Cross-posted from Xtremesystems..
Last month, I took a look at some 4GB DDR2 action, but compared to 2GB it just wasn't that interesting since they both ran in 2T. I figured it was time to pay some attention to DDR1, since I've been neglecting it for a while.
/enter 4:00am overclocking session
The modules I used for testing were Corsair 3500LL PRO. Some oddities during overclocking arose, but I will tackle those shortly.
These are obviously DDR438 modules, so overclocking was going to prove fun. They use Infineon BE-5, and after recent Infineon CE-5 hassles, I was almost worried. However, I was impressed to see that these clock just as well, if not better than the 4400PRO kit currently out.
My first goal was to see if the max OC on 2 * 1GB could hit the same max overclock of my 4400PRO, and they did. I didn't bother running benchmarks at the time, because I wanted to see if 4 * 1GB could equal that OC. Which it did..
4 * 1GB 275MHz 3-3-2-0 2T 2.8V (Valid)
After a few hours of testing and tweaking, I found the max stable overclock to be:
4 * 1GB 284MHz 3-3-2-0 2T 2.8V (Valid)
I consider that setting to be stable, after running a 5 hour Prime95 test, a one hour loop of 3D Mark '06 and a one hour real time play of Half-Life 2 and Battlefield II.
Here's where things get strange though. For some reason, at those max settings, 2 * 1GB will cause 3D Mark '01 and Half-Life 2 to freeze at various points, but only for a few seconds. Once the extra sticks are popped back in though, there are no stability problems at -all-. Even changing the 2 * 1GB config to use 2T timings did not help anything, so I have a little bit more of tweaking to do
MemTest Stable:
Ignore A64 Tweaker in that picture. The second picture above has the correct values for each setting used. I am going to tweak a little more to see if I can boost the settings higher for either config, but I am very pleased with the results. I should also mention, during all this testing, -no- sort of active cooling was used. I added a 120mm fan this afternoon, but it didn't seem to do anything for performance.
Here are some quick 2GB vs 4GB results.
Everest 2.80 219MHz 2-3-2-6: 6756/6363 vs 6613/4533
Sandra Unbuffered 219MHz 2-3-2-6: 2986/2988 vs 2605/2605
Sciencemark 2 219MHz 2-3-2-6: 5728.01MB/s vs 4716.73MB/s
Everest 2.80 250MHz 2.5-3-3-6: 7740/7262 vs 7494/5144
Sandra Unbuffered 250MHz 2.5-3-3-6: 3310/3392 vs 2874/2891
Sciencemark 2 250MHz 2.5-3-3-6: 6488.28MB/s vs 5328.94MB/s
Everest 2.80 284MHz 3-3-2-0: 8720/8256 vs 8550/5860
Sandra Unbuffered 284MHz 3-3-2-0: 3310/3392 vs 3249/3291
Sciencemark 2 284MHz 3-3-2-0: 6488.28MB/s vs 6054.58MB/s
Hope you found this post interesting. I am back to tweaking...
I'll be working on an article to publish in the coming days regarding 4GB vs 2GB overclocking.. so stay tuned..
Last month, I took a look at some 4GB DDR2 action, but compared to 2GB it just wasn't that interesting since they both ran in 2T. I figured it was time to pay some attention to DDR1, since I've been neglecting it for a while.
/enter 4:00am overclocking session
The modules I used for testing were Corsair 3500LL PRO. Some oddities during overclocking arose, but I will tackle those shortly.
These are obviously DDR438 modules, so overclocking was going to prove fun. They use Infineon BE-5, and after recent Infineon CE-5 hassles, I was almost worried. However, I was impressed to see that these clock just as well, if not better than the 4400PRO kit currently out.
My first goal was to see if the max OC on 2 * 1GB could hit the same max overclock of my 4400PRO, and they did. I didn't bother running benchmarks at the time, because I wanted to see if 4 * 1GB could equal that OC. Which it did..
4 * 1GB 275MHz 3-3-2-0 2T 2.8V (Valid)
After a few hours of testing and tweaking, I found the max stable overclock to be:
4 * 1GB 284MHz 3-3-2-0 2T 2.8V (Valid)
I consider that setting to be stable, after running a 5 hour Prime95 test, a one hour loop of 3D Mark '06 and a one hour real time play of Half-Life 2 and Battlefield II.
Here's where things get strange though. For some reason, at those max settings, 2 * 1GB will cause 3D Mark '01 and Half-Life 2 to freeze at various points, but only for a few seconds. Once the extra sticks are popped back in though, there are no stability problems at -all-. Even changing the 2 * 1GB config to use 2T timings did not help anything, so I have a little bit more of tweaking to do
MemTest Stable:
Ignore A64 Tweaker in that picture. The second picture above has the correct values for each setting used. I am going to tweak a little more to see if I can boost the settings higher for either config, but I am very pleased with the results. I should also mention, during all this testing, -no- sort of active cooling was used. I added a 120mm fan this afternoon, but it didn't seem to do anything for performance.
Here are some quick 2GB vs 4GB results.
Everest 2.80 219MHz 2-3-2-6: 6756/6363 vs 6613/4533
Sandra Unbuffered 219MHz 2-3-2-6: 2986/2988 vs 2605/2605
Sciencemark 2 219MHz 2-3-2-6: 5728.01MB/s vs 4716.73MB/s
Everest 2.80 250MHz 2.5-3-3-6: 7740/7262 vs 7494/5144
Sandra Unbuffered 250MHz 2.5-3-3-6: 3310/3392 vs 2874/2891
Sciencemark 2 250MHz 2.5-3-3-6: 6488.28MB/s vs 5328.94MB/s
Everest 2.80 284MHz 3-3-2-0: 8720/8256 vs 8550/5860
Sandra Unbuffered 284MHz 3-3-2-0: 3310/3392 vs 3249/3291
Sciencemark 2 284MHz 3-3-2-0: 6488.28MB/s vs 6054.58MB/s
Hope you found this post interesting. I am back to tweaking...
I'll be working on an article to publish in the coming days regarding 4GB vs 2GB overclocking.. so stay tuned..
