Triple-Channel DDR3: 6GB Kit Roundup
Table of contents
- 1. Have Memory Manufacturers Dropped The Ball?
- 2. A-Data And Aeneon
- 3. Corsair And Crucial
- 4. G.Skill And Geil
- 5. Kingston And Mushkin
DDR3 deskto memory has been around for nearly two years, but it wasn’t until a few months ago that we finally got to see the first platform specifically designed to take advantage of its increased data rate. With an on-die memory controller that supports triple-channel mode, Core i7 processors have produced the biggest memory bandwidth improvement we’ve seen since RDRAM met Netburst. But once again, a transition that should have been smooth has been met by memory manufacturers who had other ideas.
The current problem is one of voltage. While DDR3 is specified to use 1.50 V, manufacturers found that the memory controllers of Core 2-generation chipsets could easily handle far more. Rather than try to produce the fastest possible memory within a relatively small voltage range, most vendors instead chose to use slower parts with extra voltage tolerance to produce highly-overclocked products for the enthusiast market. When Intel announced shortly before its Core i7 launch that the memory controller should not encounter more than 1.65 V, a quick look at the market revealed that only a single manufacturer was producing DDR3-1600 modules for standard-voltage configurations at that time.
What followed was a mad rush by memory brands to re-label "fast" memory at whatever slower speed was required to get it stable at the new voltage limit. In the process, this "lower-voltage" memory was packed in triple-channel kits to differentiate it from the heavily-overclocked dual-channel kits sold for previous-generation systems. Super-fast DDR3-2000 disappeared for a time, and DDR3-1866 took nearly a month to emerge in 6 GB triple-channel kits, as nearly every existing product was reduced by one or two speed grades to stabilize it under a lower-voltage ceiling.
December finally brought us high-capacity modules at DDR3-1600 and higher speeds in triple-channel kits, and we quickly rounded up as many of those high-end kits as we could for today’s mega-comparison.
- Hardware,
- triple-channel ,
- ddr3 ,
- i7
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I have now been able to confirm with Crucial that the standard Ballistix 3x2mb is available in the UK without the led's of the Trackers and that the increased voltage is, indeed, caused by the extra power needed for the led's which will put off many overclockers that are not interested in boy-racer go faster stripes.
Also, I have slight misgivings here in that the standard Ballistix are slightly MORE expensive than the Trackers and are NOT available in a 3x1mb tri-channel optimised configuration and this will no doubt irritate those of us who doggedly stick with XP for the time being due to games compatibility issues and the fact that XP only recognises a max of 3.5-4mb of RAM. You CAN buy the 1mb modules individually but doing so this way works out more expensive again and begs the question of whether or not memory does actually need to be tested for tri-channel compatibility or not.
er..it seems my original post did not submit so here goes again.
Whilst it would certainly be welcome to see an updated review for the UK market due to some pricing issues I have investigated further following reading your review and post my personal conclusion below...
As I said, pricing and availability in the UK mean that several of the cheaper brands mentioned here are not in fact any cheaper than those of the more pricey brands. For example, the Patriot OCZ and G-Skill sets are actually pretty much the same price as Crucials Ballistix Tracker range that are your usual Ballistix modules but with gimmicky led flashing lights along the top of the sticks in a choice of green blue or red....
The two budget sets are available but are too close in price to the Corsair Dominators to be worthy of value comparison with that set. They are around £99 for a 3x1mb set whilst the Dominators are around £104 in the same configuration with prices scaling for 3x2mb.
The Kingstons were not available at all as indicated in your original review and with most other brands costing between £120-£130 for 3x1mb (again scaling for 3x2mb)on a price/performance comparison my personal choice would have been to have gone for the Crucial memory due to the fact that the Corsair warranty is slightly worryingly limited to 10 years compared to the lifetime warranty of pretty much every other brand in this test. Also, my decision is coloured by the fact that Crucial offer reknowned live webchat support and telephone support in addition to the standard "email us if there is a problem" of most of the other suppliers.
However, if you have read the first post here you will notice that I had issues with the Crucial BT's in that they need 1.65v just to power the led's and that the vanilla Crucial ddr3 1600, whilst well priced at around the same price as the Corsair Dominators have no heat spreaders attached as standard. Once again then I am left undecided largely due to the poor performance results of the Dominators as shown in this test and the problems with the Crucial as detailed above.
Lastly, the Geil were actually the most expensive of the modules listed in this review that are available in the UK.
it seems the speed diffrence dousn't compensate enough for the price diffrence. But dont worry most of the DDR3 manufacturers will soon drop prices as when they all go to 50nm chips
This is the price we pay for cutting edge technology. Regardless of what you buy in computer hardware it will eventually become useless as technology improves. Paying the extra basically just means you pay more for the increased lifespan it will give your system. I have no sympathy or concern for those of us who are paying more for this new tech at this time for this reason - it's the ones who have just made what a few months ago was considered a "killer" machine only for their wonder machine to instantly become previous generation.
Something missing from the test data is the QPI/VTT voltage that the XMP modes request.
Given Intel's 1.35 max safe voltage for QPI/VTT it's good to know if the kit suggested exceeds that value and if so by how much. When you turn on the XMP profile it can and does adjust this voltage.
Given the performance orientation of the review, I'm betting that OC'ers are already pushing extra QPI/VTT to get the CPU OC'd, when you see that a module has a high QPI/VTT for XMP it can effect the likely hood of keeping the high CPU OC along with the memory increase.
I've had 1600 kits that require as much as 1.4v QPI/VTT to reach their XMP profile and destablisized my max CPU overclock without insane voltage to the QPI and CPU.
On the bright side having played with the voltages and timings I've learned a few tricks to get around the crazy voltages, but users going with the "out of the box" specs in XMP SPDs should beware.