|
Page 1 of 2
 Super Talent PC3-12800 Triple Channel Memory
While DDR2 memory is anything but passe, DDR3 nonetheless is here to stay. The future of DDR3 is now etched in stone with the release of the i7and its memory controller contained within, you have but one choice.
Manufacturer:
|
| Price: |
|
DDR3 is not the new kid on the block anymore, its taken off about as strong as RAMBUS did (did I just age myself? And you?), mass acceptance has been, well, held back by the extreme cost differential between DDR2 and DDR3. The Core i7, AMD Phenom II (with appropriate AM3 Motherboard) and a little movement downward in the pricing area, has alleviated some of the stall.
So decided it was time for VL to test some of its latest DDR3 memory, not just a nice 4GB setup mind you, they sent us 3 sticks of 2GB each! Why 3 sticks you may be asking yourself? Well see, there is the new twist, Triple Channel Memory, hey, you thought Dual Channel was kick ass, lets try it out with Triple Channel. And so we will.
|
|
 
SuperTalent has provided VL with a three 2GB modules paced at PC3-12800. This is part of Super Talents Extreme Performance Memory lineup. Super Talent in the past has provided VL with some very well performing modules so my guess would say that its name should hold upwell. Let's look over some statistics first.
Specifications:
The DDR3 standard is 1.5V, there is more then one blog (and an unoffical Intel memo) out there about 1.65VDimm or higher causing damage to the Core i7 CPU and while I love to read blogs, lets just say they are not all accurate... Obviously you want to bear in mind that a higher voltage for a long period of time will in fact reduce the life expectancy of your gear, its just a sad side affect of OC'ing. Now DDR3 has been around for some time, and in all honesty I was a bit disappointed to see that the timings have not improved since inception.
A quick glimpse at DDR3 standards and the performance behind them:
Chips andModules
|
Standard name
|
Memory clock
|
Cycle time
|
I/O Bus clock
|
Data transfers per second
|
Module name
|
Peak transfer rate
|
|
DDR3-800
|
100 MHz
|
10 ns
|
400 MHz
|
800 Million
|
PC3-6400
|
6400 MB/s
|
|
DDR3-1066
|
133 MHz
|
7.5 ns
|
533 MHz
|
1066 Million
|
PC3-8500
|
8533 MB/s
|
|
DDR3-1333
|
166 MHz
|
6 ns
|
667 MHz
|
1333 Million
|
PC3-10600
|
10667 MB/s
|
|
DDR3-1600
|
200 MHz
|
5 ns
|
800 MHz
|
1600 Million
|
PC3-12800
|
12800 MB/s
|
*Courtesyof
As you can see, the Super Talent Extreme Performance Modules we have are at the high end of the DDR3 spectrum, PC3-12800.
As normal since DDR memory evolved, SPD will set the timings if you let things go about their attrition. In the case of the the Super TalentPC3-12800 Extreme Performance modules, they clock it at an interesting 9-9-9-27 using only 1.5V. For our baseline test, we will leave this be, as most will probably do to start out.
  
Now that we got that out of the way, lets go over the modules in a little more detail. Super Talent continues to “upgraded” their look, this reviewer believes the gold needs to go, I understand the reference of it, the aesthetics just aren't there. The heatspreaders are ribbed Aluminum with “risers” coming off the top. While we at VL have never been able to prove the addition of heatspreaders are of value, I suppose its better to have them then not, just in case you know :). Super Talent, like most manufacturers today, are RoHS compliant with their chips, which basically means youcan eat them and not die from led poisoning etc... The packaging ofthe Super Talent Extreme Performance memory modules is that of simplicity with little fanfare other then a short paragraph on the back of what denotes “Extreme Performance” in Super Talents dictionary.
 
Testing Phase
Iwill be testing these modules on the following setup:
BaseDDR3 Test bed:
MSIx58 Platinum
MSINX8600GT Twin Turbo
WD250GB 7200RPM SATA-II
IntelCore i7 920
CoolerMaster RP-500 PSU
OS - Vista / Ubuntu 8.10
I will be comparing the Super Talent Extreme Performance PC-12800 DDR3 Memory Modules (9-9-9-27) to the previously tested Patriot Extreme Performance PC-15000 DDR3 Memory Modules (7-7-7-20) using the identical system from above.
I do understand that Patriot will have an advantage going into this test, it is much easier to get two 1GB modules to play nice with each other then three 2GB modules. One would hope that in the end, Triple Memory will overcome Dual Memory performance, however, only reading further shall we find out.
Testsuite:
EverestUltimate
- Memory Read
- Memory Write
- Memory Copy
- CPU Queen
- CPU Photoworx
PhoronixTest Suite
- FFMpeg
- Memory Read
- Memory Write
- LAME MP3
- Ogg Encoding
- GnuPG (2GB File)
|
