Testing:
The test system listed in the "Configuration" section was used for the execution of all benchmarks. For this review, a
2GB PC3-12800 kit from Crucial and a
2GB PC3-11000 kit from Kingston will be tested head-to-head with the
Aeneon XTUNE 2GB PC3-10600 DDR3 Dual Channel Memory Kit.
Testing will consist of three benchmarks used to gauge the performance of eight different memory configurations. The benchmarks executed include tests from these three packages:
» Everest Ultimate Edition 2006
» Sisoftware Sandra Lite 2008.1.12.34
» Performance Test v6.1
The eight memory configurations include the following:
» Aeneon PC3-10600 at 1280MHz, 7-7-7-15, 1.8V
» Aeneon PC3-10600 at 1333MHz, 8-8-8-15, 1.5V
» Aeneon PC3-10600 at 1500MHz, 8-8-8-15, 1.8V
» Aeneon PC3-10600 at 1533MHz, 9-9-9-25, 1.8V
» Kingston PC3-11000 DDR3 at 1376MHz, 7-7-7-20, 1.7V
» Crucial PC3-12800 DDR3 at 1280MHz, 7-7-7-20, 1.7V
» Crucial PC3-12800 DDR3 at 1500MHz, 7-7-7-20, 1.8V
» Crucial PC3-12800 DDR3 at 1600MHz, 8-8-8-25, 1.8V
1280MHz had previously proven to be a sweet spot for the Crucial DDR3, so it was chosen as a speed on the Aeneon kit to check for high performance despite being underclocked. The 1333MHz configuration listed for the Aeneon DDR3 is the stock setting, so it was of course checked. 1500MHz settings were as high as the system could go at 8-8-8-15 timings, and 1533MHz proved to be the highest overclock achieved regardless of timings. Comparable speeds were run on the reference memory in order to provide a fair comparison.
Everest Ultimate Edition 2006:
Everest Ultimate Edition was used to provide four sets of results: memory read speed (in MB/s), memory write speed (in MB/s), memory copy speed (in MB/s), and memory latency (in ns). Higher values are better for memory read, write, and copy speeds, while lower values are desirable for latency.
The Aeneon kit definitely got off on the right foot, putting up some very impressive numbers. While the default speed results were OK, overclocking makes it very competitive with the other kits. The tests run while underclocked to 1280MHz were once again very impressive. Of the eight configurations tested, the results from the Aeneon kit at this speed were definitely the best at each of the four things Everest tests.
