OCZ PC2-4200EB: Reaching for DDR2-800
by Wesley Fink on December 21, 2004 3:37 PM EST- Posted in
- Memory
Conclusion
There is absolutely no doubt that OCZ PC2-4200EB is the new performance leader in DDR2 memory. It is incredibly fast at 3-2-2-8 at the rated speed of DDR2-533 when the best of the competition is 3-3-3 and some is rated 4-4-4. It is good to see faster memory timings finally appear in DDR2. If you have any doubts that faster DDR2 timings really make a difference, just check out pages 5 and 6 where OCZ PC2-4200EB wins every benchmark compared to the top memory from our DDR2 roundup.If that were all there is to PC2-4200EB, it would be enough to be impressed, but there is much, much more. This same modestly-rated DDR2-533 memory reached an incredible DDR2-821 in benchmark tests on our new DDR2 memory testbed. This is the highest speed that we have ever reached with DDR2, and even more remarkable is that it is achieved at the still fast timings of 4-2-3-8 at 2.1V memory voltage. Many competitors fall far short of this record, giving up with 5-5-5-10 timings.
The fastest 3-2-2-8 timings were good to about DDR2-633 speed, where we merely had to drop to 4-2-2-8 timings to go further. 4-2-2-8 carried us, with increasing voltage to about DDR2-730, where we needed to drop to the still fast 4-2-3-8, which reached all the way to our highest overclock of DDR2-821. Frankly, we might have gone even further by slowing timings even more, but we were already closer to our new test bed limit of DDR-864 than we ever believed we would be at this early juncture.
So, OCZ PC2-4200EB is fast at stock, and reaches the highest DDR2 speed that we have ever tested, at the fastest timings that we have even found with DDR2 at every benchmarked speed. Did we also mention that our test memory was 1GB DIMMs? While it is also available as single-sided 512MB DIMMs, there is little, if any, performance penalty with the double-sided 1GB DIMMs. Those looking for higher capacity DIMMs that won't require dismal timings have reason to rejoice.
It is rare that we get so excited about a product, but that excitement is deserved with OCZ PC2-4200EB. In every way that you look at it, this memory is the yardstick against which all future DDR2 memory will be measured. Yes, it is expensive, but it is also that good. We don't know all the parts that OCZ used in creating this incredible memory, but they need to buy up all the chips and corner PCB production before others find out their sourcing. OCZ PC2-4200 is the first memory to get us excited about an Intel board in a long time. Combined with one of the great new 925XE motherboards, this combo is capable of some very serious overclocking and the best performance that you will find in an Intel system.
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MS - Tuesday, December 21, 2004 - link
JasonIt is certainly true that if you have a system backbone that is not capable of taking advantage of the peripherals it will put a little damper on the enthusiasm. On the other hand, don't blame the components for that.
One of the biggest issues is that the P4, no matter what you do cannot take advantage of latencies or bandwidth. The Prescott is a little better than the Northwood in that respect but it is still the bottleneck. Chances are that Intel finally will wake up and do something about this problem but maybe not. However, from the standpoint of a memory manufacturer, all we can do is try to provide THE very best solution and I firmly believe that we have done just that. Whether anybody wants it or not is a different story --- even though the latter could become our problem... :)
Wesley Fink - Tuesday, December 21, 2004 - link
#9 - We don't often mention exact price in a review because it is always changing and reviews are read and reread in the future. This is particularly true with memory. Right now, a 2x1GB kit is about $818. The 1GB kit with SS 512MB dimms is about $435.As we said in the review, this is expensive memory.
formulav8 - Tuesday, December 21, 2004 - link
This was most likely a HAND-Picked Dimm that OCZ sent to anandtech. Wait until there is real experiance with this memory to see if it is real or not.Jason
skunkbuster - Tuesday, December 21, 2004 - link
how much does this cost? i dont think i saw it mentioned in the reviewbcoupland - Tuesday, December 21, 2004 - link
What I find ironic with all this huge bandwidth on the 1066 fsb p4's, is that a S754 3700+ with 3.2 GB/s can still beat it in most tests, some more than others. Nice Ram, though.bigtoe36 - Tuesday, December 21, 2004 - link
GuysI haven't seen any other DDR2 clock as good as these dimms. Running 3-2-2- at DDR700+ is pretty impressive. Maybe we need to blame the boards or the cpu's for the lack of speed. Im sure if AMD moves to DDR2 running dimms at DDR700 3-2-2 would be pretty damned fast.
CBone - Tuesday, December 21, 2004 - link
How did the other sticks do in the 1066 FSB bench? I'm going to guess that if there was a difference, it was so slight as to be negligible.It seems that everyone is waiting for the great white hope in DDR2, but manufacturers are delivering the great white hype. So far it looks like ALL DDR2 performs and overclocks about the same so you should buy as cheap as you can and not bother getting the overpriced Corsair or OCZ.
formulav8 - Tuesday, December 21, 2004 - link
Was it mainly just for the oc or the lower timings? I guess if for ocing it is nice. But for timings it is worthless?? That is what I was trying to understand with my above post.Jason
formulav8 - Tuesday, December 21, 2004 - link
Unless I was looking at the wrong numbers, this memory is worthless. There was NOT EVEN 1% increase in performance? It increased the points in some benches but by a wopping 0.5%-0.9% on average???I am not sure why this review is so excited about this memory??
You get a much higher performance increase with DDR1 at low timings compared to high timings. Up to 4-5% increase in almost every bench.
Did I compare the wrong numbers or something??
Jason
Icehawk - Tuesday, December 21, 2004 - link
I'm very impressed that they got dual channel 1gb sticks working so well in DDR2 - wish they could do the same for DDR :( A64 + 2gb DC would be nice...