How We Tested

All memory modules were tested under dual channel configuration (2x 1,024 MB). Since the goal of our review is to measure the memory performance, all benchmarks were conducted with the CPU as close as possible from its original clock speed of 2.2 GHz (Athlon 64 3500+). This insured that the results from our benchmarks were influenced only by the memory clock and by the memory latency.

We ran our benchmarks using the configurations listed below, always configuring the memories with the lower supported latencies with stability.

CPU Clock	Memory Clock(DDR)
200 x 11 = 2.200 MHz	200 MHz (DDR400)
220 x 10 = 2.200 MHz	220 MHz (DDR440)
245 x 9 = 2.205 MHz	245 MHz (DDR490)
275 x 8 = 2.200 MHz	275 MHz (DDR 550)

If the memory was able to go beyond 275 MHz we controlled the CPU multiplier in order to keep its internal clock as close as possible from its original 2.2 GHz.

During our benchmarking sessions we used the configuration listed below. Between our benchmarking sessions the only variable device were the memory modules being tested.

Hardware Configuration

• Motherboard: DFI LANParty UT nF4 SLI-D (nForce4 SLI).
• BIOS version: B14 – November 14th, 2005.
• PCB revision: A00.
• CPU: Athlon 64 3500+ (2.2 GHz) with 512 KB L2 memory cache and Venice core.
• Cooler: In-a-Box.
• Hard Disk Drive: Samsung SpinPoint SP0411N (7,200 rpm, 40 GB, ATA-133).
• Video Card: nVidia Geforce 6800 GT 256 MB PCI Express.
• Video Resolution: 1024x768x32@72Hz.
• Power Supply: Seventeam ST420BKV-03F.

Software Configuration

• Windows XP Professional, installed on NTFS.
• Service Pack 2.
• Direct X 9.0c.

Driver Versions

• nVidia video driver version: 81.98 WHQL.
• nVidia nForce driver version: 6.70 WHQL.

Used Software

• 3DMark2001 SE Build 3.3.0
• Quake III Arena 1.32
• Sandra Lite 2005.SR3 10.69
• Super Pi Mod 1.4
  

We adopted a 3% error margin. Thus differences below 3% cannot be considered relevant. In other words, products with a performance difference below 3% should be considered as having similar performance.

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