Test: Memory Performance

Despite the 3Dmark2001 results being very close there does appear to be quite a difference in terms of memory performance. All nine motherboards were tested with DDR2-800 memory using CAS 4-4-4-12 timings and while most boards produced around 5.4GB/s of memory bandwidth the ASUS motherboards have clearly been optimized for better memory performance. In fact, to our surprise the ASUS P5K-SE was the fastest motherboard in this test as it just edged out the ASUS P5K-E.

Similar performance trends are seen in PCmark2005 and again the ASUS P5K-SE produced the best memory performance results. The P5K-E was not far behind and then it was the P5K Deluxe that was the third best performer in this test. The Abit motherboards also did quite well while the ECS and Gigabyte boards were a little sluggish in comparison.

The MemTach Analyze test results stick to the same performance trends that we have seen in SiSoft and PCmark. Though this time the ECS board does slip as it is noticeably slower in the Analyze 1 test. The Analyze 2 test results leave no surprises as they clarify exactly what we have seen in the previous two benchmark programs.