DDR3 SDRAM: Revolution or Evolution?

Vimes · 15 Jul 2007 at 14:55

Hi

For those that like to read about the up and coming DDR3 memory standard X-bit labs have written a pretty good evaluation....

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/memory/print/ddr3.html

No write-up should be without graphs, and the one above has them (lots of them in fact), like....

also...

Makes me think that whilst the Gigabyte GA P35C DS3R seems to be a good motherboard the value of the DDR3 slots are not as great as I thought that they were.

Vertigo · 15 Jul 2007 at 15:17

DDR3 is a waste of space atm and, by the time it's mainstream, you'll be looking to upgrade your motherboard anyway as both AMD and Intel will have changed the sockets by then.

Rroff · 15 Jul 2007 at 15:52

DDR3-1600 is where it starts to get interesting... but I'd be very suprised if we didn't see it before the end of 2008... (meaning before the supposed release in 2009-2010)

Also the P35 is a waste of time if your looking for memory bandwidth - even with DDR3 it struggles along behind the likes of a good 975X or 680i board which is a shame because its a very stable and decent performer in other areas... I just switched my gaming PC to one as I got so fed up with the gremlins with the 975 and 680i boards I've been using.

Vertigo · 15 Jul 2007 at 21:40

Why on earth would the memory performance of a P35 be worse than a 975X or 680i?

Rroff · 15 Jul 2007 at 21:53

Some people blame lack of BIOS refinement saying the timings are slacker than they need to be...

All I know is with the same CPU speed (multi and FSB), same RAM and same timings my 680i board got just over 10,000MB/s read, 975X around 9200MB/s read and this P35 board struggles to reach 8000MB/s - all the reviews show the same thing.

stickroad · 15 Jul 2007 at 22:11

Rroff said:
Some people blame lack of BIOS refinement saying the timings are slacker than they need to be...

All I know is with the same CPU speed (multi and FSB), same RAM and same timings my 680i board got just over 10,000MB/s read, 975X around 9200MB/s read and this P35 board struggles to reach 8000MB/s - all the reviews show the same thing.

Linky please?

I thought the P35 base boards where mainly great boards because of their memory tolerance?

Cupra · 15 Jul 2007 at 22:20

stickroad said:
Linky please?

I thought the P35 base boards where mainly great boards because of their memory tolerance?

they are and they ruun chips faster look at any super pi times on a 650i, 680i x975 or p35 and if everything is set the same the p35 is slightly quicker

stickroad · 15 Jul 2007 at 22:23

paul_64l said:
they are and they ruun chips faster look at any super pi times on a 650i, 680i x975 or p35 and if everything is set the same the p35 is slightly quicker

Whats Rroff talking about then?

MikeHunt79 · 15 Jul 2007 at 22:37

Alan: I loved that phrase you used, it was very clever – ‘Revolution not evolution’.
Tony: No, it was the opposite. ‘Evolution not revolution’.
Alan: Well whatever. Because that is me. I ‘evolve’, but I don’t… ‘revolve’…. Or vice-versa.

Rroff · 15 Jul 2007 at 23:09

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/mainboards/display/ga-p35-ds3r_9.html

This is generally the picture...

However I just slapped the F5b beta BIOS on my P35 board and memory reads are now up at 8900MB/s so its getting there - maybe with a proper BIOS we will see it running at its true potential (also latency dropped from 62ns to 54.8)

Rroff · 15 Jul 2007 at 23:12

stickroad said:
Linky please?

I thought the P35 base boards where mainly great boards because of their memory tolerance?

Yeah they will run memory at very high FSBs by slacking the timings but they don't seem to like tight timings and so far memory bandwidth is lagging behind 975X and 680i systems though they still pull in great super PI and other benchmark scores.

Vertigo · 16 Jul 2007 at 07:49

Rroff said:
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/mainboards/display/ga-p35-ds3r_9.html

This is generally the picture...

However I just slapped the F5b beta BIOS on my P35 board and memory reads are now up at 8900MB/s so its getting there - maybe with a proper BIOS we will see it running at its true potential (also latency dropped from 62ns to 54.8)

What board do you have as that review does mention that this is a common trait of Gigabyte boards so I'm wondering if other brands might be better.

Got any more links?

Rroff · 16 Jul 2007 at 17:23

I've been playing with both the Asus P5K and the Gigabyte P35 DS3 series boards and seen exactly the same thing... while overall performance isn't affected much the memory sub-systems seem to be slower reading and higher latency by quite a margin compared to the DFI 975X and Asus 680i boards I have.