X-bit labs

Fastest Pentium 4 Platform: Performance of i925, i915, i875 and i865 with DDR2-533, DDR2-400, DDR533 and DDR400 SDRAM (page 8)

Category: Chipsets

by Ilya Gavrichenkov

[ 08/04/2004 | 12:38 PM ]

Data Encoding and Compression

The speed of encoding MP3 files depends but slightly on the memory type and the chipset – it is the processor that handles the whole load.

The same goes for the speed of encoding video into MPEG-2 format. However, we can discern a certain advantage of the i925X over the i865PE.

The use of low-latency memory accounts for better results in the test of encoding video into MPEG-4 format. The i865PE takes the two top positions here.

The i865PE with DDR400 SDRAM is again on top in Windows Media Encoder 9. However, working with DDR533 SDRAM, this chipset lands right on the bottom of the table.

It is a well-known fact that archivers first of all need a low-latency memory subsystem. That’s why the oldie i865PE feels no competition in WinRAR. The use of DDR2 SDRAM with the i9xx series chipsets leads to a dramatic performance hit in data compression applications.

We see absolutely the same picture in another archiver, 7zip.

The inverse process – decompression – doesn’t put any serious load on the memory subsystem. The speed only depends on the arithmetical capabilities of the CPU.