Corsair Dominator GT 3x2GB PC3-15000 Triple Channel Memory Review

System Benchmarks

When running the 32M benchmark of SPi, we are calculating Pi to 32 million digits and timing the process. Obviously more CPU power helps in this intense calculation, but the memory sub-system also plays an important role, as does the operating system. SPi 32M has been a favorite amongst benchmarks for these very reasons and is admittedly the favorite benchmark of this reviewer.

No, we didn't plan these results. It just so happened to turn out that the gap between the two comparable results is the same three seconds. It also just happened to turn out that they were exactly 100 seconds apart from each other. Symmetry aside, the results show a little less difference than we would have been expecting with a true difference in bandwidth. The most impressive is the fact that the 6-7-6 clocks at 900MHz can go toe to toe with the high clocked 7-8-7 timings. Looking at these numbers, we should see similar differences in a number of the benchmarks today. SuperPi 32M is a wonderful representation of the difference between the memory sub system of two setups and these results show the differences amongst our setups.

The latest iteration of the popular system benchmark is PCMark Vantage from the Futuremark crew. The PCMark series has always been a great way to either test specific areas of a system or to get a general over view of how your system is performing. For our results, we simply run the basic benchmark suite which involves a wide range of tests on all of the sub-systems of the computer.

The first real sign that 3x1GB of memory is out performed by the 3x2GB kit is evident in our PCMark Vantage benchmark. Almost 300 points in identical setups in PCMark Vantage with the only difference being the volume of memory speaks - pardon the pun - volumes.

Another benchmarking community favorite, Cinebench renders an intense 2D scene relying on all the processing power it can. Cinebench R10 is another 64-bit capable application and is likely the most efficient program tested today at utilizing all cores of a processor. We will be running both the single threaded and multi-threaded benches here today.

Cinebench historically is more CPU dependant than anything and the results here confirm that once again. We have some variation amongst the setups, but minimal at best to say the least.

Next up is a real life benchmark where we simply time a common task done on the computer. Encoding DVDs for viewing on the computer or other devices is an increasingly important task that the personal computer has taken on. We will take a VOB rip of the movie Office Space, and convert it into DivX using the default 720P setting of the new DivX converter v7.1.

The difference between the 3GB and 6GB setup may only be 3%, but the difference is there. This is the second benchmark now that shows the 3x2GB kit of Dominator-GT outperform an identically clocked 3x1GB kit of memory. We were primarily looking at this comparison for gaming numbers in response to the Corsair Gaming Performance Analysis, but a number of programs - like DivX conversion tasks - are showing a noticeable performance advantage to the 6GB kit as well.

Un-like the DivX conversion we just looked at, Lame Front End is not multi-threaded and only utilizes a single core of a processor. This will obviously limit performance but we should still recognize significant time savings going from the stock settings to the overclocked results. We will be encoding a WAV rip of the Blackalicious album, Blazing Arrow and converting it to MP3 using the VBR 0 quality preset.

The singled threaded MP3 conversion application, Lame Front End, starts to show a bit of preference to higher memory clocks and more gigabytes, but the impact is minimal.

Adobe Photoshop CS4 is fully x64 compliant and ready and able to use every single CPU cycle our processor has available including the implementation of GPU support utilizing the GTX 280 in our test system. It is just a shame it can't fully utilize all 8 threads of the i7 processor yet. We have changed our Photoshop benchmark to more of a standardized test configured by DriverHeaven.net. Their Photoshop benchmark utilizes 15 filters and effects on an uncompressed 109MB .JPG image that will test not only the CPU but also the memory subsystem of our test bench. Each portion of the benchmark is timed and added together for a final time that is compared below.

Right as we start to see a pattern of the 3x2GB blue results outperforming the grey 3x1GB setup, Photoshop swoops in and breaks up the party. We concluded that our Photoshop memory setup must have contributed to these results, but in every aspect of the DriverHeaven.net benchmark, the 3x1GB setup slightly beat the equally clocked 6GB setup. Further investigation might have to occur on this subject to get to the bottom of the results.

We all know what WinRAR is and does. It is a compression and decompression tool that has a built in benchmark, a way to tell just how fast a system can do this programs given task. We simply run the benchmark up to 500MB processed and time how long it takes.

We decided to bring back an old favorite, the WinRAR benchmark. Memory bandwidth is king in WinRAR, and these results tell the whole story. Heck, WinRAR doesn't just tell the story, it magnifies it. DDR3-1990 7-8-7 is better than DDR3-1803 6-7-6 and 3x2GB heavily outperforms 3x1GB of memory in WinRAR performance.

With these programs tested showing favoritism to the 6GB kit, we are almost optimistic we will confirm Corsairs own results where they found 3x2GB of memory to perform much better in gaming when compared to an equal 3x1GB setup.