X-bit labs

DDR3-1600 SDRAM: Technological Breakthrough or Marketing Trick? (page 10)

Category: Memory

by Ilya Gavrichenkov

[ 08/21/2007 | 06:54 PM ]

Conclusion

Despite the progress that has been made, everything we have already pointed out in our previous article called DDR3 SDRAM: Revolution or Evolution? stays true. Unfortunately, the new overclocker DDR3 memory didn’t make a very positive impression. I would say it made a pretty ambiguous impression. The thing is that according to the benchmark results we have just discussed, neither DDR3-1333 with extremely low timings, nor DDR3-1600 could offer us better performance than the good old DDR2 SDRAM. Although in some applications the new DDR3 SDRAM proves more efficient, in the majority of tasks the situation is completely opposite.

In other words, DDR3 SDRAM manufacturers are going in the right direction. One more effort and we will be able to claim that the new memory has finally outperformed the previous generation overclocker solutions. However, in the meanwhile the evident advantages of the new memory technology are lower power consumption and support of larger capacity modules.

However, we haven’t yet exhausted the potential of the new DDR3 Micron chips in our tests. We saw that memory built with these chips can work perfectly fine at 1600MHz, but very soon we will be proud to offer you some extensive tests of the faster DDR3-1800MHz.

Micron Company gave the overclocker memory module makers a great opportunity to expand. Elpida chips that used to be employed for overclocker DDR3 solutions before cannot boast as high a frequency potential. DDR3-1333 memory with more aggressive timings built on these chips loses to DDR3-1600, not to mention faster solutions, of course.

It is important to understand that the DDR3-1600 OCZ PC3-12800 Platinum Dual Channel EB Edition and Super Talent W1600UX2G7 memory kits we have talked about today are niche products with pretty narrow application field. They can only be used in overclocked systems and have pretty ephemeral advantages to offer. At the same time, only real dedicated enthusiasts will not be scared away by the price of these solutions, especially since the same manufacturers are already offering even faster products. The same is true for DDR3-1333 memory kit from Kingston - Kingston KHX11000D3ULK2/2G – which is almost always slower than high-speed DDr2 SDRAM, according to our tests.