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Quake3

Quake3 has been a mainstay among gamers and the graphics engine has spawned dozens of games which many may or may not recognize. This shows how truly ahead of it’s time that game and 3D engine were, and in 4-5 years we may be saying the same thing about Doom3’s engine. While dated, Quake3 provides us with an opportunity to remove the vast majority of the graphics card bottleneck seen in the above games in Doom3 and Far Cry, and instead concentrate on the subsystem performance in running this game. Results seem to confirm the Mushkin and PDP as the faster gaming memories, yet the differences continue to be minimal when compared by percentage with an average advantage over other memories in the roundup being between 2-5% faster. Nothing earth shattering, but a gain nontheless. Another interesting observation is that the Tracer modules appear to run better at 1:1 and timings of 3:3:3:10 versus 5:5:5:15 at 3:4 divider. Looking back through Far Cry the advantage is seen there as well, while Doom3 showed identical results.

Conclusions

After evaluating all of the benchmarks and comparing data, it is still a rather cloudy picture on which to base winners and loosers. Certainly, the Mushkin, PDP, and even the vanilla Crucial Ballistix DDR2 modules showed the ability to produce the highest benchmark numbers, but the margin of victory was slim at best. We spend hundreds of dollars extra on our computers to gain edges in performance and overclockability through better quality and higher featured, motherboards, coolers, hard drives and traditionally high performance memory. The transition to DDR2 has been eagerly anticipated by those pushing the new standard and one thing that cannot be overlooked is the multi-billion dollar investments into the new technology that can only be amortized if a certain market share is eventually reached.

The relative comparative performance among all modules in testing is somewhat of a slap in the face to the end user expecting more performance benefits from their recent purchase of high end and consequently higher priced DDR2. One is left to wonder, if the Maginot line drawn by Intel in designing both the Pentium4 Presscott processor and platform to behave similarly with such disparities in memory frequencies and timings, is in our best interests or not. One could argue, that demoting the system memory as a significant predictor in system performance helps to promote closer competition among ram manufacturers and eases the choice for the consumer, as the decision is not paramount to the end product. However, we in the enthusiast sector are averse to decisions being made for us, especially when it comes to limiting the performance potential of our computer systems. If this is true or not, is an argument that I can neither win or lose. My intent is simply to raise the question in your minds and allow you to explore your feelings on the subject.

With that said, what would I personally use in my own system. Well naturally I’m going to take any edge in performance I can get, even if it’s marginal. Small gains here and there eventually add up to significant performance advantages and therein lies the rub. Should we spend additional dollars/euros/yen on what may only be a 1-5% performance advantage depending on application. That is a question best answered by each individual. Myself, I’m a tweaker, and can in most cases afford the small premium generally placed on higher quality and higher performance modules. That’s a price I’m willing to pay to have the assurance I’ve done what I can do to compliment the components chosen and produce the fastest system that falls within my needs and budget.

If I was going to buy a new kit of memory based off of this article, I would say the Mushkin PC4200 Low Latency 3 2:2:8 performed at a level to be considered the winner. The PDP was a very close second, and the Crucial Ballistix put in a good showing as well. Both the Mushkin and PDP can be purchased for just over $200 for a 1GB dual pack, which is remarkable given the leading performance they delivered. If lights/LED’s are your thing, either the Corsair Pro PC5400 or the Crucial Ballistix Tracer performed well enough to be considered for your next purchase. Furthermore, Corsair has recently released their PC5400 UL modules that run at 3 2:2:8 timings at 667MHz frequency. I would imagine they would make their way shortly to the Pro line as well.

In the end, I can’t declare any modules losers in this roundup. All performed well, and outside of benchmarking no differences would be apparent to the end user in almost all cases. If you have a particular brand preference and you wish to stay within their product line, that shouldn’t present a problem as performance should be similar between most modules as demonstrated today. For the user with DDR2 already purchased, this article might reaffirm their past purchase as nothing that needs immediate attention or upgrading. While tighter timings may present a temptation, depending on your platform and system, the gains if realized will be minimal.

For the user contemplating DDR2 purchase now, I would again reiterate my recommendation of the Mushkin and PDP parts. While the performance differences and lead are minimal through most benches, the price and performance advantages remain favorable to their competition. Add that to the possibility that the Intel 955 platform or Nvidia Intel SLI boards will show more potential with low latency DDR2, the choice becomes clearer. Furthermore, with AMD rumored to be transitioning over to DDR2 for their A64 line of CPUs in the coming year or two, this memory purchase could tide someone over for quite awhile, something not previously possible with older memory standards, where memory was generally upgraded with the platform.

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