Memory Performance
|
Core i5 Test System Specs - Intel Core i5 750 (2.66GHz) - x2 2GB G.Skill DDR3 PC3-12800 (CAS 8-8-8-20) - Asus P7P55D-E Premium (Intel P55) - ATI Radeon HD 5870 (1GB) - OCZ GameXStream (700 watt) - Seagate 500GB 7200-RPM (Serial ATA300) Software - Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate (64-bit) - ATI Catalyst 10.6 |
|
Phenom II X6 Test System Specs - AMD Phenom II X6 1090T Black Edition (3.20GHz) - x2 2GB G.Skill DDR3 PC3-12800 (CAS 8-8-8-20) - Gigabyte 890FXA-UD7 (AMD 890FX) - ATI Radeon HD 5870 (1GB) - OCZ GameXStream (700 watt) - Seagate 500GB 7200-RPM (Serial ATA300) Software - Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate (64-bit) - ATI Catalyst 10.6 |
|
Phenom II X2 Test System Specs - AMD Phenom II X2 555 Black Edition (3.20GHz) - All Cores Unlocked - x2 2GB G.Skill DDR3 PC3-12800 (CAS 8-8-8-20) - Gigabyte 870A-UD3 (AMD 870) - MSI 870A-G54 (AMD 870) - Asrock 880GMH/USB3 (AMD 880G) - ATI Radeon HD 5870 (1GB) - OCZ GameXStream (700 watt) - Seagate 500GB 7200-RPM (Serial ATA300) Software - Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate (64-bit) - ATI Catalyst 10.6 |
With four cores enabled the Phenom II X2 555 was able to provide between 12.5GB/s and 13GB/s of memory bandwidth when testing with SiSoftware Sandra 2010, placing it within range of the Phenom II X6 1090T, not bad for a $100 processor. The Gigabyte 870A-UD3 provided the best results reaching 13.0GB/s making it a little over half a gigabyte per second faster than the Asrock 880GMH/USB 3.0 despite the fact that both motherboards used the same memory modules at the same frequency using the same timings.
Using EVEREST Ultimate Edition to measure memory bandwidth performance we were surprised to find that the results were much closer to call than what we saw with SiSoftware Sandra. Moreover, the Gigabyte 870A-UD3 provided the weakest read performance but the best write result.