Date:
Tuesday , July 02, 2002
Author:
Kyle Bennett
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Intel / Asus Dual Channel DDR

An ASUS sneak peek at what dual channel DDR will have to offer us on Intel's upcoming chipset.

continued...

Test Platforms:

ASUS P4G8X / Intel Dual Channel DDR; Pentium 4 2.53B; AVC HSF; VisionTek GF4 Ti 4600 128MB (29.42 Drivers); 2x Corsair XMS3000 DDR; NetGear FA311 10/100 PCI; Maxtor 40GB ATA/133 7200RPM HD; Windows XP Professional; Intel Chipset Driver v4.10 Alpha. (133MHz FSB)

Intel D850EMV2 / Intel i850E; Pentium 4 2.53B; Intel HSF; VisionTek GF4 Ti 4600 128MB (29.42 Drivers); 4x Kingston PC1066 128MB RDRAM; NetGear FA311 10/100 PCI; Maxtor 40GB ATA/133 7200RPM HD; Windows XP Professional; Intel Chipset Driver v3.20.1008. (133MHz FSB)

Intel D850EMV2 / Intel i850E; Pentium 4 2.53B; Intel HSF; Gainward Ultra 750/XP GF4 Ti 4600 128MB (28.32 Drivers); 4x Samsung PC800 128MB RDRAM; 3Com 905CX-TXNM 10/100 PCI; Western Digital 30GB ATA/100 7200RPM HD; Windows XP Professional; Intel Chipset Driver v3.20.1008, Official NVIDIA detonator driver 28.32. (133MHz FSB)

MSI 845G MAX, Pentium 4 2.4B, Intel Stock HSF, Gainward GeForce4 Ti4600 128MB (28.32 Drivers), 2x Corsair 256MB XMS3000 DDR SDRAM, 3Com 905cx-txnm 10/100 NIC, Maxtor 40GB ATA/133 7200RPM HDD, Windows XP Professional, DirectX 8.1, Intel Chipset Driver version 4.00.1009. (133MHz CPU bus, 166MHz Memory bus)

VIA P4X333 Reference; P4 2.53; Intel HSF; VisionTek GF4 Ti 4600 128MB (28.32 Drivers); 2x Corsair 256MB XMS3000 DDR SDRAM; Netgear FA311 10/100 NIC; Maxtor 40GB ATA/100 7200RPM HD; Windows XP Professional; Beta v4.38 4n1,VIA 4n1 4.38 Beta was used on the AMD platform. (133MHz CPU bus, 166MHz Memory bus)

All tests were run on clean formats of Windows XP Professional. All RAM timings were set to their highest possible setting for each motherboard to achieve the fastest memory speeds possible on the given platform.

The dual channel DDR board was NOT run at aggressive memory timings due to stability issues. CAS2.5 and 2T Command Rate was utilized.

Memory Bandwidth:

While we like synthetic memory bandwidth tests as much as the next tweaker, they're basically useless except for two things. First, the data can certainly tell you whether or not your memory bus is operating as expected and second, synthetic benchmarks are great for showing off your system across the Net.

SiSoft Sandra has been a staple around our workbench for many a year now. SiSoft's memory benchmark is valuable, especially for those of you that want to get the most bandwidth between your CPU and RAM. Quick, accurate, repeatable results you can rely on.

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Our dual channel DDR solution certainly shows that it is working. Theoretical maximum transfer at PC2100/266MHz DDR speeds is 2.1GB/s. Clearly we are seeing over 3.2GB/s in our SiSoft results. The Dually DDR is hot on the heels of PC1066 RDRam.

PCMark2002 is not one of my favorite benchmarks but I did want to run it against our PC1066 after seeing the above results. Sorry we did not have he time to run the entire gamut of test platforms for PCMark 2002.

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Unexpectedly, the shoe is on the other foot so to say. Our Dually DDR outperforms even the PC1066 in Mad Onion's eyes.