Overclocking results

On the previous pages, beneath the introduction of each memory kit, we briefly talked about overclocking them, and provided you with the screenshots of the maximum overclock at three cas settings.

On this page you can find the summary of the maximum overclocking potential of our 8 test candidates. We start off at cas 7 (-7-7-21-1T) :



The graph speaks for itself of course. As the only rated cas 7-7-7 kit, OCZ is also the only one reaching 1600Mhz DDR. Again, remember that we stress the memory already more than the stock setting because we test at command rate 1T. After OCZ, the trio Corsair-Crucial-Mushkin is tied, and Geil and G.Skill are not far behind either.

Second test setting was cas 8 (-8-8-24-1T) :



Crucial is definately coming into its own now, leading the pack by a small margin. The OCZ and G.Skill are very good also, and the Geil is not far behind. What to say about the higher rated Mushkin than ? As we mentioned, performance was a bit off on these ones, same as the Corsair Dominators, which just didn't OC very well. Patriot falls behind a little too, but remember : this is a cas 9 part already outperforming itself by quite a margin. The Aeneon closes the charts at the bottom, and is the only one that doesn't reach 1600Mhz.

Last but not least : cas 9 (-9-9-27-1T) :



Almost a repeat of the previous chart, Crucial and OCZ come out on top here too. Remember though that we tested a 3Gb Crucial kit, which isn't exactly fair towards the other candidates. Still, they're performing very well but didn't quite make the 1Ghz mark on these settings. Geil, G.Skill and even Patriot perform very well, for Patriot this result means more than a 13% overclock, at CR-1T. Again, Corsair and Mushkin do not do their names justice, and are caught up by the lower rated Aeneon. It's almost unexplainable that cas 9 timings do not increase the overclock potential of these kits...

Conclusions : it's clear from the above results that most memory kits we tested today are based around similar memory chips. My guess is at least 5 of them (Geil-G.Skill-Patriot-Mushkin and Corsair) are based around Elpida "rev. A" chips. Crucial is most probably Micron based, as it's a daughter firm. Qimonda-Aeneon is definitely different, as they use their own chip design. OCZ finally is more difficult to say : it could be very strictly picked Elpida or Micron memory, or could be Samsung based as well, a chip that is used in 1800Mhz+ cas 9 memory. Samsung memory is more expensive than older Elpida or Micron, so I'm in doubt there too. The new Elpida ("rev. B") is not present in the current modules yet, but more on that on the next page...>