Patriot DDR400 2-2-2/DDR533 3-4-4: Performance AND Value
by Wesley Fink on April 8, 2005 12:05 AM EST- Posted in
- Memory
Performance Test Configuration
Patriot PC3200+XBLK was tested on the DFI LANParty nF4 SLI-DR. nForce4 is PCI Express, so we used the PCIe version of our standard nVidia 6800 Ultra for testing. Other components remain the same as used in the memory setup in Athlon 64 Memory: Rewriting the Rules . Performance was compared to the 4 memories retested on this platform in OCZ VX Revisited: DDR Updates on DFI nForce4.The A64 test bed includes components that have been proven in Socket 939 Athlon 64 benchmarking, such as the Socket 939 4000+ (same specifications as 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 performance match to nVidia 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 nForce4 Performance Test Configuration | |
Processor(s): | AMD 4000+ (FX53) Athlon 64 (2.4GHz, Socket 939, 1 MB cache, Dual Channel, 1000HT) |
RAM: | Patriot PC3200+XBLK (DS) 2X512MB OCZ EL PC4000 VX Gold (DS) 2X512MB Corsair TwinX1024-4400C25 (DS) 2X512MB Crucial Ballistix (DS) 2X512MB OCZ PC3200 Platinum Rev 2 (DS) 2X512MB |
Hard Drives: | Seagate 120GB SATA 7200RPM 8MB Cache |
PCI/AGP Speed: | Fixed at 33/66 |
Bus Master Drivers: | nVidia nForce Platform Driver 6.39 |
Video Card(s): | nVidia 6800 Ultra 256MB PCIe, 256MB aperture, 1024x768x32 |
Video Drivers: | nVidia Forceware 71.84 Release |
Power Supply: | OCZ Power Stream 520W |
Operating System(s): | Windows XP Professional SP1 |
Motherboards: | DFI LANParty nF4 SLI-DR |
In past benchmarking, we have found performance of the nForce4 and nForce3 chipsets to be virtually identical, and we have found AGP and PCIe performance to be virtually the same in the benchmarks that we use for memory testing. Therefore, you can also compare results to TCCD results in a recent memory review. The differences will be that the nVidia 71.84 driver is a bit faster than the 61.77 used in earlier memory review. The DFI nForce4 platform is also a bit better at memory overclocking than the MSI K8N Neo2 used in past memory testing.
With nForce3 motherboards, we achieved the fastest performance on AMD Athlon 64 chipsets (nForce3, VIA K8T800 PRO) at Cycle Time or tRAS of 10. However, as we saw in the recent nForce4 SLI roundup, the nForce4 appears to behave a bit differently with memory. Therefore, we ran a complete set of Memtest86 benchmarks with only tRAS varied to determine the best tRAS setting for Patriot PC3200. All memories showed their best bandwidth at a tRAS setting of 6, so a tRAS setting of 6 was used for testing wherever possible.
Test Settings
All AMD Athlon 64 processors are unlocked downward, and the FX CPUs are unlocked up and down. This feature allows 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 4000+/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, thus removing CPU speed as a factor in memory performance.The following settings were tested with the Patriot PC3200+XBLK on the DFI nF4 test bed:
- 2.4GHz-12x200/DDR400 - the highest stock memory speed supported on K8T800-Pro/nF3-4/SiS755-FX motherboards.
- 2.4GHz-11x218/DDR436 - a ratio near the standard DDR433 speed
- 2.4GHz-10x240/DDR480 - a ratio near the standard rating of DDR466
- 2.4GHz-9x267/DDR533 - a standard memory speed used in testing other high-speed memory
- 2.4GHz-8x300/DDR600 - tested where this speed could be achieved
- Highest Memory Performance - the highest memory bandwidth and game performance that we could achieve with the memory being tested; this is rarely the highest memory speed that we could achieve - It is normally a lower speed with 1T Command Rate and tighter memory timings.
We ran our standard suite of memory performance benchmarks - Quake 3, Return to Castle Wolfenstein-Enemy Territory-Radar, Super Pi 2M, and Sandra 2004 Standard and UnBuffered. We also included Everest Home Edition memory tests, free at www.lavalys.com, for read speed, write speed, and Latency.
23 Comments
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Reapsy00 - Tuesday, April 12, 2005 - link
I just got this ram for my nforce2 system :DAuric - Monday, April 11, 2005 - link
Article seems to imply these are new but they have been available since last Autumn. Also, they are tested at five performance ratings, not two, which eliminates much of the messin' when overclocking the FSB/CPU.http://www.pdpsys.com/products/PDC1G512G3200+XBLK....
chennhui - Sunday, April 10, 2005 - link
Dear Wesley Fink, May I know the memory timing used for PDP at highest performance 315, i.e. tRFC, tRRD, tWR,tWTR, tRTW, tREF, DQS, Drive strenght ect. If it is set to Auto, could you please read the value with Athlon64 Tweaker? :-) Does 315MHz 1:1 passed memtest test 8 and prime95 stress test? This is because I am running PDP stable at 289MHz, 3.0-4-4-10 Thanks.KayKay - Friday, April 8, 2005 - link
Any idea if this product is sold in Canada? I really like the balance of value and performance.Wesley Fink - Friday, April 8, 2005 - link
#16 - It is XBLK as you found, and the article has been updated. My tests for dyslexia are next week :-)ozzimark - Friday, April 8, 2005 - link
It brought a tear to my eye that you guys have already gotten the Everest benchmarks worked into the review. :)though, out of curiosity, do you plan to go back with the ram you tested previously on the dfi and add the everest scores to them? i'm sure it'll take up quite a bit of time though :/
sonicDivx - Friday, April 8, 2005 - link
XBLK is what it is.I currently use it an hit the following stable.
MBD: MSI NEO2
Memory: 280 2.5-3-4-7 2.8v 1:1 ratio
Wish had the DFI board I think with 2.9 I could hit 290. I have hit 282 with 2.5-4-4 2.85v but that is really the limit. with my NEO2.
Its nice memory, when I purchased had gotten it for 186 :)
wildguy2k - Friday, April 8, 2005 - link
Dunno if there are 2 different kinds, but throughout the article, you refer to it as XLBK, & the only results I can find price-wise are for XBLK. FYI.Wesley Fink - Friday, April 8, 2005 - link
#9 - The unique appearance of the back of the Brainpower PCB is much clearer in the p.2 photo in our Corsair PC4400 review at http://www.anandtech.com/memory/showdoc.aspx?i=231...OR you can direct link the Corsair Brainpower photo at http://images.anandtech.com/reviews/memory/ddr/cor...
Wesley Fink - Friday, April 8, 2005 - link
#11 - It should read "Memory Read performance increased about 29% with this 50% speed increase, while Memory Write performance improved by just 17%."The review has been corrected.
#13 - It depends on which Kingston you are talking about. We include two Kingston Value Ram products in next week's Value RAM Roundup.