AnandTech: 1GB DIMMs: FAST 2GB DDR Kits from Corsair, Gigaram, and OCZ

OCZ PC4000 1024MB EB Platinum Edition

OCZ is a well-known brand of enthusiast products - memory, power supplies, flash memory and more. In the past two years, OCZ was normally at or near the top of roundups and reviews of high-performance memory. After struggling several years ago, OCZ fought back and, today, is regarded as top-quality memory with some of the best Customer Service in the business.

The OCZ trademark chrome heatspreaders announce the new DDR500 as Platinum Edition memory. In this case, the 1GB DIMMs are rated EB, or Enhanced Bandwidth. A DDR500 1GB DIMM rated at 3-3-2-8 timings certainly deserves the EB name, but in fact, the 1GB DIMMs perform even better.

Specifications

OCZ rates their 2GB high-speed kit at DDR500, in-between the spec for Corsair 433 and Gigaram 533.

OCZ PC4000 1024MB EB Platinum Memory Specifications
Number of DIMMs & Banks	2 DS
DIMM Size Total Memory	1GB 2GB
Rated Timings	3-3-2-8 at DDR500
Rated Voltage	2.6V

We also see a low voltage requirement with the OCZ 2 GB kit - very similar to the voltage specified by Corsair for their 2GB kit.

Test Results

OCZ PC4000 1024MB EB Platinum (DDR500) - 2x1GB Double-Bank
CPU Ratio at 2.4GHz	Memory Speed	Memory Timings & Voltage	Quake3 fps	Sandra UNBuffered	Sandra Standard Buffered	Super PI 2M places (time in sec)	Wolfenstein - Radar - Enemy Territory fps
12x200	400DDR	2-3-2-7 2.5V 1T	545.1	INT 2657 FLT 2715	INT 5970 FLT 5902	80	120.4
11x218	436DDR	2-3-2-7 2.7V 1T	552.4	INT 2831 FLT 2974	INT 6222 FLT 6203	80	121.5
10x240	480DDR	2.5-3-2-7 2.6V 1T	560.5	INT 2976 FLT 3100	INT 6447 FLT 6376	79	123.1
9x267	533DDR	2.5-3-2-7 2.7V 1T	564.7	INT 3213 FLT 3292	INT 6684 FLT 6603	78	124.0
9x275 (2.48GHz)	Highest MEM Speed 550 DDR	3-3-2-7 2.7V 1T	581.2	INT 3351 FLT 3514	INT 6869 FLT 6774	76	127.6

To be considered stable for test purposes, Quake3 benchmark, UT2003 Demo, Super PI, Aquamark 3, and Comanche 4 had to complete without incident. Any of these, and in particular Super PI, will crash a less-than stable memory configuration.

OCZ did not reveal to us the manufacturer of the memory chips used in their 500EB 1GB DIMMs. There was also nothing on the DIMMs to help us in identifying the memory manufacturer. However, after running our full benchmarks on the OCZ PC4000 EB Platinum, we would be very surprised if the memory is other than Infineon. Performance from DDR400 to DDR480 is virtually identical to Corsair even down to the low voltage requirement, but performance continues on to DDR550 while still only needing the same very low 2.7V memory voltage.

Like the Corsair, this is a memory that does not need a special board with super high voltages to get the best from the memory. You can get the best from these 1GB with almost any decent motherboard, since we never needed more than 2.7V for stable performance at any speed.

We would really be interested in exactly which Infineon chips are used in this OCZ memory. It is either a slightly different chip than the Corsair, since it goes much higher in overclocking, or OCZ is doing some interesting binning of Infineon chips - something that would also not surprise us.