Does High-Speed DDR3 Help AMD's FX? Four 8 GB Kits, Reviewed

Features
By published

Rumor has it that fast DDR3 memory kits help uncork the performance of AMD's Bulldozer architecture. We grab four of the latest kits sporting data rates as high as 2800 MT/s with the goal of finding out. One contender rises to the top in this round-up.

DDR3-2133 Performance

DRAM bandwidth continues to scale past our DDR3-1600 baseline as the competing modules are set to DDR3-2133. Sandra's Memory Bandwidth module again shows G.Skill on top, even though Team Group has the lowest primary timings.

DDR3-2133 is the first setting that puts G.Skill on top in games, with Team Group falling to second place. The difference isn’t noticeable in actual game play, as even DDR3-1600 CAS 9 remains competitive.

Kingston, Super Talent, and Team Group demonstrate equal performance in the average of our two productivity benchmarks. DDR3-1600 CAS 9 is only a second behind, while Ripjaws X appears a second ahead.

Thomas Soderstrom
Thomas Soderstrom
Thomas Soderstrom is a Senior Staff Editor at Tom's Hardware US. He tests and reviews cases, cooling, memory and motherboards.