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OCZ PC4800 Dual Channel Platinum Limited Edition Memory
OCZ PC4800 Dual Channel Platinum Limited Edition Memory - PCSTATS
It's pretty amazing to see how high people are able to clock traditional DDR memory these days, especially since the final JEDEC DDR standard was PC3200.
 84% Rating:   
Filed under: Memory Published:  Author: 
External Mfg. Website: OCZ Technology Jul 04 2005   C. Sun  
Home > Reviews > Memory > OCZ Technology PC4800 Dual Channel Platinum

Memory prices have fallen dramatically over the last six months. These days it is not uncommon to find a generic stick of 512MB PC3200 DDR memory for about $60 CDN. Yet over the same time period, enthusiast-calibre memory has not fallen in price much, unfortunately.

Take for example OCZs PC4800 Dual-Channel Platinum Limited Edition kit of two 512MB sticks of DDR. Aimed directly at the performance user, these puppies have a retail price of $330 CDN ($265 US). Quite expensive compared to the average stuff that's on the market, but by default this DDR is rated to run at an amazing 300 MHz with 2.5-4-4-10 memory timings (at 2.85V)! The timings are pretty quick, but not quite at the level of 2-2-5. Still, DDR600 is definitely an impressive feat and tight timings are not as important to the AMD Athlon64 as they are to Intel Pentium 4 systems.

OCZ present its PC4800 DC Platinum LTD Ed memory in jackets of nickel-plated copper heatspreaders. Realistically, heatspreaders don't do much for cooling at lower speeds/voltages, but they do a good job at protecting the memory from physical damage. If you plan to really overclock your memory, its also generally advisable to actively cool the DIMMs with a small fan.

OCZ PC4800 DC Platinum LTD ED

Overclocking to DDR600 Levels
Before we began to push the OCZ PC4800 DC Platinum LTD Ed memory modules, I first lowered the CPU multiplier to 6x; this way the CPU will not be the bottleneck holding the memory back. If you haven't guessed, I'm a low latency freak and I was interested in seeing how high the PC4800 DC Platinum LTD Ed memory would run with 2-2-2-5 memory timings.

Starting at stock speeds with a voltage of 2.6V, I increased the motherboard speed in ~5 MHz increments. The first blip hit at 221 MHz; at that speed, the memory started to become unstable and would often drop back to desktop while running 3D applications.

Overclocking Results:
memory timings: 2-2-2-5 2.5-4-4-10
memory speed: 234 MHz

318 MHz


If you're new to Overclocking and not sure what to do, check out these two excellent Guides for some pointers:
Overclocking the CPU and Memory
Overclocking the Videocard

Increasing the memory voltage moderately to 2.8V solved those issues and I continued to push the memory further. With tight timings, the OCZ PC4800 DC Platinum LTD Ed finally topped out at a very respectable 234 MHz. Increasing voltages (up to 3.8V) did not garner higher stable speeds but still, 234 MHz with 2-2-2-5 timings at 2.8V is very good!

Lowering the timings all the way down to 2.5-4-4-10 (the memory's default) I continued going up from 234 MHz with 2.8V. Amazingly, the memory simply flew at these settings and the PC4800 DC Platinum LTD Ed easily hit its default rated speed of 300 MHz! Moving past 300 MHz, the memory seemed to have more life in it and eventually settled down at 318 MHz. Anything higher and the system would occasionally drop back to desktop while running 3D applications. Still.... 318MHz!

For testing purposes we're going to make an exception to our standard of running overclocking tests with low latencies, and run the OCZ PC4800 DC Platinum LTD Ed overclocking benchmarks at 318 MHz with lax timings.

pcstats test system specs:
processor:

amd athlon64 4000+

clock speed:

12 x 200 mhz = 2.4 ghz
8 x 316 mhz = 2.52 ghz

motherboards:

dfi lanparty nf4 sli-dr (nf4-sli)

videocard:

msi rx800xt-vtd256e

memory:

2x 512mb corsair twinx3200xl pro
2x 512mb centon gemini pc3200
2x 512mb ocz pc4000 gold dc vx
2x 512mb ocz pc4800 platinum dc ltd ed

hard drive: 74gb western digital raptor
cdrom: gigabyte go-w0808a dvd burner
powersupply: pc power & cooling turbocool 510 sli
heatsink: prometeia mach ii gt (review)
Software Setup

WindowsXP
Forceware NF4 6.53
Catalyst 5.4

Benchmarks

Business Winstone 2004
SiSoft Sandra 2005
PCMark04
3DMark2001SE
3DMark05
X2: The Threat
UT2003
UT2004
Doom 3

Note: We could not get the 7.5x multiplier working for this test, every time it was selected the system would not boot.

PCSTATS Test Methodology

PCSTATS tests DDR memory on AMD Athlon64 systems only because Intel is still in the middle of moving its platforms over to DDR2. Enthusiasts usually keep to the bleeding edge, so fast DDR memory is useless for the Intel overclocker looking for more juice.

On AMD test systems we're only interested in seeing how high we can go with the memory running 1:1, as running with other dividers puts the overclocking bottleneck elsewhere, not with the system memory. We usually run DDR RAM latency at 2-2-2-5, or the memory's tightest possible timings, as quick access is important to the CPU design. However in cases where memory is built to run at high speeds with lax memory timings, we will run the benchmark tests at manufacturer spec. Not doing so would put high speed DIMMs at a disadvantage since the memory was not designed to run at tight memory timings. Let's get started!

© 2023 PCSTATS.com Next Page >

 

Contents of Article: OCZ Technology PC4800 Dual Channel Platinum
 Pg 1.  — OCZ PC4800 Dual Channel Platinum Limited Edition Memory
 Pg 2.  Benchmarks: Business Winstone 2004, SiSoft Sandra, PCMark04
 Pg 3.  Benchmarks: 3DMark2001, 3DMark05, X2: The Threat
 Pg 4.  Benchmarks: UT2003, UT2004, Doom 3
 Pg 5.  Max. Overclocking and Conclusions

 
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