For the most part DDR2 is on the back burner for most users. AMD wont be supporting DDR2 until the release of their M2 processor. In the past DDR2 has had a pretty big hurdle to overcome in the form of pretty high latency, this is becoming a thing of the past as more manufacturers are focusing on lowering latency and increasing performance of DDR2 RAM. DDR2 was supposed to be the next big thing, and after a slow start it is starting to come into it's own.
The RAM we have today is OCZ's high frequency dual channel PC2-6400. With timings rated at 4-3-3-8 and designed to operate at 800MHz DDR we are seeing a big step in the right direction for DDR2. The RAM is wrapped up in OCZ's signature platinum heatspreaders, has a life time warranty as well as OCZ's nod to overclockers with their EVP (Extended Voltage Protection) that allows you to run the Voltage up to 2.2V +/-5% and not void your warranty.
As with all of the OCZ RAM we have seen recently it is packed in a plastic clamshell with bright orange insert. There are a few details of the RAM listed on the insert with a link to OCZ's site for a more detailed description.
Each 512MB stick is labeled, clearly displaying the speed as well as timings.
RAM installation is pretty universal, if you have installed one stick you have installed them all So I'm not going into detail about that. It can only be installed one way so if your a newbie to installing RAM and it doesn't seem to fit, don't force it, flip it around and try again.
Overclocking:
Even though the motherboard I tested this RAM with doesn't support 800MHz DDR2 it was detected correctly by the BIOS as 800MHz, however according to the SPD the timings were 4-4-4-12 not the 4-3-3-8 listed on the label.. I rebooted and manually set the timings to 4-3-3-8 and booted right into Windows without any problems. As I already mentioned, the mobo I'm using doesn't officially support 800MHz DDR2 so I wasn't expecting a lot from overclocking. After several minutes of trying different timing, voltage and speed combos I was unable to get a stable overclock over the default 800MHz, I feel it is the motherboard at fault here and not the RAM as I have seen some nice overclocks of this same RAM on different mobos.
Test system:
Intel P4 3.4GHz LGA775, Foxconn NF4SLI7AA-8EKRS2 mobo, 2 x WD 74GB Raptors, 1 60GB Maxtor HDD, ASUS dual layer DVDRW, Lite-ON DVDROM, HIS X800XL, Cooler Master 550W PSU. For comparison I'll be comparing to Kingston Hyper X PC5400 at 4-4-4-10
Sisoft Sandra's memory benchmark as well as PiFast will be used and I'll test the OCZ underclocked to PC5400 speeds as well as at stock speeds.
First up is PiFast, obviously there are no results at 800MHz for the Kingston RAM. We used a computation of 10000000 digits of Pi, Chudnovsky method, 1024 K FFT, and no disk memory. Note that lower scores are better, and times are in seconds.
Just over 1 seconds difference between the two at 667MHz, this may not sound like much but when you start getting into bigger and bigger calculations those seconds could add up to a substantial drop in processing time.
For the Sisoft memory benchmark once again I ran the PC2 6400 underclocked to 667MHz at 4-3-3-8 to match the Kingston HyperX 4-4-4-10 as well at default speeds of 800MHz at 4-3-3-8, in this benchmark higher scores are better.
Tighter timings and increased headroom of the underclocked OCZ PC2 6400 give it a nice lead over the Kingston at 667MHz. At 800MHz we see results similar to other 800MHz memory we have seen here at Viperlair.
Synthetic benchmarks are good, but they don't give a good idea of real world performance. To get an idea of how this RAM performs in a actual use I did some benchmarking with F.E.A.R. This game relies heavily on a good graphics card, but running the game at lower resolutions should give a good indication of how well the RAM performs once you take most of the work away from the GPU. Again, I tested against the Kingston HyperX and ran through three different resolutions, 640x480, 1024x768 and 1280x960
As you can see, even at low resolutions F.E.A.R. still relies pretty heavily on your GPU, however it still gives a good example of what tighter timings and faster clock speeds can do for you. An increase of 6FPS may not seem like a whole lot at 1024x768 but it could mean the difference in winning or losing when timing and how quickly you react are the key.
With the speeds rising and the timing decreasing DDR2 is finally showing some benefit over DDR. Compared to the extremely low timings of DDR 4-3-3-8 seems pretty high, but considering the fact that speed has doubled from 400MHz to 800MHz this makes the timings less of a factor. DDR started out with not so great timings and look where it ended up, DDR2 seems to be headed down that same path and OCZ is leading the pack, 4-3-3-8 timings are the tightest I have seen on DDR2. Even though I was unable to overclock this RAM with the board I am using, I have seen successful overclocks of up to 905MHz making the OCZ PC2 6400 an excellent overclocker when paired up with the right hardware.
Pros: 800MHz, Tightest timings I've seen on DDR2, heatspreaders, warranty, EVP
Cons: Other than the instability with my particular motherboard I didn't find any cons.
Bottom Line: A lot of people, and manufacturers (AMD) have steered clear of DDR2 due to the high latency, regardless of speeds the latency canceled out any performance gain so it just wasn't worth it to switch to DDR2. That is all starting to change with much higher speeds and latency dropping with each new product DDR2 is finally coming into it's own. AMD's M2 processor will support DDR2 and that means we should see performance of DDR2 increase even more as companies try and outdo each other to see who can produce the best performing RAM on the market. OCZ is off to a great start with their PC2 6400, and judging from their past performance I can see it only getting better.
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