GeIL PC3500 DDR RAM Review
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Like every performance PC user out there, I constantly push my system to get the highest memory throughput I can. To achieve the best performance in today's games (and benchmarks) you need great memory bandwidth. As I will show later, two identically systems running with the same components and processor can perform very differently depending on if one has raised their memory bus. The system with the higher memory bus will win, and usually by a large margin.
Product: GeIL PC3500 512MB DDR-RAM
Price: $194, $94 for 256 MB
Availability: Now
Written by: Chad (Memphist0)
Reviewed: August, 2002
Edited by: Mack (SPeeD)
Introduction
One of the largest barriers I have encountered wasn't maxing out my processor speed, it was not being able to run my memory faster. Typically there have been two reasons for this: one, the memory simply wouldn't run any faster; or two, the motherboard couldn't push the memory higher. To solve the first problem, GeIL has released 256 megabyte and 512 megabyte sticks of PC3500 RAM. PC3500 RAM is rated to run on a 216.666 megahertz memory bus or 433 megahertz DDR. That's over 100 megahertz higher than any JEDEC certified RAM!
So are they pulling our collective leg, like *cough*OCZ*cough, or is this RAM the real deal?
Overview: I was impressed to hear that GeIL actually designs their own PCB for these memory sticks. They do not take Samsung, Micron, or whoever's memory sticks, slap on a heat spreader and call it their own like some other resellers have done. The design and memory chips are extensively tested by GeIL to ensure reliability and they back it up with a Lifetime Warranty.
Specifications
Hand Picked 6ns GEIL GL2000 Chips
Pure Copper Heat Spreader
Lifetime Warranty
6 Layer Ultra Low Noise Shielded PCB
Available in up to 512MB Module
184pin
32x8 Low Denisty, Unbuffered
CAS 2.5 6-3-3 2T @ DDR433 PC3500
CAS 2 6-3-3 1T @ DDR400 PC3200
2.7v-3.0V
Comes with clear acrylic case and instruction
Hardware Setup
Software Setup
Benchmarks
All tests were run at the default processor speed (2.26 GHz) and then overclocked to 2.77 GHz to be able to push the memory to it's rated speed. This was done using the 1:1 CPU/Memory Ratio and then with 3:4 CPU/Memory Ratio. This resulted in memory bus speeds of 133MHz, 177 MHz, 163 MHz, and 217 MHz.
Well lets kick it off with some Sandra action.
Right away you can see the benchmark numbers jump drastically when using the 3:4 ratio over the 1:1, as expected. But I didn't expect bandwidth to increase so efficiently in unison with the 3:4 ratio!! Its amazing what a difference the memory bus speed can make.
Also, look how close the memory running at 434 MHz come to the RDRAM 1066. And now some screen shots from Sandra Cache and Memory Benchmark.
These first two are of the processor running at 2.26 and the memory at 133 on the left and 177 on the right.
These next two are of the processor running at 2.77 and the memory at 163 on the left and 217 on the right.
Looks like this benchmark is favored more by the processor cache than the memory but there does seem to be some subtle improvements over using the 1:1 ratio.
Let's see what else we can dig up.
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