Testing:
The test system listed in the "Configuration" section was used for the execution of all benchmarks, which include tests from these four packages:
»
Lavalys Everest Ultimate Edition 4.20
»
PassMark Performance Test v6.1 Memory
»
FutureMark PCMark05
»
FutureMark 3DMark06
Six memory configurations will be compared, which will show the performance of the Patriot Viper Series 2GB PC3-12800 DDR3 memory kit head-to-head with DDR3 kits from
Crucial and
Aeneon. The following lists details the configurations to be compared:
» Patriot Viper 2GB PC3-12800 DDR3 kit at 1640MHz, 7-7-7-18
» Patriot Viper 2GB PC3-12800 DDR3 kit at 1600MHz, 7-7-7-18
» Patriot Viper 2GB PC3-12800 DDR3 kit at 1333MHz, 7-7-7-18
» Crucial Ballistix 2GB PC3-12800 DDR3 kit at 1600MHz, 8-8-8-25
» Crucial Ballistix 2GB PC3-12800 DDR3 kit at 1333MHz, 7-7-7-20
» Aeneon XTune 2GB PC3-10600 DDR3 kit at 1333MHz, 8-8-8-15
These configurations represent the Aeneon kit running at its default speed of 1333MHz, as well as the Crucial and Patriot kits being 'underclocked' to run at 1333MHz for comparison purposes. The Crucial and Patriot kits were also run at their default speed of 1600MHz, and finally the Patriot kit was run at the maximum overclock possible at the default timings of 7-7-7-18.
1333MHz testing was conducted with the CPU at 3.00GHz (9x333MHz), 1600MHz testing was conducted with the CPU at 3.20GHz (8x400MHz), and 1640MHz testing was conducted at 3.28GHz (8x410MHz).
The first benchmark to investigate is
Lavalys Everest Ultimate Edition 4.20. Four sets of results are provided which gauge performance in terms of 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 the first three values, while lower values are desirable for latency.
The results indicate that you don't want the Patriot kit if you can't run any faster than 1333MHz, because the tighter timings don't help it at this speed. When running at its rated speed or higher we have a totally different story. The Patriot kit outshines the Crucial kit in all categories at 1600MHz, and even the seemingly trivial addition of 40MHz more contributes greatly to the test results.
