We have seen the bandwidth and latency numbers, let's see how that stacks up in memory dependant programs.

It is clear that the DDR3 setups are all superior in WinRAR with the DDR2 setup falling behind but the times really are quite interesting. Here is a benchmark that tests the archiving ability of the system and the bottom three red results are all within four seconds of each other, despite the almost 200MHz gap in CPU frequency. Technically the three overclocked results are about equal here because the gap is so small. This is certainly one benchmark where frequency is not king.

Un-like the WinRAR times we just saw, the SPi results do say that frequency is king. In this case, the CPU frequency is the king and what is driving the results. With only a ten second difference between the 7-7-6 and 8-8-8 results, it is safe to say that the tighter timings would win this battle if the CPU frequencies were the same. The one result where the DDR2 setup bests the stock settings of the Viper Extreme is the 1M bench. SPi 1M tends to lean on pure system power and the DDR2 setup seems to be the slightest bit quicker, not faster, but quicker. That all disappears in the 32M results where DDR3 just can't be touched from what we have seen in review after review.