DDR3 Memory Scaling: Intel's Core 2 Quad Examined

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Test Setup

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System Hardware
Hardware Details
CPU Intel Intel Core 2 Extreme QX9770 (45 nm, 3.2 GHz, 12 MB L2 Cache, TDP 130 W, Rev. D0)
Motherboard (Socket 775) Gigabyte X48T-DQ6 (Rev. 1.0) Chipset: Intel X48, ICH9R BIOS: F6D (04/24/2009)
RAM DDR3 (dual) 2 x 2 GB DDR3-1600 (Corsair CM3X2G1600C9DHX) 2 x 1 GB DDR3-1600 (Crucial BL12864BA1608.8SFB)
Graphics Zotac Geforce GTX 260² GPU: Geforce GTX 260 (576 MHz) Graphics RAM: 896 MB DDR3 (1998 MHz) Stream Processors: 216 Shader Clock: 1242 MHz
Hard Drive Western Digital VelociRaptor, 300 GB (WD3000HLFS) 10,000 RPM, SATA/300, 16 MB Cache
Blu-Ray Drive LG GGW-H20L, SATA/150
Power Supply Fortron Everest 1010, 1010 W
System Software & Drivers
Operating System Windows Vista Enterprise Version 6.0 x64 Service Pack 2 (Build 6000)
Drivers and Settings
Nvidia GeForce Drivers Forceware 185.85
Intel Chipset Drivers Chipset Installation Utility Ver. 9.1.0.1012
Intel Storage Drivers Matrix Storage Drivers Ver. 8.8.0.1009
3D Games Benchmarks
Far Cry 2 Version: 1.0.1 Far Cry 2 Benchmark Tool Video Mode: 1280x800 Direct3D 9 Overall Quality: Medium Bloom activatedHDR off Demo: Ranch Small
GTA IV Version: 1.0.3 Video Mode: 1280x1024 - 1280x1024 - Aspect Ratio: Auto - All options: Medium - View Distance: 30 - Detail Distance: 100 - Vehicle Density: 100 - Shadow Density: 16 - Definition: On - Vsync: Off Ingame Benchmark
Left 4 Dead Version: 1.0.0.5 Video Mode: 1280x800 Game Settings - Anti Aliasing none - Filtering Trilinear - Wait for vertical sync disabled - Shader Detail Medium - Effect Detail Medium - Model/Texture Detail Medium Demo: THG Demo 1
Audio Benchmarks and Settings
iTunes Version: 8.1.0.52 Audio CD ("Terminator II" SE), 53 min. Convert to AAC audio format
Lame MP3 Version 3.98 Audio CD "Terminator II SE", 53 min convert wav to mp3 audio format Command: -b 160 --nores (160 kbps)
Video Benchmarks and Settings
TMPEG 4.6 Version: 4.6.3.268 Video: Terminator 2 SE DVD (720x576, 16:9) 5 Minutes Audio: Dolby Digital, 48000 Hz, 6-Channel, English Advanced Acoustic Engine MP3 Encoder (160 kbps, 44.1 KHz)
DiVX  6.8.5 Version: 6.8.5 == Main Menu == default == Codec Menu == Encoding mode: Insane Quality Enhanced multithreading Enabled using SSE4 Quarter-pixel search == Video Menu == Quantization: MPEG-2
XviD 1.2.1 Version: 1.2.1 Other Options / Encoder Menu - Display encoding status = off
Mainconcept Reference 1.6.1 Version: 1.6.1 MPEG2 to MPEG2 (H.264) MainConcept H.264/AVC Codec 28 sec HDTV 1920x1080 (MPEG2) Audio: MPEG2 (44.1 kHz, 2 Channel, 16 Bit, 224 kbps) Codec: H.264 Mode: PAL (25 FPS) Profile: Settings for eight threads
Adobe Premiere Pro CS4 Version: 4.0 WMV 1920x1080 (39 sec) Export: Adobe Media Encoder == Video == H.264 Blu-ray 1440x1080i 25 High Quality Encoding Passes: one Bitrate Mode: Vbr Frame: 1440x1080 Frame Rate: 25 == Audio == PCM Audio, 48 kHz, StereoEncodingPasses: one
Application Benchmarks and Settings
Grisoft AVG Anti-Virus 8 Version: 8.5.287 Virus base: 270.12.16/2094 Benchmark Scan: compressed ZIP and RAR archives
Winrar 3.9 Version 3.90 x64 BETA 1 Best compression Benchmark: THG Workload
Winzip 12 Version 12.0 (8252) WinZIP command line Version 3 Compression = Best Dictionary = 4096 KB Benchmark: THG Workload
Autodesk 3D Studio Max 2009 Version: 9.0, x64 Rendering Dragon Image Resolution: 1920 x 1280 (frame 1-5)
Adobe Photoshop CS 4 (64-bit) Version: 11 Filtering a 16 MB TIF (15000x7266) Filters: Radial Blur (Amount: 10; Method: zoom; Quality: good) Shape Blur (Radius: 46 px; custom shape: Trademark symbol) Median (Radius: 1px) Polar Coordinates (Rectangular to Polar)
Adobe Acrobat 9 Professional Version: 9.0.0 (Extended) == Printing Preferences Menu == Default Settings: Standard == Adobe PDF Security - Edit Menu == Encrypt all documents (128 bit RC4) Open Password: 123 Permissions Password: 321
Synthetic Benchmarks and Settings
3DMark Vantage Version: 1.02 Options: Performance Graphics Test 1 Graphics Test 2 CPU Test 1 CPU Test 2
PCMark Vantage Version: 1.00 PCMark Benchmark Memories Benchmark
SiSoftware Sandra 2009 Version: 2009 SP3 Processor Arithmetic, Cryptography, Memory Bandwidth