Separating The Wheat from the Chaff: The Latest DDR2 Modules Tested

Test Setup

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Intel Processors (Socket 775)
1066 MHz FSB (Dual DDR)Intel Pentium 4 Extreme Edition 3.46 GHzFSB1066
Motherboards
MotherboardGigabyte 8AENXP-DWIntel 925XEBIOS F2B (Jan 10, 2005)
Common Hardware
Graphics CardNVIDIA GeForce 6 Series
PCI ExpressGPU: NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GTMemory: 256 MB GDDR3-SDRAM
Hard DriveWestern Digital WD740JB Raptor74 GB, 8 MB Cache, 10,000 rpm
DVD/CD-ROMMSI MS-8216 16x DVD
Software
GraphicsNVIDIA Detonator 66.93
Intel Chipset DriverChipset Installation Utility 6.0.1.1002
DirectXVersion: 9.0c
OSWindows XP Professional, 5.1.2600Service Pack 2

For the comparison test we were primarily interested in finding out just what the latest DDR2 modules are capable of. For that reason we did not use traditional benchmarks, as the results are practically the same for various DIMMs at the same speed and timing parameters.

We were far more interested in finding out the maximum clock speed and the fasted timings that could be used at that speed. In our opinion, this information is the best indicator of which type of memory works best. To check the stability of the settings we wanted to test, we ran several cycles of the memory test from Prime95.

Test Results At A Glance