Enhanced Performance Results (Cont.)

To be able to compare the outcome of the change on the memory timings we will use the Everest Ultimate Edition software suite from Lavalys once again for compiling the performance results. The Everest Ultimate Edition has several benchmark items that can be executed to get to the bottom of impact of the memory timing on the actual performance.

Just to make it clear for all, we are once again at 200MHz HTT and with the adapted memory latencies of 2-2-2-5 to find out how the Crucial Ballistix 1GB dual channel kit will do on the Everest benchmark suite.

Memory Read Results

Having optimized the memory timings we get immediately an increase of performance delivered by the Ballistix DDR500 memory. The Crucial memory puts down a score of 5196MB/s which is a significant increase of about 280MB/s. Keep in mind that we are still running these ram sticks at only 400MHz DDR.

Memory Write Results

Again we see impressive scores with the write sequence, here we get a solid 2047MB/s of constant write allocations to the Crucial Ballistix PC-4000 2x 512MB ram. Looking back at the default results we spot a boost of about 240MB/s. So far all who had not been convinced yet that memory latency/timings haven't got much to do with the performance; they should certainly reconsider their standpoint.

Memory Latency Results

On the latency results we also see an improvement, by having dropped to 113.3ns while this was only 116.9ns with the default timings. This is still not that impressive but isn't that significant in the overall performance picture of the memory results.

After adjusting the memory timings towards the DDR400 levels, well actually lowering them down to the minimum of 2-2-2-5, the Crucial Ballistix shows off some outstanding performance. The performance is up there with the high performance DDR400 modules from Corsair, Mushkin and OCZ... So by going for the Crucial PC-4000 ram modules you can still use these for normal DDR400 operation and they deliver excellent performance as such. Well done Crucial, and may the Ballistix last for long!