DDR3 Memory Round-Up: Corsair, Kingston, OCZ, Super Talent

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For our next round of benchmarks, we ran the Memory performance module built-into Futuremark's PCMark05. For those interested in more than just the graphs, we've got a quote from Futuremark that explains exactly what this test does and how it works...

Performance Comparison with PCMark05
Overall Memory Score

"The Memory test suite is a collection of tests that isolate the performance of the memory subsystem. The memory subsystem consists of various devices on the PC. This includes the main memory, the CPU internal cache (known as the L1 cache) and the external cache (known as the L2 cache). As it is difficult to find applications that only stress the memory, we explicitly developed a set of tests geared for this purpose. The tests are written in C++ and assembly. They include: Reading data blocks from memory, Writing data blocks to memory performing copy operations on data blocks, random access to data items and latency testing."

The memory performance module included with PCMark05 is also influenced by the CPU's clock speed, as is evidenced by the OCZ kit outperforming Corsair's despite a 200MHz clock speed defecit.

In-Game Performance Comparisons
System Memory Affects Framerates?  You Bet!

We continued our testing with some low-resolution F.E.A.R. tests. Despite the fact that this is a game benchmark that can be used to test the relative performance of video cards, frame rates are strongly influenced by processor speed and available memory bandwidth, especially at low resolutions, which is how we ran the tests to get the frame rates listed below.

The CPU's clock speed also played a major role in our low-resolution F.E.A.R. benchmarks, wher the OCZ OCZ3P1600EB2GK and Super Talent W1600UXG7 finished first and second, respectively.  This test is also heavily influenced by CAS latency, which the Kingston vs. Kingston comparison proves.  The CAS 5 KHX11000D3ULK2/2G kit finished the test 17 FPS ahead of the CAS 7 KHX11000D3LLK2/2G kit.


Marco Chiappetta

Marco Chiappetta

Marco's interest in computing and technology dates all the way back to his early childhood. Even before being exposed to the Commodore P.E.T. and later the Commodore 64 in the early ‘80s, he was interested in electricity and electronics, and he still has the modded AFX cars and shop-worn soldering irons to prove it. Once he got his hands on his own Commodore 64, however, computing became Marco's passion. Throughout his academic and professional lives, Marco has worked with virtually every major platform from the TRS-80 and Amiga, to today's high end, multi-core servers. Over the years, he has worked in many fields related to technology and computing, including system design, assembly and sales, professional quality assurance testing, and technical writing. In addition to being the Managing Editor here at HotHardware for close to 15 years, Marco is also a freelance writer whose work has been published in a number of PC and technology related print publications and he is a regular fixture on HotHardware’s own Two and a Half Geeks webcast. - Contact: marco(at)hothardware(dot)com

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