Linux DDR3 Synthetic Benchmarks

We have several DDR3 related articles in the works, but in this article we will be looking just at the DDR3 system memory performance in the RAMspeed synthetic benchmark under Linux. The DDR3 memory we'll be using is the OCZ DDR3-1333 2GB Gold Kit with a part number of OCZ3G13332GK.

OCZ's DDR3-1333 Gold unbuffered memory is designed to operate at 1333MHz with CL timings of 9-9-9-26 and uses the Gold-layered Z3 XTC heatsinks. This memory is designed to operate at 1.6V with an extended voltage protection (EVP) going up to 1.9V before the memory's lifetime warranty will be invalidated. The OCZ DDR3-1333 memory is available in 1GB and 2GB parts. Aside from the Gold series, for high-speed DDR3 memory modules OCZ Technology also has the Titanium and Platinum series.

We have seen XTC (Xtreme Thermal Convection) heatsinks on past DDR and DDR2 memory modules but recently on OCZ's DDR2 modules we've seen different cooling solutions such as the Reaper HPC and Flex XLC. OCZ's DDR3 PC3-12800 system memory is available in a Flex XLC edition, and it's likely only a matter of time before we continue seeing new and more innovative DDR3 cooling contraptions from this memory leader.

Earlier this month RAMspeed 2.5.0 was released with a few changes since RAMspeed 2.4, which we have been using at Phoronix for about the past year in our memory tests, and before that was RAMspeed 2.3. We will begin using this new version in our future cache/memory reviews and this article today is our first time switching to this updated cache and memory benchmark utility. For Windows users, RAMspeed for DOS was updated earlier this month as well. While we have found these RAMspeed Linux numbers to be very accurate, they are synthetic and we will be following up after this article with real-world results.

With our RAMspeed tests we normally run each test 10 times each, but for this article each test was executed 30 times. Both floating point and integer benchmarks were performed. OCZ's DDR3-1333 OCZ3G13332GK kit is designed for use with Intel's P35 chipset therefore we had used the ASUS Blitz Extreme in these tests. We will be featuring a review of the ASUS Blitz Extreme under Linux shortly, but this is really a great Intel P35 motherboard not only for Windows users but also for Linux. The Blitz Extreme uses the Intel ICH9R Southbridge and features a unique Fusion Block System, SupremeFX II audio, and a number of other features geared for computer enthusiasts with a large wallet. Aside from the ASUS motherboard and OCZ DDR3 RAM was a NVIDIA GeForce 8600GT, Intel Core 2 Dup E6400, SilverStone Zeus ST75ZF 750W power supply, and Seagate 7200.10 SATA 2.0 HDD. Loaded up on the system was Fedora 7 with the Linux 2.6.22.4 kernel, GCC 4.1, and X server 1.3.

With the OCZ 2 x 1GB DDR3-1333 memory we had run it at DDR3-800 (266 x 8 = 2.13GHz; 800MHz), DDR3-1067 (266 x 8 = 2.13GHz; 1067MHz), DDR3-1333 (333 x 8 = 2.66GHz; 1333MHz), and DDR3-1452 (363 x 8 = 2.90GHz; 1452MHz) speeds with the stock timings. We had also compared these DDR3 values in RAMspeed 2.5.0 to one of our DDR2 reference systems running at DDR2-667MHz and DDR2-800MHz speeds with CL 4-4-4 timings.

On the following pages are our synthetic RAMspeed results for our first DDR3-1333 benchmarks under Linux.