PiFast

A good indicator of CPU/Motherboard performance is version 4.2, by Xavier Gourdon. We used a computation of 10000000 digits of Pi, Chudnovsky method, 1024 K FFT, and no disk memory.

The extra 60MHz shaves about 5 seconds from the calculations. PiFast is fairly memory intensive, so the extra speed makes quite a difference in the performance.

3D Mark 2001 SE

Another synthetic game benchmark, but at low resolutions, tends to stress the subsystem more than the video card. Given the power of the Radeon 9700 Pro, benchmarks were done at the default settings, 1024x768.

The faster memory speeds do improve the 3D Mark scores, but don't expect any magical 1000 3D Mark gains. Needless to say, if "benchmarking" is important to you, faster ram doesn't hurt.

Quake 3: Arena

It's debatable whether this benchmark still has any merit when it comes to testing video cards, but I find it useful when running our CPU and subsystem tests. Tests were run at the "Fastest" settings, at 640x480.

Unreal Tournament 2003

We used the scripts written by , which are excellent tools in testing various resolutions and detail levels. We selected the CPU test, which uses lower quality settings to offload the strain from the video card.

As we can see in the two real-world gaming benchmarks, there are tangible gains with faster ram. Although a faster CPU and video card will make a larger difference, the ram still plays an important part in creating a faster system overall.

Final Words

Corsair has once again put together a high quality product that is certainly worthy of finding a home in your PC. The question you should now ask yourself is what kind of a computer are you planning to put together?

Owning two nForce 2 setups, I certainly can see the appeal of the Corsair TWINX Dual Channel Memory Kit. A lot of time was spent testing to make sure that the two DIMMs cooperate with one another. Previously, I was using some Crucial PC2700, which is also high quality stuff, but I had some problems overclocking the two sticks of Crucial (and yes, I am aware that Crucial doesn't market their stuff as "overclocking" ram). Basically, I was able to manage a 189MHz memory overclock when using two sticks, but when using only one stick, I did a little better at 191MHz. I tried with the other Crucial DIMM, and only got 189MHz.

The Corsair TWINX on the otherhand, allowed for a 452MHz memory overclock, up from 400MHz. I tested the same overclocks using each TWINX stick individually, and although I didn't score higher, both sticks topped out at 452MHz.

Another thing to consider is memory bandwidth, and if you can make use of it. One of the things you'll have to keep in perspective is that for maximum system performance, you're going to want a CPU/Motherboard setup that can handle high FSBs. Although the TWINX is capable of providing a lot of memory bandwidth (6.4GB per second theoretically), that bandwidth will go somewhat wasted if you don't unlock your Athlon, and your motherboard can't hit 200MHz FSB. With current Athlons at 166FSB, you can see my point. In saying that, even if you can't do 200FSB, you can bet on the TWINX to at least handle syncronous memory and FSB settings, at aggressive timings.

If there's one knock I do have is the price. As tested today, the TWINX 512MB kit rings in at . One stick of XMS3200 is about , so two sticks of those would be 7$ cheaper. Now, for me, 7$ is not a lot of money, so in my opinion, the price of the TWINX is justified, especially when you consider the target market, and that the ram has been pre-tested as a pair. It can be argued that other brands are cheaper, but if you're eyeing a Granite Bay or nForce 2 setup, it may well be worth the money to invest in something that will give you far fewer headaches down the road.

In the end, any quality ram could probably do just as well without being a matched pair. Then again, it'll be you finding out yourself if this is the case. This gets trickier when you're overclocking, but in the case of the TWINX, the guessing has already been done for you.

Pros: Excellent performance, good overclocking potential, high quality construction and pre-tested.

Cons: High price, not necessary if you're anti-Granite Bay, or anti-nForce 2.

Bottom Line: If you own, or are planning a Dual Channel motherboard purchase, the TWINX DC Memory kit should be seriously considered if you want the best performance, and fewest problems with your setup. If you have any comments, be sure to hit us up in our forums.

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