Test Results: Latency, Frequency And Bandwidth
The highest memory speed represented in today’s budget 6 GB comparison is DDR3-1600, so we used this as the highest speed for latency tests, looking for any improvements at the three standard speeds all six modules could potentially support. All modules were set to 1.65 V, allowing the slower DDR3-1333 sets to compete on equal footing for best DDR3-1600 latency.
| Best Timings at 1.65 Volts | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Row 0 - Cell 0 | DDR3-1600 | DDR3-1333 | DDR3-1066 |
| Corsair DDR3-1600 CAS 8 TR3X6G1600C8 | 7-7-7-18 | 6-6-6-14 | 5-5-5-11 |
| OCZ DDR3-1333 CAS 7 OCZ3X1333LV6GK | 8-7-6-18 | 6-6-5-12 | 5-5-5-10 |
| A-Data DDR3-1333 CAS 7 AX3U1333PB2G7-3P | 8-7-8-20 | 6-6-7-12 | 5-5-6-10 |
| Crucial DDR3-1333 CAS9 CT3KIT25664BA1339 | 8-7-7-18 | 7-6-6-15 | 6-5-5-12 |
| Super Talent DDR3-1600 CAS 9 WB160UX6G9 | 8-7-7-18 | 7-6-6-15 | 6-5-5-12 |
| Patriot DDR3-1333 CAS 7 PVT36G1333LLK | 8-8-7-18 | 7-6-6-15 | 6-5-5-12 |
Corsair offers the lowest DDR3-1600 CAS latency, while OCZ offered the tightest timings at DDR3-1333 and DDR3-1066. Crucial, Super Talent, and Patriot finished so close one might suspect that these were all based on the same memory chips.
Corsair also leads in overclocking, edging out the basic Crucial modules by a data rate of 29 MHz. Of the three modules that supported nearly-identical timings at various speeds, the set without the heat spreaders (Crucial) leads.
In Sandra Memory Bandwidth, OCZ’s lower tRP appears slightly more significant to our Core i7 platform than Corsair’s lower tCAS.
At DDR3-1333, OCZ’s lower tRP again trumps everything.
Patriot’s lead at DDR3-1066 doesn’t make much sense, but the results are so close that it's hard to call this victory significant.
