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Athlon 64 Memory: Rewriting the Rules

 by Wesley Fink on October 1, 2004 12:45 AM EST
47 Comments | Add A Comment
47 Comments

Performance Test Configuration

The first tests with the new Athlon 64 test bed were in the recent OCZ PC3700 Gold Rev. 3 review. In this round, we extend the Athlon 64 memory tests to some of the fastest memory that we have tested and the newest memory in our labs. Since we have found DDR memory to perform very differently on the memory controller with Athlon 64 chips, we will be including Athlon 64 benchmarks in all future memory reviews.

The A64 test bed includes components that have been proven in Socket 939 Athlon 64 benchmarking, such as the Gold Editors Choice MSI K8N Neo2, the completely unlocked Socket 939 FX53, and the OCZ Power Stream 520 Power Supply. Since the Athlon 64 tests represent a new series of DDR testing, we have chosen the current generation nVidia 6800 Ultra video card for benchmarking. We have found the 6800 Ultra to be a particularly good match to nVidia nForce3 Ultra motherboards.

All other basic test conditions attempted to mirror those used in our earlier Intel memory reviews. However, test results are not directly comparable to tests performed on the Intel test bed.

 AMD nForce3 Ultra Performance Test Configuration
Processor(s): AMD FX53 Athlon 64
(2.4GHz, Socket 939, Dual Channel, 1000HT)
RAM: 2 X 512MB Crucial Ballistix (DS)
2 X 512MB Geil PC3200 Ultra X (DS)
2 X 512MB G. Skill TCCD (DS)
2 X 512MB OCZ PC3200 Platinum Rev 2 (DS)
2 X 512MB OCZ PC3700 Gold Rev 3 (DS)
2 X 512MB PQI 3200 Turbo (DS)
Hard Drives Seagate 120GB PATA (IDE) 7200RPM 8MB Cache
PCI/AGP Speed Fixed at 33/66
Bus Master Drivers: nVidia nForce Platform Driver 4.24 (5-10-2004)
Video Card(s): nVidia 6800 Ultra 256MB, 256MB aperture, 1024x768x32
Video Drivers: nVidia Forceware 61.77
Power Supply: OCZ Power Stream 520W
Operating System(s): Windows XP Professional SP1
Motherboards: MSI K8N Neo2

We have found the fastest performance on AMD Athlon 64 chipsets (nForce3, VIA K8T800 PRO) to be achieved at Cycle Time or tRAS of 10. Athlon 64 platform benchmarks were, therefore, run with the tRAS timing of 10 for all A64 benchmarks.

Test Settings

The FX53 is completely unlocked, something not currently available with Intel processors. This allowed 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 FX53 as possible, with CPU speed/Memory Speed increased at lower multipliers to achieve 2.4Ghz. 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 memories on the Athlon 64 test bed:
  1. 12x200/DDR400 - the highest stock memory speed supported on K8T800/nF3/SiS755 motherboards.
  2. 11x218/DDR436 - a ratio near the standard DDR433 speed.
  3. 10x240/DDR480 - a ratio near the standard rating of DDR466.
  4. 9x267/DDR533 - a standard memory speed used in testing other high-speed memory.
  5. Highest Memory Speed - the highest memory speed that we could achieve regardless of the multiplier. This setting was generally achieved at a 2T command rate and performance is often poorer than slower memory timings at a 1T Command Rate.
  6. Highest Performance - the highest memory performance settings that we could achieve. This setting is normally the highest stable speed using a 1T Command Rate.
A couple of the memories tested here were able to run at an incredible 8x300/DDR600 speed. This is the next ratio multiple for 2.4GHz speed and will be added to future memory benchmarks as more memory is able to reach this performance level.

Command Rate is not normally a factor in Intel 478 tests, but it is a major concern in Athlon 64 performance. A Command Rate of 1T is considerably faster on Athlon 64 than a 2T Command Rate. For this reason, we had added the Command Rate to the timings and voltage reported for each memory speed setting.

We ran our standard suite of memory performance benchmarks - Quake 3, Super Pi 2M, and Sandra 2004 UnBuffered. Since the results for Athlon 64 tests are new, we are now including Sandra Buffered (Standard) test results as well as Sandra UnBuffered test results. Return to Castle Wolfenstein-Enemy Territory has also been added as a standard memory benchmark.

PQI 3200 Turbo Test Results: Crucial Ballistix PC3200
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  • xeoph - Wednesday, March 9, 2005 - link

    I also wanted to mention it in this artical if it hasnt been already.

    The pricing above the ultra X is for Ultra Platinum. The www.memory-up.com link is a little misleading because it doesnt give the exact tech specs.

    simply a mistype. m-400-512x2glx1gb3200dc is what your looking for, little X between gl and 1gb.

  • mervine - Sunday, October 10, 2004 - link

    hi Wesley
    You mention the newer Samsung TCCD chips overclock better on AMD64 than the older ones, How long have these new chips been avaliable?
    The reason I ask is I live in europe and stocks over here might not be as new as in the states. I'm looking to buy some ocz rev2 but is there any way to tell if its using old or new revision TCCD?

  • PrinceXizor - Tuesday, October 5, 2004 - link

    Wesley:

    I appreciate your point. I suppose I would have been vaguer in my statements than you were, that is my only point (probably a matter of subjective opinion of course). Something like...

    "In the course of testing, it was discovered that we were being adversely limited by the power supply used in our testing rig. Switching to a higher wattage power supply unlocked the potential of many of these DIMMS. While the actual problem with the original PSU requires more analysis time than we had for this review (lower wattage? lower rail amperage? lower rail tolernaces?), hard-core overclockers should carefully inspect the specifications on their PSU's if they plan on maxing out the OC on their memory modules. Switching power supplies, as we did, may help you to reach the overclocks attained in this review."

    Something like that is all I would have liked to see, instead of a blanket recommendation for a higher wattage PSU. That was my point.

    All this being said, I still enjoyed the review! I look forward to more memory module reviews in the future.

    P-X

  • jynxycat - Tuesday, October 5, 2004 - link

    good review, i was on the edge between the PQI and Crucial sticks, not really knowing what to expect from the PQI on an AMD setup.

    finally a full review of what the respective sticks will achieve on the AMD platform, very much appreciated.

  • Blappo - Sunday, October 3, 2004 - link

    42:
    That is true. It might be interesting to see a comparison of PSUs to see which one would give the highest overclock. I would guess that the PSUs with high ratings would perform well, but there might be some lower power PSUs delivering good quality power that perform well, or some high output PSUs that perform poorly because of low quality power.

  • darkwaffle - Sunday, October 3, 2004 - link

    41:
    I'm not sure how much of a direct comparison you could make between the 3 PowerStream models, because according to http://www.ocztechnology.com/products/PSUSpec.pdf the +5 rail differs on the 420 and 470, and the +12 rail is different on all of them.

  • Blappo - Saturday, October 2, 2004 - link

    I would be curious if using either the 420W or 470W OCZ PowerStream models would change the amount the memory could be overclocked? Since they are in the same model line then any differences when OC would be attributed to the amount of power available, and not the quality of power available.

  • LocutusX - Saturday, October 2, 2004 - link

    I've got the one Wesley mentioned. It's the Enermax EG465P-VE - the *Q4 2001* model. That same model which is *currently* available in stores has slightly different specs. Anyways, I think I'll keep in mind a possible upgrade to the Powerstream since that would probably help my OC situation as well.

  • KingofFah - Saturday, October 2, 2004 - link

    #14,15,20,24
    (This is more directed to #20)
    As Wesley said:
    +3.3V - 38A
    +5V - 44A
    +12V - 20A
    -5V - 2A
    -12V - 1A
    +5Vsb - 2.2A
    are the specs of the 465 they used.

    Considering they switched to 520W OCZ Powerstream:
    +3.3V - 28A
    +5V - 40A
    +12V - 33A
    -5V - .5A
    -12V - .5A
    +5Vsb - 2.0A

    Even though there is a drop in amperage on the 3.3 and 5v rails, there is a great increase in the 12v. CPU, GPU, HDDs, Optical drives, fans all get there power off of the 12v line.

    Since w = v x a, if you want a good power supply, it almost certainly will have a lot of watts on it, but you only find good amperage on high quality models... So maybe you can see why they said +500 quality PSU??

    My question is: Which rail does the memory draw from? Is it still the 5v?

  • Marlin1975 - Saturday, October 2, 2004 - link

    Wesley Fink, since it has been shown many times that more and more current systems need better power. Why not do a review of power supplys. Everything form top dollar name brand ones to cheaper high "watt" ones to see if they put out what they say at each rail and if they help or hurt a system when doing normal work to over clocking?
    I know power supplys are one of the most over looked items and I am building a HIGH power system right now and can not find any real reviews other then other people saying use or don;t use brand X

    Thanks
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