DDR3 Memory Round-Up: Corsair, Kingston, OCZ, Super Talent
Overclocked Performance
For our next set of numbers, we focused on the maximum stable overclock of each memory kit while set to their respective rated timings. Using the same Core 2 Duo E6750 CPU, we raised the Front Side Bus speed while concurrently lowering our processor's multiplier. We tried to keep the CPU's clock speed as close to the same speed as possible for each kit. For these tests, we locked the PCI Express clock to 100MHz, raised the CPU voltage to 1.4v, lowered the CPU multiplier to 6x or 7x, and kept the memory voltage to 2.2v for all of the kits.
Ultimately, we ended up with different settings for each kit, which was unnavoidable. Here is the exact breakdown of how each kit fared in the overclocking tests:
As you can see, we have an approximate 300MHz swing in CPU frequency between the kits. As for the memory frequency, the Corsair kit topped out at over 1.9GHz, followed by the OCZ kit at 1.73GHz, Super Talent at 1.71GHz, and both Kingston kits at 1.47GHz. Please keep in mind, these speeds were attained at each kits default timings. Had we raised (or lowered) the CAS latency for each kit here, their peak overclocked speeds would have been different.
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All of the memory kits showed respectable increases in bandwidth while overclocked. The Corsair kit broke the 9.2GB/s mark, while the others hovered in between about 7.4GB/s and 8.4GB/s.
Overclocking the kits also had a beneficial impact on latency. While overclocked, each kit shaved a few nanoseconds of their latency scores, with the Super Talent W1600UX2G7 showing the most improvement (-5ns).
