OCZ Gold PC2-8800 vs. OCZ VX2 PC2-8000

[Deathspawner]

I'll make one thing clear before I get into results... the VX2 is obviously more capable of kicking the Gold series butt, however it was handy so I decided to use it.

The Gold PC2-8800 was announced the other day, although pricing is currently unknown. To throw a figure out there, I guesstimate that it will retail for around ~$350US. This may seem somewhat low for a top rate kit, but the Gold series signifies 'value', and not overclocking ability. That being said, I can't see this kit being released for more than $350 despite the rated frequencies being higher than anything else out there. Don't quote me please



The PC2-8800 are based on D9GMH, so I had figured I knew what I was getting into. Turns out I didn't have a sweet clue. As I found out rather quickly, this is some fussy .

Overclocks
DDR2-800 4-4-4-12 2.0v 1T (2.40GHz, 1.25v)
DDR2-900 4-4-3-12 2.1v 2T (2.70GHz , 1.45v)
DDR2-1100 5-6-6-15 2.2v 2T (2.75GHz, 1.45v)
DDR2-1100 5-5-4-5-12 2T (2.75GHz, 1.45v)
DDR2-1120 5-5-4-5-12 2T (2.80GHz, 1.45v)

Oddly enough, these sticks were -very- fussy with CAS4. At DDR2-1000 4-4-4, they gave way to error in MemTest very quickly. Also, at the second listed overclock, even though MemTest proved stable in addition to other synthetic benchmarks, Super Pi would -not- compute past two loops. Even with more voltage, it didn't make a single difference. DDR2-800 CL4 worked fine, but I'm sure it's due to the loose frequency. As the freq increased, CL5 was pretty much forced.

The first three results use tRC 22, while the final two were at 12. No real reason for this, but I usually wait until I get close to the max possible speed before tweaking that, or tRAS.

Results

System:
AM2 Windsor 4600+
ASUS M2N32-SLI Deluxe (701 BIOS)
Hard Drive
Some video displaying card
Few fans
Some dust in the back
Windows XP MCE SP2







The Gold won some, the VX2 won the rest. Since both sets of modules use similar chips, it's no surprise that the results are so similar.

Stability







If these modules happen to retail for my assumptions ($350), I'd have to say these are pretty nice. They deliver great results at stock speeds, but don't really allow for -that- much tweaking or improvement upon 550MHz.

Though the 5-6-6 timings are a little retarded, we see in the second stability picture that stock frequencies with 5-5-4-5-12 timings proved 100% stable over the course of 8 - 10 hours, with 2.3vdimm.

For the curious... yes I did try to go beyond 560MHz, but at 564MHz is started becoming unstable. Nothing seemed to help it, whether it be even more loose timings, or more voltage.

[bachus_anonym]

So even up to 2.5v did not help to push those Golds further than 450MHz 8-4-4-4.0? It looks like these are meant to be run at CAS5 then. Very nice results anyway, considering they are classfied as "value" DDR2-1100 @ 2.2v is nothing to sneeze at

[ozzimark]

considering they are classfied as "value"

hahaha, expensive value

nice results though rob. i was waiting to see what you meant by being fussy as cas4.. i figured only certain timing combinations worked well with it, not that it just performed somewhat lamely at cas4
cas5 is looking sweet though. i assume that's about the limit of your cpu you're at?

btw, shouldn't this *technically* be in the xtreme reviews section?

[Deathspawner]

So even up to 2.5v did not help to push those Golds further than 450MHz 8-4-4-4.0?

I am not sure I tested that, only because 2.5 at those speeds is a tad high

I will give it another shot later, but these -are- fussy when it comes to CAS4. Even at DDR2-800 1T, I had to use 2.0v for any stability. Other kits here do the same settings with 1.8v or 1.9v

hahaha, expensive value

nice results though rob. i was waiting to see what you meant by being fussy as cas4.. i figured only certain timing combinations worked well with it, not that it just performed somewhat lamely at cas4
cas5 is looking sweet though. i assume that's about the limit of your cpu you're at?

btw, shouldn't this *technically* be in the xtreme reviews section?

Yeah, it's expensive. For anything OCZ around that price range, I'd quicker recommend their 7200 EPP.. it retails for under $300 and offers superb performance, to match the VX2.

What do you mean about the CAS5 being a limit of the CPU? Not a problem I have run into before. And no not the reviews section.. this is bandwidth reports. I gotta save a full review for my site :P

[ozzimark]

What do you mean about the CAS5 being a limit of the CPU?

i mean is your cpu clock limiting you from going higher than 560mhz?

[Deathspawner]

No not really... these will not go above 564MHz... my PC can do 570MHz without the CPU pissing me off.