapor]

How about 2k1.....you know, something a little more memory intensive.

[RyderOCZ]

Sure...if that is what you want.

Wasn't trying to show off scores....just the comparison between the 2 kits.....no difference really from 200 2-3-2-5 to 250 3-4-4-8 when CPU is constant.

I will have 2001SE up shortly

[Sloppy]

Thanks for sharing this with us!

[RyderOCZ]

3DMark 2001SE results Added

[EnJoY]

Amazing. Timings on A64 are everything. What about real world hames thought ryder? How bout a BF2, UT2k4, HL2 comparison?

[J-Mag]

Amazing. Timings on A64 are everything. What about real world hames thought ryder? How bout a BF2, UT2k4, HL2 comparison?

The difference probably wouldn't even be a frame at 1600x1200 with a 7 or 6 series card, well maybe in ut2k4...

[stealth17]

trtw 3 makes my eyes water

[chunkylover77]

So are you saying that we should save our money and buy the pc3200 instead of the new pc4000?

[EnJoY]

He's saying buy OCZ, in one way or another.

...but seriously, he's just trying to re-educate everyone about timings and bandwidth and how each performs.

[Cooper]

Another proove that timings play great part in A64 performance. Since mem controller is on-die the latencies between CPU and RAM should be as minimum as it could. But some speed bump may equalize or increase total bandwidth even with bigger timings.

Back to the topic : both are pretty well, but I would take the Platinum (till something better won`t come around)

[ozzimark]

3DMark 2001SE results Added

can i ask for a comparison between the two using everest latency test?

[MoToR]

Nice nice, just what I was looking for around, here and there , thanks, Ryder.

[pumbertot]

why i say that best 2GB just now is 4x512mb VX 2-2-2 2T 260MHz+

[xenolith]

He's saying buy OCZ, in one way or another.

...but seriously, he's just trying to re-educate everyone about timings and bandwidth and how each performs.

Yes, but I'll take the PC3200 Platinums at a savings of one Ben Franklin and an Andrew Jackson, thank you...

[RyderOCZ]

So are you saying that we should save our money and buy the pc3200 instead of the new pc4000?

No because the Platinum's won't do this: http://ryderocz.sytes.net/pics/PC40002GB270.jpg

or this: http://ryderocz.sytes.net/pics/gold2gig333.jpg

[Major]

Another thing to take into consideration is with the Platinum you don't have as much headroom to optimize your processor OC. So you are more likely to have to run your memory with a divider at low clocks possibly even below 200mhz in order to top your cpu out. With the DDR500 Gold you have alot more room to play and its easier to optimize the OC, maintaining both decent ram speed and not limiting your CPU OC.

see attached screen shots for illustration of my point

It may not be the norm but my OCZ gold DDR500 would do 2.5-3-3-7 at 250mhz, IMO at 240mhz almost all the kits would do it np.

[RyderOCZ]

Thanks Major Nice results you have there....good pair of sticks

[xenolith]

Another thing to take into consideration is with the Platinum you don't have as much headroom to optimize your processor OC. So you are more likely to have to run your memory with a divider at low clocks possibly even below 200mhz in order to top your cpu out. With the DDR500 Gold you have alot more room to play and its easier to optimize the OC, maintaining both decent ram speed and not limiting your CPU OC.

see attached screen shots for illustration of my point

It may not be the norm but my OCZ gold DDR500 would do 2.5-3-3-7 at 250mhz, IMO at 240mhz almost all the kits would do it np.

Major, I'm surprised. You more than anyone should know running an A64 with a divider is absolutely meaningless because the mem controller is on die.

And, by what I've seen, the Platinums should be able to o/c to 220-230MHz 2-3-2, which brings it pretty much back on par to the gold DDR500 @ 240-250MHz 2.5-3-3.

As far as having to possibly run the Platinums below 200MHz to max out the CPU, that can be avoided by not using a .5 multi. Unless I'm misunderstanding your meaning Major.

[Major]

Major, I'm surprised. You more than anyone should know running an A64 with a divider is absolutely meaningless because the mem controller is on die.

And, by what I've seen, the Platinums should be able to o/c to 220-230MHz 2-3-2, which brings it pretty much back on par to the gold DDR500 @ 240-250MHz 2.5-3-3.

As far as having to possibly run the Platinums below 200MHz to max out the CPU, that can be avoided by not using a .5 multi. Unless I'm misunderstanding your meaning Major.

Yea, well I wasn't saying that running a divider was bad !

And I'm not getting into the whole LL vs High fsb argument either ! LOL

If you look at the Optimizer screen shots I provided you can see to get 2.9ghz from your cpu (assuming that is its max) you can run the Gold at 263mhz vs 207mhz for the platinum. For those that insist on LL then the point is sorta mute ! lol

I was simply pointing out that the more headroom with your ram the more likely you are to be able to maximize you cpu OC without sacrificing memory fsb.

From what I've seen the OCZ DDR500 Gold should be able to do 270mhz+ mine did 275mhz without even tweaking them right out of the box. The Highest OC i've seen for the Platinum is 230mhz, and IMO 220mhz is more likely the average.

[xenolith]

Awe come on, Major your no fun, lets have a fanboy war over LL and high fsb.

[arctic-k20]

i want to try vx 512x4 but i still have cold boot memories from my first try with vx 512x2......

i like to be able to reboot and not hang....but 250~260 is so calling my name..sigh

[pumbertot]

i want to try vx 512x4 but i still have cold boot memories from my first try with vx 512x2......

i like to be able to reboot and not hang....but 250~260 is so calling my name..sigh

cold boot was fixed though with BIOS update.I never have any problem with these 4x512mb VX but selling cos moved to 4x1gb as im greedy and like overkill(well bf2 is faster with 4gb than 2gb)

[arctic-k20]

which bios update officially cured the cold boot issue?