Memory Bandwidth Tests - Qualitative?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Cronzor
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Cronzor

Hey folks. Some background before my question:

I had 2x512MB Kingston memory in my computer and have recently replaced
them with 2x1GB OCZ memory.

Memory bandwidth tests showed them as performing THE SAME. I've since
overclocked the OCZ to obtain a marginal increase. My question is the
following: does a memory bandwidth tester (such as memtest86+ or sisoft
sandra's memory bw module) take into account the total amount of memory
installed, or is it PURELY qualitative?

In other words, did going from 2x512mb to 2x1gb net *ONLY* that
marginal increase in performance, or is it the case that the ram is a
tiny bit faster, *AND* there's now twice as much of it? I certainly
hope it's the latter.

Any input appreciated :)




Oh, and if anyone wants to see a little more in-depth and help me out a
bit more, I have another topic about this memory purchase that's fallen
back a page. Especially helpful if Paul could check in there:)

Thanks!
 
Cronzor said:
Hey folks. Some background before my question:

I had 2x512MB Kingston memory in my computer and have recently replaced
them with 2x1GB OCZ memory.

Memory bandwidth tests showed them as performing THE SAME. I've since
overclocked the OCZ to obtain a marginal increase. My question is the
following: does a memory bandwidth tester (such as memtest86+ or sisoft
sandra's memory bw module) take into account the total amount of memory
installed, or is it PURELY qualitative?

In other words, did going from 2x512mb to 2x1gb net *ONLY* that
marginal increase in performance, or is it the case that the ram is a
tiny bit faster, *AND* there's now twice as much of it? I certainly
hope it's the latter.

Any input appreciated :)




Oh, and if anyone wants to see a little more in-depth and help me out a
bit more, I have another topic about this memory purchase that's fallen
back a page. Especially helpful if Paul could check in there:)

Thanks!
Click to expand...

Memtest86+ only uses a relatively small block of RAM for
the bandwidth test. The size of the memory is not of
much consequence for a bandwidth test. The main benefit
of your new memory, is you have twice as much, for the
most bloated of games :-)

Paul
 
Paul said:
Memtest86+ only uses a relatively small block of RAM for
the bandwidth test. The size of the memory is not of
much consequence for a bandwidth test. The main benefit
of your new memory, is you have twice as much, for the
most bloated of games :-)

Paul
Click to expand...

That's great to hear. Thanks for all the information! I really
appreciate it.
 
Hmm, I'll paste this from the older discussion so we can finish this
here:

Awesome, thanks for all the help. I'm leaning toward keeping the new
2GB and selling the Kingstons to help reduce the upgrade cost. I
actually checked out some specs and it turns out they're far more
OCable than I'd thought, so I almost feel bad letting go of them, but
they simply won't "play nice" with the OCZ memory.

Oh, and I hear more voltage isn't necessarily better. If I can get all
my current settings running on a voltage like 2.65, should I perhaps
just keep it there to extend lifespan?

Can you suggest any additional methods for testing (I'll be running
memtest and prime for the next 2 nights) or extra tweaks to get more
out of these OCZs? Those simple BIOS tweaks helped a lot.
 
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