OCZ Pushes DDR SDRAM to 772MHz

by Anton Shilov
02/24/2005 | 06:49 PM

Top memory module maker OCZ Technology announced it had managed to overclock its DDR SDRAM modules up to 772MHz, beating the company’s DDR2 overclocking record of 766MHz and offering higher performance compared to more advanced and expensive DDR2 memory available in mass quantities.

OCZ Technology used AMD Athlon 64-series processor along with a mainboard based on NVIDIA nForce4-series chipset. The company’s specialists managed to overclock OCZ memory modules to 772MHz with CL3 4-4-15 latencies. Still, the company said the best performance – 8442 MB/s in SiSoft Sandra Memory bandwidth benchmark on AMD64 system was achieved at 660MHz with unknown latency settings. The memory maker did not reveal whether it had to increase memory voltage level to accelerate the speed.

Previously OCZ hit 766MHz at CL4 5-5-15 timings speed milestone with its DDR2 memory modules using on an experimental DFI i915-based mainboard.

In mid-2004 OCZ Technology unveiled its PC-4800 EL DDR memory modules capable of operating at 600MHz with CL3 4-4-8 latency settings. To make the 600MHz possible on conventional DDR DRAMs, OCZ had to increase memory voltage to 2.85V, which limited the target market for the products because not a lot of mainboards on the market are capable of delivering 2.85V to RAM. The PC-4800 EL DDR has never been released to market.

A-Data, another well-known maker of memory modules, managed to release its 600MHz products to the market in September, 2004. Little-known company GSKILL also sells memory modules capable of operating at 600MHz with CL3 4-4-8 latency settings in the USA.

It is unclear whether OCZ’s memory modules capable of working at speeds beyond 600MHz ever reach retail market.