4GB DDR3 Memory Roundup - Part 1

Item: 4GB DDR3 Memory Roundup - Part 1
Author: Richard Swinburne

Written by Richard Swinburne

October 8, 2008 | 08:16

Tags: #1600mhz #1800mhz #4gb #9 #c9 #cas #ddr3 #dhx

Companies: #corsair #gskill #samsung #thermaltake

Testing Methods

We attempted to keep a consistent CPU speed through testing to try to limit the difference in CPU performance over small memory changes. However due to limitations in performance profiles and what chipsets and systems can do at the very high end, we applied a closest fit where necessary.

Memory Speeds Tested

EVGA nForce 790i Ultra SLI

Corsair TW3X4G1600C9DHX

PC3-1,600MHz (lowest latency, 7-7-7-18-1T, 1.84V, 400MHz x 7.5 - 3.0GHz)
PC3-1,600MHz (rated latency, 9-9-9-24-2T, 1.8V, 400MHz x 7.5 - 3.0GHz)
PC3-1,925MHz (highest overclock, 9-9-9-24-2T, 1.87V, 481MHz x 7 - 3.37GHz)

G.Skill F3-12800Cl7D-4GBPI
PC3-1,600MHz (lowest latency*, 7-7-7-16-1T, 1.9V, 400MHz x 7.5 - 3.0GHz)
PC3-1,940MHz (highest overclock, 9-9-9-24-2T, 1.9V, 485MHz x 7.5 - 3.4GHz)

G.Skill F3-14400CL8D-4GBGT1
PC3-1,600MHz (lowest latency, 7-7-7-16-1T, 1.9V, 400MHz x 7.5 - 3.0GHz)
PC3-1,800MHz (rated latency, 8-8-8-21-2T, 1.9V, 450MHz x 7 - 3.15GHz)
PC3-1,940MHz (highest overclock, 8-7-7-22-2T, 1.9V, 485MHz x 7 - 3.4GHz)

4GB DDR3 Memory Roundup - Part 1 Test Setup

Click to enlarge

Asus Rampage Extreme

Corsair TW3X4G1600C9DHX

PC3-1,600MHz (lowest latency, 7-7-7-18-1T, 1.85V, 400MHz x 7.5 - 3.0GHz)
PC3-1,600MHz (rated latency, 9-9-9-24-2T, 1.8V, 400MHz x 7.5 - 3.0GHz)
PC3-1,760MHz (highest overclock, 9-9-9-24-2T, 1.92V, 440MHz x 7 - 3.08GHz)

G.Skill F3-12800Cl7D-4GBPI
PC3-1,600MHz (lowest latency, 6-7-6-16-1T, 1.9V, 400MHz x 7.5 - 3.0GHz)
PC3-1,600MHz (rated latency, 7-7-7-18-1T, 1.86V, 400MHz x 7.5 - 3.0GHz)
PC3-1,740MHz (highest overclock, 9-9-9-24-2T, 1.9V, 435MHz x 7 - 3.05GHz)

G.Skill F3-14400CL8D-4GBGT1
PC3-1,600MHz (lowest latency, 6-7-6-16-1T, 1.9V, 400MHz x 7.5 - 3.0GHz)
PC3-1,740MHz (highest overclock, 9-9-9-24-2T, 1.9V, 435MHz x 7 - 3.05GHz)

A few things to note - the nForce 790i Ultra SLI doesn't particularly like low latency, so sub 7-7-7-18-1T simply won't boot. On the other hand we could push the Intel X48 a little lower into the CAS-6 ranges. As such, on the EVGA board with the CAS-7 G.Skill Pi memory, we slightly tuned the 7-7-7-18 to 7-7-7-16 and focused on low latency testing only instead of running at its rated timings.

The overclocking memory results for the Rampage Extreme, and in fact X48 in general weren't great - we couldn't reliably get 1,800MHz to work for either G.Skill part, only the Corsair came slightly closer at 1,760MHz regardless of the settings we tried. We also checked on the Gigabyte GA-X48T-DQ6 motherboard and came to almost exactly the same result. This was particularly disappointing for the GT1 memory which wouldn't even run at its rated speeds and was only stable at lower performance settings than even the Corsair.