Intel P35 Chipset: DDR2 Versus DDR3 Memory

A place to give your thoughts on our reviews!
User avatar
Apoptosis
Site Admin
Site Admin
Posts: 33941
Joined: Sun Oct 05, 2003 8:45 pm
Location: St. Louis, Missouri
Contact:

Intel P35 Chipset: DDR2 Versus DDR3 Memory

Post by Apoptosis »

Intel P35 Chipset: DDR2 Versus DDR3 Memory

With todays launch of DDR3 memory Legit Reviews takes the time to compare DDR2 to DDR3 in terms of system performance. Armed with a 2GB kit of PC3-10600 from Corsair Memory and a 2GB kit of PC3-11000 from Kingston Technology LR takes a look at performance at stock and overclocked settings for both types of memory. If you are interested in seeing how DDR2 CL4 performance against DDR3 CL6 then read on for the most detailed independent DDR2 versus DDR3 performance article to date.

Image

Article Title: Intel P35 Chipset: DDR2 Versus DDR3 Memory
Article URL: http://www.legitreviews.com/article/511/1/
User avatar
Illuminati
Site Admin
Site Admin
Posts: 2378
Joined: Mon Oct 06, 2003 8:48 am
Location: Wright City, Missouri, USA
Contact:

Post by Illuminati »

Very cool. Seems like DDR3 has really snuck up on us.... there was not near as much hype behind DDR3 as there was when DDR2 first came to market... at least from what I can tell.

Very nice to see the performance numbers and looking forward to more varieties of DDR3 from manufacturers.
Justin West
Server Admin & Forum Moderator
Follow me on Twitter | Find us on Facebook
User avatar
skier
Moderator
Moderator
Posts: 4450
Joined: Mon Mar 26, 2007 3:29 pm
Location: Maine
Contact:

Post by skier »

its not much better currently, and $512, thats rediculous, need a lot more improvement before im spending my money.
-Austin
Image
Screamin' BCLK: Image
775 System (Overclocking Platform): Q8400/Q8300/E8400/E7400/E7500 - GA-EP45-UD3R v1.1 - 4GB (2x2) OCZ Reaper HPC DDR2 1066 CL5 2.1v Corsair TX-750w
Gamer: Asrock Z77 Extreme4, i7 3770K @4.6GHz, ThermalTake Armor A90 modded, 2x4GB GSKILL RipjawsX DDR3 2133 CL9, Corsair HX-750w, MSI GTX660 Twin Frozr
Server2012: Q9300 - 8GB DDR2 - Asus P5QL Pro - Corsair CX430 - Mirrored 2TB Seagate's with 2TB WD cav for fileshare backups, 1TB WD for OS backups
User avatar
Zertz
Legit Extremist
Legit Extremist
Posts: 1118
Joined: Tue Mar 20, 2007 4:19 pm
Location: Magog, Quebec

Post by Zertz »

Can't what to see what it will do at higher frequencies and better timings. At the same frequency and much looser timings DDR3 is pretty much equal to DDR2, should be interesting when the memory IC's get better :lol:
brites
Legit Aficionado
Legit Aficionado
Posts: 99
Joined: Wed Mar 14, 2007 7:53 am
Location: Matosinhos, Portugal

Post by brites »

Ok... I'm suprised with the performance of the DDR2-800 :finga:, not to mention the other speeds, and if we look at the prices then :finga: :finga:
User avatar
DMB2000uk
Site Admin
Site Admin
Posts: 7095
Joined: Mon Jul 18, 2005 5:36 pm
Location: UK

Post by DMB2000uk »

Thanks Nate, nice review.

Dan
Image (<- Clickable)
User avatar
Apoptosis
Site Admin
Site Admin
Posts: 33941
Joined: Sun Oct 05, 2003 8:45 pm
Location: St. Louis, Missouri
Contact:

Post by Apoptosis »

DMB2000uk wrote:Thanks Nate, nice review.

Dan
Thanks bro... I was expecting to see some differences, but not everything comes out as you'd expect... Was a bit boring to do all the testing on as the numbers came out the same... For example on Company of Heroes patches with version 1.61 that just came out last week all of the memory modules ran at 59.7FPS at 1024x768 as the GPU was the bottleneck and not the memory.... The game had enough memory bandwidth...
User avatar
camaroguy1998
Legit Extremist
Legit Extremist
Posts: 1899
Joined: Sun Jan 07, 2007 5:24 pm
Location: St. Charles, Mo.

Post by camaroguy1998 »

Great Info Apoptosis!
Convincing enough to make my mind up to stick with DDR2 for now!
Thanks!
ASUS AM4 TUF Gaming X570-Plus (Wi-Fi)
AMD 3400G - 32G GSkill RipJaw V - {Win10} Pro 64bit, Win11 Update
Corsair H100i RGB PRO XT 240mm AIO Cooler
Corsair RM750X PSU - Corsair Force MP600 M.2 2280 1TB SSD
ASUS 27" LED LCD monitor - Lepai 2x20W Amp - Dayton B652 Spkrs

Corsair 4000D Airflow
User avatar
gvblake22
Legit Extremist
Legit Extremist
Posts: 1111
Joined: Thu Feb 17, 2005 9:39 am
Location: Northern Michigan
Contact:

Post by gvblake22 »

Great first look at DDR3! At least early DDR3 performance is about on par with current high-end DDR2, which was not really the case with DDR2 when it first arrived on the scene. Just like with DDR vs. DDR2, it is just going to be a matter of sheer speed with the DDR3 that offers performance improvements over DDR2. I feel the days of cranking up voltage to get super tight timings is coming to an end, but at least DDR3 is able to scale to much higher speeds and offer higher densities than DDR2.

And I'm sure the price will come down SIGNIFICANTLY once DDR3 is more readily available. Right now prices are just inflated because the technology is so new and there are so few products actually available. Once prices do come down though, I see DDR3-1333 and up becoming the mainstream like DDR2-667 or DDR2-800 is now. Seems like anything slower than DDR3-1333 does not really offer an improvement over similar DDR2 parts.
User avatar
Apoptosis
Site Admin
Site Admin
Posts: 33941
Joined: Sun Oct 05, 2003 8:45 pm
Location: St. Louis, Missouri
Contact:

Post by Apoptosis »

gvblake22 wrote: I feel the days of cranking up voltage to get super tight timings is coming to an end, but at least DDR3 is able to scale to much higher speeds and offer higher densities than DDR2.
People said the same thing when DDR2 came out and guess what we now have 800MHz at 3-3-3-8 timings... DDR3 years down the road could very well hit super tight timings of 5-5-5 at high clock speeds... Same thing with densities... People were running 2 x 256MB DDR1 PC-2100 back in the day with 2-2-2 timings and look now we PC2-6400 running 2GB and 4GB at CL3 timings ;)
User avatar
gvblake22
Legit Extremist
Legit Extremist
Posts: 1111
Joined: Thu Feb 17, 2005 9:39 am
Location: Northern Michigan
Contact:

Post by gvblake22 »

Apoptosis wrote:
gvblake22 wrote: I feel the days of cranking up voltage to get super tight timings is coming to an end, but at least DDR3 is able to scale to much higher speeds and offer higher densities than DDR2.
People said the same thing when DDR2 came out and guess what we now have 800MHz at 3-3-3-8 timings... DDR3 years down the road could very well hit super tight timings of 5-5-5 at high clock speeds... Same thing with densities... People were running 2 x 256MB DDR1 PC-2100 back in the day with 2-2-2 timings and look now we PC2-6400 running 2GB and 4GB at CL3 timings ;)
Yeah, I see what you are saying, but I feel like getting lower latencies with DDR was of primary concern while speed was usually secondary. DDR2 I feel is sortof half and half. I just think that the speeds are getting so fast now that that is what's going to make a bigger difference than latencies. Even with DDR2, CAS 3 DDR2-800 vs. CAS 4 DDR2-800 offers very little (if any) real, noticeable performance improvement. I'm not saying that the quest for tighter latencies is going to just vanish (that hunger will always be with every enthusiast), but I am just predicting that speed is going to be more of a focus than latencies. I'm not trying to be argumentative, just posting my predictions about the future of RAM... :)
User avatar
Apoptosis
Site Admin
Site Admin
Posts: 33941
Joined: Sun Oct 05, 2003 8:45 pm
Location: St. Louis, Missouri
Contact:

Post by Apoptosis »

oh me too, but no need to predict anything... It's always been a MHz race and always will be for memory companies.
User avatar
Apoptosis
Site Admin
Site Admin
Posts: 33941
Joined: Sun Oct 05, 2003 8:45 pm
Location: St. Louis, Missouri
Contact:

Post by Apoptosis »

with the loosest timings available (10-10-10) someone got a single 1GB DDR3 module up to 2080Mhz... http://valid.x86-secret.com/show_oc.php?id=200226
User avatar
gvblake22
Legit Extremist
Legit Extremist
Posts: 1111
Joined: Thu Feb 17, 2005 9:39 am
Location: Northern Michigan
Contact:

Post by gvblake22 »

DANG, that's crazy. I remember just two years ago we were all pumped about breaking 1000MHz on DDR2! :lol:

If trends hold true, 2GHz DDR3 memory will be very common in a couple years! :rolleyes:
Kalko
Legit Aficionado
Legit Aficionado
Posts: 58
Joined: Fri Feb 23, 2007 9:52 am
Contact:

Post by Kalko »

If I'm not wrong the P35 Chipset is the new king of overcolck, I read a review of an Gigabyte motherboard that reached almost 600Mhz fsb...
I think i'll buy one of those.
User avatar
stereo55
Legit Fanatic
Legit Fanatic
Posts: 241
Joined: Thu Sep 29, 2005 3:06 pm
Location: Menifee , Calif

Post by stereo55 »

Great review ... just answered many of my questions concerning DDR3 performance ! :mrgreen:

I do like the P35 chipset though (as its reported to be backwards DDR2 compatible) .
* i7 5930K @ 4GHz 1.085v - Corsair H100i GTX - Asrock x99 OC Formula 3.1
* Sandisk Extreme Pro 480gb - HGST NAS 3TB - 2x WD Blue 1TB - 32gig Crucial 2133 - EVGA 980 Ti Classified - Corsair 780T/Seasonic 760 Platinum
* LG 34" Ultra Wide - Hanns-G HZ281HPB 27.5" - LG WH16NS40 Blu Burner - SoundBlaster Z - Klipsch 4.1's/Altec center channel
* Windows 8.1 Pro/Windows 10
* Retired game rig i7 920 @ 3.9 - EVGA x58 - still going strong!

Heatware
User avatar
gvblake22
Legit Extremist
Legit Extremist
Posts: 1111
Joined: Thu Feb 17, 2005 9:39 am
Location: Northern Michigan
Contact:

Post by gvblake22 »

stereo55 wrote:I do like the P35 chipset though (as its reported to be backwards DDR2 compatible) .
Well, technically the chipset is compatible with either DDR2 or DDR3 memory, but (most) motherboards will only be built using one or the other (not both). So despite it being compatible with both memory standards, you would still have to get a new motherboard if you wanted to run DDR3, so it doesn't really matter.

There will also probably be yet another chipset out by the time DDR3 becomes more reasonably priced and most people start going that route anyway.
User avatar
stopthekilling77
Legit Extremist
Legit Extremist
Posts: 2188
Joined: Fri Feb 02, 2007 2:08 pm
Location: Colorado, USA

Post by stopthekilling77 »

gvblake22 wrote:
stereo55 wrote:I do like the P35 chipset though (as its reported to be backwards DDR2 compatible) .
Well, technically the chipset is compatible with either DDR2 or DDR3 memory, but (most) motherboards will only be built using one or the other (not both). So despite it being compatible with both memory standards, you would still have to get a new motherboard if you wanted to run DDR3, so it doesn't really matter.

There will also probably be yet another chipset out by the time DDR3 becomes more reasonably priced and most people start going that route anyway.
nice that us users will have the chance to get the new chipset without having to go completely over to DDR3 yet
i just love the fact that in 2 years people will be like "P35??? screw that its outdated, and ___ chipset is owning it" :ANAL:
Cyberpower generic case
B450M PRO-VDH MAX
Ryzen 5 3600 w/PBO/OC
CM Hyper 212 EVO push/pull
Corsair VENGEANCE LPX 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3600 CL16
MSI RTX 3060 Ti Ventus 3X 8G OC LHR
Samsung 970 EVO Plus 500GB
6GB Seagate HDD
EVGA 650BQ 650W PSU
ASUS VE278 27" monitor, Dell E2216HV (vertical)
Logitech Z533 2.1 Speakers, G935 7.1 or G435 headset
MS LXM-00001 keyboard
Razer Deathadder Elite, XBOX One Lunar Shift controller

I've come a long way from my original Core2Duo E6750 build y'all! :supz:
User avatar
Apoptosis
Site Admin
Site Admin
Posts: 33941
Joined: Sun Oct 05, 2003 8:45 pm
Location: St. Louis, Missouri
Contact:

Post by Apoptosis »

The same thing happened with DDR2 from the move to DDR1... Many boards gave users the options of running one or the other (or both). DDR2 is still the clrear choice and will be for at least another year... Once 4GB kits come out above 1600MHz at CL7 timings you'll see a bunch of people make the jump to DDR3.
User avatar
gvblake22
Legit Extremist
Legit Extremist
Posts: 1111
Joined: Thu Feb 17, 2005 9:39 am
Location: Northern Michigan
Contact:

Post by gvblake22 »

stopthekilling77 wrote:i just love the fact that in 2 years people will be like "P35??? screw that its outdated, and ___ chipset is owning it" :ANAL:
HAHAHA, two years in computer technology time is like 20 years in human time! :lol:
Apoptosis wrote:The same thing happened with DDR2 from the move to DDR1... Many boards gave users the options of running one or the other (or both). DDR2 is still the clrear choice and will be for at least another year... Once 4GB kits come out above 1600MHz at CL7 timings you'll see a bunch of people make the jump to DDR3.
I definitely agree with that.
Post Reply