OCZ DDR2 PC2-6400 Platinum EB

Performance Comparisons with SiSoft SANDRA 2004 Synthetic Raw Bandwidth

We began our testing with SiSoftware's SANDRA, the System ANalyzer, Diagnostic and Reporting Assistant, with the memory configured by their SPDs. SANDRA consists of a set of information and diagnostic utilities that can provide a host of useful information about your hardware and operating system.  We ran SANDRA's Memory Bandwidth test with OCZ, Corsair and Kingston memory modules installed on our Asus P5WD2 Premium.

Corsair's TWINX set was the overall leader in bandwidth, placing first in both Integer and Floating Point metrics.  In the Integer test, the Corsair modules lead OCZ's set by merely 16MB/s, which in turn beat out Kingston by an additional 40 MB/s.  The same pattern persisted with the Floating Point test, with the order going Corsair, OCZ, and finally Kingston.  Although all sticks were rated equally within the BIOS, OCZ's sticks found their way to just better than middle of the pack.

Performance Comparison with PCMark05 Overall Memory Score

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...

"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 PCMark05 scores were right on target with the Sandra 2004 scores.  Once again, the Corsair TWIN2X1024A-5400UL kit posted a score that was just a bit higher than the OCZ PC2-6400 set.  Kingston's KHX6000D2K2/1G kit, however, found itself in last place by a hair.  The differences between the highest and lowest kits still came out to less than one percent, so there's not too much to be concerned about.

In-Game Performance Comparisons With Unreal Tournament 2004 Memory Bandwidth and Frame rates

We also ran through a batch of time demos with the popular shooter Unreal Tournament 2004.  We ran these tests at the "Fastest" setting with a low resolution of 640 X 480, using 16-bit color and textures.  Running Unreal Tournament 2004 with a high-end graphics card at these minimal settings isolates processor and memory performance without being limited by the graphics subsystem. 

In Unreal Tournament 2004, we can see how the variances in bandwidth affect gameplay.  Corsair's memory kit, which led in both the SANDRA and PCMark05 tests, unsurprisingly gave us the highest frame rate as well, topping the charts at 140.38 frames per second.  We were about a half of frame behind when using OCZ's PC2-6400 kit, and Kingston's HyperX modules were almost two frames back from the leader.