Mushkin Redline Ascent 3x2GB PC3-12800 C6 Memory Review

3D/Gaming Benchmarks

We have forced ourselves to step up to 3DMark Vantage results for all reviews because the public demands it. 3DMark Vantage is the newest in a long line of 3D benchmarking software from Futuremark and is the most elaborate to date. Featuring multiple presets for various system configurations, Vantage is the culmination of all 3DMarks past relying on system and GPU power for its results. We will stick to the Performance preset as it seems to be the most popular at this point in time. 3DMark 06 is the previous iteration of this successful 3D benchmark suite.

#d and gaming benchmarks really are a bit of a wash in memory reviews but we still like to show them, just in case it is your first time reading a Hardware Canucks review. Basically, you are going to find little to absolutely no effect on games with high-end memory, such as the Mushkin Redline Ascent modules we are looking at today. Even at the stock settings, these modules provide more than enough bandwidth that increasing the frequency is not going to improve gaming performance. The 3DMark 06 and Vantage results show this, as will the rest of the gaming benchmarks on this page.

We all know what Crysis is and how much it beats up systems but we wanted to add it to the gaming benchmarks to see how system changes can improve performance on a mid-level system. Detail levels are all set to Very High with the resolution at 1680x1050 with no AA. We ran the benchmarks with a demo of the Sphere level in DX9 and 64-bit. The game looks great with this setup and plays just well enough to keep us happy.

Crysis is so GPU bound that even the CPU frequency jumps we make between the various setups doesn't influence results all that much. These are the same type of results we see with a GTX295 as well so it isn't just the GTX260 limiting the influence the system has on performance.

Another fall release of this past silly season Far Cry 2 has some beautiful scenery but does lack that buttery smooth game play in places. A lot of moaning and groaning has occurred with FarCry 2 but acceptable frame rates are much easier to achieve than Crysis and the game play is plenty smooth enough to enjoy. We were really able to crank up the settings with this benchmark on this setup.

Far Cry 2 usually has some impact on its frame rates by adjusting the system settings but clearly that isn't the case with a single GTX260. Our average frame rates are all within 2 FPS of each other, and the min/max FPS are almost identical across the board.

The newest game in our testing sweet, Left 4 Dead was just added after we were asked to include a Source powered game in our memory benchmarks. Being based on the Source engine, there is definitely a chance that system performance will heavily influence the results. We used FRAPs to measure frame per second on a custom time demo of the rooftop level.

Our most system influenced game on the schedule, Left 4 Dead, doesn't even bat an eye at the changes we make to CPU or memory frequency. As with the other games, we basically have results identical through all four setups.