Winchip DDR3 1600 MHz 1 GB Kit

[Darksaber]

DDR3 P35 boards and the new memory standard were a big topic at CeBIT and all major memory manufacturers showed DDR3 up and running at Computex. One of these companies is Winchip with their DDR3 1600 MHz CL8-8-8-15 memory. We take a first look at the new memory to let you know, what it holds in store.

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[Dippyskoodlez]

Question: Do the heatspreaders fit like they should on single sided sticks, or is there extra room?

I've seen some heatspreaders made for double sided sticks not go on straight... defeating much of the purpose..

 

[WarEagleAU]

wow, aside from the price, not bad performing chips from Elpida. Wonder what Microns will do.

 

[v_parrello]

I am not able to understand the measurement points, and I can not figure out how it works the voltage scalings graph, and how is could reflect the truth.

For example, you wrote that at CL5 the memory are not able to scale because in your test you measured that the maximum frequency for the memory at CL5 was 533 MHz. I think this is because you use (if I understood well) 1.7 maximum voltage, maybe if you rise the voltage until 2.05 at CL5 the memory could be able to reach higher frequency. The same consideration is also for CL6 and CL7.
If I understood well how you made the tests, imho the voltage scalings graph has not meant.

If I did not understand how you made the tests, it could be very useful if you explain better as you built voltage scaling graph.

Thanks a lot.

 

[Darksaber]

I am not able to understand the measurement points, and I can not figure out how it works the voltage scalings graph, and how is could reflect the truth.

For example, you wrote that at CL5 the memory are not able to scale because in your test you measured that the maximum frequency for the memory at CL5 was 533 MHz. I think this is because you use (if I understood well) 1.7 maximum voltage, maybe if you rise the voltage until 2.05 at CL5 the memory could be able to reach higher frequency. The same consideration is also for CL6 and CL7.
If I understood well how you made the tests, imho the voltage scalings graph has not meant.

If I did not understand how you made the tests, it could be very useful if you explain better as you built voltage scaling graph.

Thanks a lot.

I did try to raise the voltage at every CL level. Doing so is needed to create the scale graph. The system became unstable at voltages above 1.7V at tighter timings, even with just 2 or 3 MHz more on the FSB. I mentioned that in the Review:

The second step was to find the minimum CL the DDR3 would run at. The ASUS P5K3 can be set all the way down to CL5-3-3, but Winchip's memory was not stable at this setting, no matter how much voltage was applied. Loosening the timings to CL5-4-4-12 resulted in a booting system even at the standard 1.5V and 800 MHz. The success did not pay off, as the memory would become unstable with slightly higher clocks and would not be stable beyond 842 MHz, no matter how much voltage was applied.

Then, the Winchip DDR3 modules were set to CL5-5-5-15, a very popular timing on high-end DDR2 memory these days. At this rating the memory actually managed a very respectable 1066 Mhz with 1.6V with no problems. Further raising the speed did not succeed beyond 1072 MHz, no matter how much voltage was applied. There is a pattern to be seen here. The memory works at tight timings but simply cannot get past a certain point.

The next step meant loosening the memory to CL6-6-6-15. This resulted in a much broader overclock and managed 1268 MHz at 1.7V. Once again, this was the end of the line for the memory at CL 6. CL7-7-7-15 raised that bar one more, just barely missing the 1400 MHz mark with 1394 MHz at, once again 1.7V. Raising the voltage further did result in a few extra MHz, but the system was not completely stable and would freeze or restart during benchmarking. The memory only manages the get beyond that with the advertised CL8-8-8-15. At this it runs all the way up to the advertised speed, but not even 6 MHz beyond that.

To sum it up:
The memory runs at certain timings up to a certain speed, bejynd that, no matter how much voltage you apply it will not go any faster. The Elpida chips do not overclock nearly as well as the Micron, so you will not see Elpida run at fast timings and high FSB - not much Winchip can do about that. They will most likely switch the high end modules to Micron when they get the chance.

Hope that answered your question.

cheers
DS

 

[Darksaber]

Question: Do the heatspreaders fit like they should on single sided sticks, or is there extra room?

I've seen some heatspreaders made for double sided sticks not go on straight... defeating much of the purpose..

Considering that they do not use any adhesive, they do fit quite tight, even on single sided memory.

cheers
DS

 

[rampage]

i sill dont see the point to going ddr3 im running 2 gig ddr2 4-4-4-8 T1 848 mhz 1.9v and im breaking 11gig read in everest and averaging 42 nano seconds.. is there somthing im not seeing?

 

[v_parrello]

I did try to raise the voltage at every CL level. Doing so is needed to create the scale graph. The system became unstable at voltages above 1.7V at tighter timings, even with just 2 or 3 MHz more on the FSB. I mentioned that in the Review:



To sum it up:
The memory runs at certain timings up to a certain speed, bejynd that, no matter how much voltage you apply it will not go any faster. The Elpida chips do not overclock nearly as well as the Micron, so you will not see Elpida run at fast timings and high FSB - not much Winchip can do about that. They will most likely switch the high end modules to Micron when they get the chance.

Hope that answered your question.

cheers
DS

OK!

I do not understand well! Thanks a lot for your answers.

cheers

 

[Darksaber]

i sill dont see the point to going ddr3 im running 2 gig ddr2 4-4-4-8 T1 848 mhz 1.9v and im breaking 11gig read in everest and averaging 42 nano seconds.. is there somthing im not seeing?

Well your CPU runs at 3.4 GHz, that helps as well. Nice OC btw. my 6400 will not do a lot extra, not on this board.