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 of the Crucial Ballistix PC2-8000 Edition memory. We will run the same benchmarks and follow a similar approach to compare a bit the results.

We are using the memory as before at 1000MHz memory speed, but with adjusted timings. The memory latencies used have been decreased to the bare minimum which gave us a 5-5-5-15 as outcome. We will now check how the timings will influence the performance of the Ballistix Edition dual channel memory modules. The latency is set as advised by Crucial on their Ballistix high performance version, which should provide the optimal bandwidth.

Memory Read Results

Having optimized the memory timings we get immediately an increase of performance delivered by the Ballistix Edition DDR2-1000 memory. The Crucial Technology memory puts down a score of 8015MB/s which is a significant increase of about 60MB/s. This confirms that the latency settings do matter when looking for the ultimate speed demons. With these high performance edition sticks Crucial has raised the bar once again in memory bandwidth and performance.

Memory Write Results

Again we see impressive scores with the write sequence; here we get a solid 5447MB/s of constant write allocations to the Crucial Ballistix PC2-8000 Edition ram modules. Looking back at the default results we spot no boost at all, the bandwidth remains the same. This is certainly a disappointment somehow, but since the write performance had reached already a quite high level, it natural that it could have hit the limit of the memory chips. But once again an excellent result put down by the Ballistix memory sticks.

Memory Copy Results

Moving on we have the Copy results which resulted in a score of 5888MB/s which is a boost of about 65MB/s over the performance reported at 1000MHz with the timings set by the SPD. Once again a quite significant boost in performance and the stability was never compromised. Running smooth and fast, just the way we want. During the Memory Copy run the Ballistix Edition memory modules are actually the fastest we have seen so far on all our benchmark runs.

Memory Latency Results

On the latency results we also see an improvement, by having dropped to 57.2ns while this was only 57.6ns with the default timings. This is quote okay but isn't that significant in the overall performance picture of the memory results. However the lower the latency means in generally the faster the memory can act and refresh the content and date stored within the memory chips. And faster refresh means that these Ballistix are truly hardcore performance modules.

After adjusting the memory timings towards the DDR2-1000 levels, well actually lowering them down to the minimum of 5-5-5-15, the Crucial Ballistix Edition shows off some outstanding performance. The performance is up there with the high performance DDR2-1000 modules from Corsair and OCZ. So by going for the Crucial Ballistix PC2-8000 Edition ram modules you get excellent performance and a bit more. Great job by Crucial Technology on delivering some excellent high performance memory modules.