Extreme Overclocking & Benching
| Test Platform: |
| Memory: | OCZ Blade 3x2GB PC3-17000 8-9-8-24 (OCZ3B2133LV6GK) |
| Motherboard: | EVGA X58 3X SLI Classified |
| Processor: | Intel Xeon W3540 (3845B010) |
| Processor Cooling: | Chilly1 single stage phase change
MMouse Rev 3 CU Pot
w/Liquid Nitrogen |
| Thermal Paste: | Arctic Silver Ceramique |
| North Bridge Cooling: | Stock |
| South Bridge Cooling: | Stock |
| PWM Cooling: | Stock |
| Power Supply: | Corsair HX1000W |
| Video Card: | ATI PCI Mach64
Gigabyte GTX 260 (NVIDIA GeForce 180.48 WHQL) |
| Video Card Cooling: | Stock
Kingpincooling.com Tek9 4.0 Slim
w/Liquid Nitrogen |
| Additional Fans: | Scythe Ultra Kaze 120MM 3000RPM 133.6CFM (DFS123812H-3000) |
| Hard Drives: | Seagate 7200.9 80GB SATAII 8MB cache |
| OS: | Windows Vista SP1 / Windows XP Pro SP2 |
| Ambient Temperature: | 23C ~ 25C |
Up to this point we have only been concerned with what this memory will do for the average consumer. Full stability testing, a lot of talk about being able to run this memory at spec, and so on and so forth. Well that all stops right here, this is where we talk about what this memory can really do. Show what this memory was meant to do, and trust me when I say, it has nothing to do with stability or the average consumer. I mentioned in the PC3-16000 review that those OCZ Blade sticks were becoming my favorite modules for benching, that needs to be adjusted because these PC3-17000 modules are just a hair better. We start this section off with a brief look at the OC Report found in the HardwareCanucks.com Forums posted a short time ago. Here is the chart of results from that single 32M SPi OC Report:
From 6-7-6 up to 7-8-7, the results are remarkably similar to the PC3-16000 OCZ Blade OC Report at every voltage step of the way. What we added to this OC Report was the 8-9-8 timings and that is where things just get out of hand. With the new Intel Xeon W3540 processor and its much stronger memory controller, we were really able to push this memory in single 32M stability falling just a hair short of 1200MHz...that is DDR3-2400. And to accomplish this at only 1.75v vDIMM means this memory still has more in it once we can find an even better CPU with a stronger memory controller.
Single 32M @ 6-7-6
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 | Single 32M @ 7-7-6
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Single 32M @ 7-8-7
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 | Single 32M @ 8-9-8
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The screen shots just above are from the OC Report with the best result from the four timing sets tested with the exception of the 6-7-6 screen shot. Since I was so close to 1000MHz 6-7-6, I bumped voltage up another notch and went for it, that didn't even make the OC Report. The rest of the screen shots can be seen in the OC Report itself.
The last little piece of the OC Report puzzle was the 1200MHz validation. Not many have achieved it so it was something I just had to grab while I had the clocks that high, here it is...DDR3-2440 validated:
Needless to say, these modules are ready for the big time, so let's have some fun with them. Up next, a little 2D action including SPi 1M and 32M with the Xeon W3540 under LN2 cooling.
SuperPi 1M
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OCZ Blade @ 1182 8-9-8-24 1T | SuperPi 32M
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OCZ Blade @ 1172 8-9-8-24 1T
Top 15 Globally @ HWBot.org |
That 32M time up there is a new personal best for me and by a healthy margin. That cleared my previous PB by 5 seconds. Running memory at 1172MHz definitely helps achieve crazy runs like that. I believe it is the fastest 32M SPi at below 5.4GHz in the world, or at least that I have seen. This is some serious memory and an equally serious CPU, and I am just getting started with the pair.
The last of our benchmarks today are going to involve the help of a liquid nitrogen cooled Gigabyte GTX 260 that will run anywhere from 900MHz to 1080MHz on the core, depending on the benchmark. We have a couple results from 3DMark 01 as well as a very impressive result in Aquamark 3 and 3DMark 05.
3DMark 01 - Single GTX 260
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OCZ Blade @ 1095 7-9-7-20 1T | 3DMark 01 - Single GTX 260
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OCZ Blade @ 1162 8-9-8-24 1T |
Aquamark 3 - Single GTX 260
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OCZ Blade @ 1172 8-9-8-24 1T | 3DMark 05 - Single GTX 260
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OCZ Blade @ 1132 8-9-8-24 1T |
The first 01 result above was actually a Low Clock Challenge over at Overclockaholics.com that I entered and thanks to the PC3-17000 OCZ Blades, I won the single card part of the competition. This score was heavily influenced by the ability to run the high memory clocks that I did. The second 01 score is simply the same setup with the CPU maxed out. The AM3 and 05 results are amongst the top two in the single GTX 260 class over at HWBot.org and the AM3 score in particular is definitely aided by the crazy 8-9-8 clocks this memory can achieve.
In total we have had 5 or 6 really good sessions with these sticks thus far and they have been everything we had hoped they would be. The versatility to run super high clocks or uber tight timings allows us to tailor our memory for what each benchmark likes best...all without having to have multiple kits of memory on hand. There may be a problem with some Elpida Hyper, but for benchers, it is worth the time trying to find a kit that doesn't have issues like these ones. We have beaten on them from day one and they have done nothing but ask for more.
