Low End Dual Core + New Memory Dividers
With the X2 4800+, we saw that DDR436 offered basically no performance improvement, while DDR480 was a little more useful, bringing us anywhere between 1% and 5% of a performance improvement in our selection of tests. Given that the X2 4200+ has half the cache, its dependence on a faster memory bus should go up. But counteracting that relationship is the fact that the 4200+ runs 200MHz slower than the 4800+.
According to our table of supported DDR frequencies by the DFI board, the 2.2GHz 4200+ gives us two options above DDR400 - mainly, 220MHz and 244MHz, or an unofficial DDR440 and DDR488, respectively.
Multimedia Content Creation Winstone 2004
We start off with MCC Winstone 2004 again:
| Memory Speed |
MMCC Winstone 2004 |
% Improvement over DDR400 |
| DDR400 |
38.9 |
N/A |
| DDR440 |
39.1 |
1% |
| DDR488 |
39.4 |
1% |
3D Rendering
3D rendering is another area where we see good use of dual core processors, but these tests also showed us a 0 - 1% increase in performance when comparing DDR480 to DDR400:
| Memory Speed |
3dsmax 6 - SPECapc Rendering Composite |
% Improvement over DDR400 |
| DDR400 |
2.54 |
N/A |
| DDR440 |
2.54 |
0% |
| DDR488 |
2.54 |
0% |
| Memory Speed |
Cinebench 2003 |
% Improvement over DDR400 |
| DDR400 |
584 |
N/A |
| DDR440 |
586 |
0% |
| DDR488 |
587 |
1% |
Despite the decrease in cache size, the faster memory bus didn’t do anything more for the X2 4200+.
Video Encoding
| Memory Speed |
DivX 6 + AutoGK |
% Improvement over DDR400 |
| DDR400 |
47.3 |
N/A |
| DDR440 |
47.9 |
1% |
| DDR488 |
48.5 |
3% |
Here, DDR488 only gives us a 3% bump in performance. Nothing to write home about, but if your memory can support it, you might as well enable it.
| Memory Speed |
Windows Media Encoder 9 (fps) |
% Improvement over DDR400 |
| DDR400 |
3.88 |
N/A |
| DDR440 |
3.91 |
1% |
| DDR488 |
3.92 |
1% |
Gaming
| Memory Speed |
Doom 3 (1024 x 768 fps) |
% Improvement over DDR400 |
| DDR400 |
108 |
N/A |
| DDR440 |
111.2 |
3% |
| DDR488 |
113.6 |
5% |
In Doom 3, the X2 4200+ gets slightly more of a performance boost than the 4800+. But despite our theories, it seems that the X2 4200+ doesn’t really get any more of a performance boost than what the 4800+ did.
Just for curiosity's sake, we performed a DVDShrink encode while running the Doom 3 test, to see how two relatively memory bandwidth intensive tasks running simultaneously changed the picture, if at all. Note that alone, DVDShrink saw no performance boost due to DDR488 over DDR400:
| Memory Speed |
Doom 3 (1024 x 768 fps) w/ DVDShrink running |
% Improvement over DDR400 |
| DDR400 |
102.5 |
N/A |
| DDR488 |
109.2 |
6.5% |
The performance boost in Doom 3 in this scenario went up another 1.5%, to 6.5% for DDR488 over DDR400. It wasn’t a huge jump, but once you start getting into those heavy usage scenarios, then the faster memory speeds make a lot of sense for the dual core Athlon 64 X2s.
Other lighter multitasking scenarios offered no real difference in performance for the X2.
| Memory Speed |
DVD Shrink (Time in Mins) w/ Firefox & iTunes Running |
% Improvement over DDR400 |
| DDR400 |
9.9 |
N/A |
| DDR488 |
9.9 |
0% |
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wien - Monday, July 11, 2005 - link
#15: It's not like they will stop making s939 CPUs the instant they launch M2. You'll be fine for a couple of years for sure.PrinceGaz - Monday, July 11, 2005 - link
#13- Lots of mobos support 3.3V RAM voltage. Only problem is they take PC66/100/133 modules rather tahn DDR :)AnnihilatorX - Monday, July 11, 2005 - link
Well in the end AMD still planned to move to DDR2To me they said S939 would last long
But they are moving to socket M2 and DDR2 next year
It would have been much better if they stick to s939 and wait for DDR3 instead
#12 I think it's next year
Viditor - Monday, July 11, 2005 - link
"According to [H] it is the San Diego core which has the improved (fixed) memory controller (see quote below). So do you have to be careful to get San Diego or is Venice ok?"San Diego, Venice, DC Opterons, and the X2 all have the improved memory controllers...
elecrzy - Monday, July 11, 2005 - link
#11: how many mobo's do you know support 3.3V+ RAM voltage and how many RAM sticks to you know support DDR500 with 2225 timing?bupkus - Monday, July 11, 2005 - link
When does AMD's roadmap start using DDR2?JustAnAverageGuy - Monday, July 11, 2005 - link
A64s aren't bandwidth starved. We knew that much already :)When you crank up the HT\FSB speeds you're normalyl trying to get the CPU clock speed up. Dividers just help if the memory can't keep up. :)
What's with all the OCZ+DFI love going on around here anyway? :)
GTMan - Monday, July 11, 2005 - link
According to [H] it is the San Diego core which has the improved (fixed) memory controller (see quote below). So do you have to be careful to get San Diego or is Venice ok?"The San Diego core brings with it some very important things. Primarily, it has what AMD terms as a “more flexible memory controller.” We at HardOCP would prefer to call it a “fixed memory controller.” “Fixed” as in the older one was broken."
http://www.hardocp.com/article.html?art=Nzg3
creathir - Monday, July 11, 2005 - link
Well, I for one am just GLAD Anand is not dead... was begining to wonder... Maybe you got invited up to Redmond for a little chat due to you article that got pulled? At least you're alive and the M$ob did not get ya...Great work on the article. I suppose as long as I do not play BF2 on one screen while rendering a scene in 3DStudioMax on another, I should be fine.
- Creathir
Joepublic2 - Monday, July 11, 2005 - link
"i remember when ddr400 wasn't official..."I do too, DDR333 was intended to be the last speed grade of DDR. Samsung and other memory makers had good yields of DDR400, and were having big problems with DDR2. Those have been fixed, and DDR2 is ready to go, having recently become even less expensive that DDR.
http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/memory/display/200507...