- Back to homepage
- Related articles
  Related articles

Intel Core 2: Is high speed memory worth its price?

Memory by piotke @ 2006-08-01

Does the Intel Core 2 need fast DDR2 memory to perform at its best? In this article we compare different memory speed and timings to provide you with the answer. Read on to find if cheap memory is enough to feed the Conroe.

Benchmarks: Synthetic

(Results in percentage increase/decrease over slowest PC3200 (DDR2 400) CL5-5-5-15 modules)

We start off with Sisoft Sandra?s memory benchmark, it measures the maximum bandwidth of your system, as expected, the increase in memory speed and the decrease in memory timings has a considerable impact on the results.

Madshrimps (c)

Changing timings has a 5-10% impact, increasing memory speed results in a 10-15% bump. The biggest jump can be seen by going from PC3200 to PC4200.

If we throw the CPU into the equation we measure memory bandwidth impact in SuperPi 1Mb.

Madshrimps (c)

Not quite the same increase, maximum ~5% going from slowest to fastest. Remarkable is the drop in performance going from PC4200 (533) to PC5300 (667), even with tighter timings PC5300 can not catch up with PC4200, the difference is only ~2%, but it?s strange to see a decrease when you expect an increase in performance.

Now let?s add the graphics card to the whole in our last synthetic test, 3DMark05 from Futuremark.

Madshrimps (c)

Up to 3% increase, not quite note worthy is it? Going from PC4200 to PC5300 with CL3-3-3-8 makes no difference.

Game and Application benchmarks next ->

All information and graphics contained in Madshrimps are sole property of the Madshrimps crew and may not be reproduced or copied in any manner without written permission from us.