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3DMark 2001SE

The 3Dmark series has certainly earned its share of controversy over the past couple of years. The 2003 and 2005 variants have produced what amounts to almost purely video card dependent tools. While this is fine for judging video card performance, there is an inherent connection between overall system performance and our video cards, and that symbiotic relationship is somehow lost of the 2003/2005 versions, yet still captured well in the older 3Dmark 2001SE benchmark.

Results in our testing show the Mushkin again leading the pack, quickly followed by the vanilla Crucial Ballistix, which returns to form producing some better numbers in comparison to the Tracer modules. What is particularly interesting about the 3Dmark 2001SE numbers, is that we now see the ability of the low latency DDR2 modules running at tight timings and 1:1 ram divider able to best the higher latency modules if timings of Cas 5 5:5:15 are used. While the Mushkin at timings of Cas4 4:4:12 and the 3:4 ram divider at 285fsb is overall slightly faster, the opportunity to run tighter timings is certainly welcome, and depending on your CPU and platform, there may be instances where the 1:1 divider at tight timings is able to best the Cas 4 4:4:12 timings while using the 3:4 divider. This bodes well for manufacturers now producing low latency modules as the added flexibility should add to the marketability of those kits.

Doom3 640x480-Low Details Default

Doom3 for me was definitely worth the wait. The nightmare lived up to most expectations, as the graphics were a cut above and almost revolutionary in comparison to contemporary games present at release. As such, the demands placed on the end user’s PC was intense, and the groundswell among users upgrading just to play Doom3 and eventually Half-Life2 began. Even at the low resolution and details as run in our benchmarks, the system appears to be graphics card limited. While the Mushkin, PDP, and vanilla Ballistix take the top spots respectively, the margin of victory is small at best. In game play one would be hard pressed to differentiate between modules, and justifying one module over another on a performance basis alone would be questionable.

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