OCZ 3700 Gold Rev. 3: DDR500 Value for Athlon 64 & Intel 478
by Wesley Fink on September 22, 2004 12:05 AM EST- Posted in
- Memory
AMD Test Results: OCZ PC3700 Gold Rev. 3
To be considered stable for test purposes Quake3 benchmark, UT2003 Demo, Super PI, Aquamark 3, and RTCW had to complete without incident. ANY of these, and in particular Super PI and Return to Castle Wolfenstein, will crash a less-than stable memory configuration.OCZ 3700 Gold Rev. 3 (DDR466) - 2 x 512Mb Double-Bank | |||||||
CPU Ratio at 2.4GHz | Memory Speed | Memory Timings & Voltage |
Quake3 fps |
Sandra UNBuffered | Sandra Standard Buffered |
Super PI 2M places (time in sec) |
Wolfenstein - Radar - Enemy Territory fps |
12x200 | 400 DDR | 2-3-3-10 2.5V |
503.3 | INT 2577 FLT 2673 |
INT 6063 FLT 6014 |
82 | 109.0 |
11.5x209 | 400.4* | 2-3-3-10 2.6V |
500.4 | INT 2506 FLT 2660 |
INT 6023 FLT 5982 |
82 | 108.2 |
11x218 | 438 DDR | 2-3-3-10 2.8V |
510.0 | INT 2687 FLT 2845 |
INT 6413 FLT 6350 |
81 | 109.8 |
10.5x229 | 437.2* | 2.5-3-3-10 2.6V |
506.5 | INT 2639 FLT 2801 |
INT 6435 FLT 6343 |
81 | 109.5 |
10x240 | 480 DDR | 2.5-3-3-10 2.6V |
517.6 | INT 2814 FLT 2985 |
INT 6659 FLT 6551 |
80 | 111.2 |
9.5x253 | 480.6* | 2.5-3-3-10 2.6V |
519.7 | INT 2866 FLT 3020 |
INT 6662 FLT 6584 |
80 | 111.5 |
9x267 | 533 DDR | 3-3-3-10 2.7V |
524.9 | INT 3013 FLT 3234 |
INT 6959 FLT 6871 |
79 | 112.5 |
8.5x282 | 533* | 3-3-3-10 2.75V |
524.9 | INT 3036 FLT 3218 |
INT 6926 FLT 6838 |
79 | 112.5 |
8.5x290 (2.46GHz) |
HIGHEST 548* DDR |
3-3-3-10 2.85V |
539.6 | INT 3112 FLT 3310 |
INT 7130 FLT 7044 |
78 | 115.5 |
9x273 (2.46GHz) |
HIGHEST 546 DDR |
3-3-3-10 2.85V |
536.2 | INT 3071 FLT 3298 |
INT 7110 FLT 7002 |
77 | 115.1 |
*During testing, we discovered that while half-ratios do reflect CPU settings accurately, they are not really linear for memory speed. Memory speeds at full ratios are reported accurately. The asterisk values are the actual memory speeds at half ratios - not the reported memory speeds. Special thanks to Oskar Wu of DFI for his help in determining true half ratio memory speeds.
We have become accustomed to memory often reaching much lower overclocks on Athlon 64 than what we have found on the Intel 478 platform. It was, therefore, a pleasant surprise to find the OCZ 3700 Gold Rev. 3 actually performing slightly faster on the Athlon 64 Dual Channel 939 board than what we found on the Intel platform. OCZ claims that the 3700 Gold Rev. 3 performs equally well on A64 and Northwood/Prescott, and we were certainly able to confirm that claim in our memory tests.
11 Comments
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Rags - Thursday, September 30, 2004 - link
I was debating between this and the Crucial Ballistix 3200 for my new machine. Which you guys think I should go with? Hope the October high end buyer's guide comes out soon...KrazyDawg - Sunday, September 26, 2004 - link
Can someone recommend me a cheap pair of 1GB RAM capable of running at 250? The charts on here aren't clear as to exactly what module I should purchase. If I were to cross reference it with newegg, you would see different names and prices and that doesn't help me. The deal time search engine on here only shows some memory prices and they're only for 512MB.Pumpkinierre - Saturday, September 25, 2004 - link
Why does the dual channel a64 have a lower unbuffered Sandra score than the intel when its buffered score is clearly much higher (up to 40% higher). SSE2 implementation on K8 was supposed to be not all that good from early reviews, so you'd expect a worse buffered result. Maybe the real world meaning of these tests should be revisited for the different cpus.Anemone - Wednesday, September 22, 2004 - link
Well the Ballistix 4000 is cheaper so that makes it a "better buy" in terms of price. It certainly clocks fairly high in the tests, and at rather tight timings. The 3700 EB while rated 3700 vs the 4000 seems to clock quite high but at looser timings. I have, maybe just due to people talking about the newer 4000, been reading more high clock success stories (A64's) with the 4000 than I have read about the 3700EB. Maybe OCZ will grace us with 4000EB or 4200EB? Maybe but probably they would have if they could have.Anand will clear us all up soon with some kind of a grand review of memories on the A64 I hope. This article did have that new A64 testbed up and running so there is hope!
Right now a tie between the 4000 cheaper but slightly lower clocks but always seems to clock that well vs the 3700EB which is more expensive and seems to "usually" get a higher possible clock at looser timings than the 4000.
Thus, a tie.
saechaka - Wednesday, September 22, 2004 - link
so which would be the better buy right now for an abit AI7 the crucial ballistix or ocx 3700 eb? thanksOCedHrt - Wednesday, September 22, 2004 - link
Oops! Wow blank post. Anyways, doesn't the Crucial Ballistix already cost less? Crucial sells their 512 PC4000 stick at 144.99.OCedHrt - Wednesday, September 22, 2004 - link
ciwell - Wednesday, September 22, 2004 - link
Wondering the same thing as #2...Can't wait for a "Value" RAM Roundup.
Anemone - Wednesday, September 22, 2004 - link
It has become rather important since am building a system now to see that Athlon 64 memory review you've mentioned was coming :)3700EB is the old standby but it seems that like this 3700, and the Ballistix 4000, there are some memories out lately that do particularly well at 500-550 speeds on the A64's.
As always this article was a very good read and I learned yet another memory of interest.
Now I'd like to see them all layed out and compared so I can refine my choices to go with a nice FX-55 :)
Ty!
mkruer - Wednesday, September 22, 2004 - link
I want to know if its better to get one gig of "cheep" 2.5,3,3,7 DDR400 (2x512) ram vs a smaller (2x256) of high prefromance DDR533 with ram.