Corsair memory

[zanos]

Anyone know if there is a dramatic difference in speed using Corsair memory (Non XMS) compared to a lesser known brand with the same specs?

[Faustus]

If it really has the same specs then there is really no difference. By specs I mean more then just the DDR/PPC rating. Corsair is just a good quality manufactuer of memory. But I love their XMS series. Other quality brands have the same thing. Kingston has their hyperX series. Mushkin has something but I have no idea if it has a name. You get the drift.

My advice? Pay the few dollars extra for at least CL2 instead of 2.5 at the very min.

[zanos]

What's CL2? I thought Corsair was a little faster than the rest. oh well, thanks for the info.

[ofbarea]

Looks like the importance of CAS2 memory in order to get big performance improvements is disappearing as we get faster FSB and faster memory interfaces.

I recently got a new PC that uses the new Intel 875 chipset. My CPU is a P4 2.8 (at 800). The memory that came with it was a kit composed of two 128 MB memory sticks PC3200 DDR 400MHz CAS3.

Last week I bought a 512MB HyperX Kingston kit that included two 256 MB sticks PC3200 DDR 400MHz CAS2 (2-3-2-6-1) and I did some testing with the new and older memory kits.

I found that the performance improvements when using CAS2 memory vs. CAS 3 are not worth the extra money because I was not able to measure important performance improvements. It was different before. My older 1.2 P III-S performed a lot better after upgrading from PC133 CAS2.5 memory to very high quality CAS2 PC150 CAS2 memory. My system was very stable and It could be overcloked to 1.4.

This specific Dell PC (Intel 875 based chipset) had its fastest score when using CAS2 memory in just filling one memory bank (two sticks).

After testing the same benchmarks with the original CAS3 the system was a just bit slower on benchmarks.

I also tested the memory performance of CAS2 memory filling 2 memory banks (I borrowed 512MB of Kingston HyperX from a friend of mine). The performance of the system was about the same as using just one bank of CAS3 memory.

[rallynavvie]

What are you using to benchmark your memory? I've got a set (2x 512MB) of unbranded memory from before I got the Mushkin that I wanted to see if there was a difference at all in performance. I haven't really noticed much other than the obvious advantages of doubling my memory.

[ofbarea]

I used 3D Mark SE 2001 to see if I was getting a higher score. The score did improve, but it was just a bit higher.

I also tested the memory, CPU and multimedia performance with SiSoftware Sandra.

According to the RAM int bandwidth MB/s test CAS2 memory had a result of 4,527. CAS3 has a score of 4,335. This is just 3.65% faster.

The difference in speed of RAM float bandwidth MB/s was even smaller. CAS2 memory had and score of 4,516 and CAS3 scored 4,351. Just 2.28% faster.