Testing:

Testing was conducted on the system described in the Configuration section of the review and included several benchmarks to test the memory at the three speeds indicated in the Overclocking section. The benchmarks executed include:

» Everest Ultimate Edition (v4.00)
» SiSoft Sandra 2007 Lite XI SP1 (v11.22)
» 3DMark 2006
» Real World Gaming - STALKER and F.E.A.R.

As this is the first DDR3 kit I have tested, I do not have another DDR3 kit to compare it to. However, this particular motherboard was selected due to its ability to run both DDR2 and DDR3. In the past, I have reviewed the OCZ Technology DDR2 PC2-8500 2GB Platinum SLI-Ready Edition Dual Channel memory kit. This memory has timings of 5-5-5-15 (CAS-TRCD-TRP-TRAS) and is rated at 1066MHz.

The benchmarks will be run on both sets of memory at the DDR2 default speed of 1066MHz; I will also overclock both kits to the maximum. The OCZ DDR2 Platinum kit was able to reach a maximum of 1250MHz, and both kits will be tested at this speed as well. Finally, the DDR3 kit will be tested at its maximum speed of 1333MHz. At each speed the motherboard will be allowed to automatically adjust the timings as necessary.

Everest Ultimate Edition

Everest is one of my favorite benchmarks, and it includes several tools designed to evaluate memory performance. The chart below provides values for reading, writing and copying in units of MB/s, where a higher score is better. It also presents the latency of the memory in nanoseconds (ns), and this time a lower value is better.


As the chart shows, the tighter timings on the DDR2 allow it to run better than the newer DDR3 at the same clock speeds. However, when the DDR3 is run at full speed it is able to surpass the DDR2 in the three main tests; reading, writing, and copying. This shows the faster clock speed helps, regardless of the loose timings on the DDR3.

Sisoft Sandra Lite XI

Sandra is a synthetic benchmark that provides two results while testing memory. An Integer and Float value, both presented in units of MB/s, and a higher score is better for each. When the DDR2 is overclocked to 1250MHz, and the DDR3 is run at 1333MHz, the system receives approximately a 5% better score. However, when both the DDR2 and DDR3 are run at the same speed the DDR2 performs about 4% better than the DDR3. This is most likely due to the tighter timings on the DDR2.