Test Setup

Performance

The first test we did was test how the memory performs at a stock frequency of 200 FSB with the default timings recommended by OCZ. We used 2.8V here as specified by OCZ.

Next, we wanted to know if the memory can run at 2.6V. With 200 MHz it worked fine. We increased the memory clock step by step, to find out what the maximum clocks were when running at the DDR specification default voltage of 2.6V. At 207 MHz the system got instable, it couldn't do the advertised 219 MHz.

The next test uses 2.8V DDR voltage. Here the memory takes 216 MHz which is still not impressive.
Once we got into the 3V territory, overclocks became better. At 3.1V, which is the maximum for many motherboards and also the suggested limit of OCZ's voltage protection we got 229 MHz.

The last test at 3.3V, which is a good maximum for all-day usage, reached 241 MHz at the very aggressive timings of 2-2-2-5.

While you might be able to get a few extra MHz out of the memory by relaxing timings to 2.5-3-3-x, this is not worth it, if you consider the performance hit. If you want high clocks with less aggressive timings, you should get Samsung TCCD.

For comparison, the test "JEDEC DDR400A" shows a generic DDR module running at JEDEC standard timings.




Its aggressive timings make the 3500 Gold GX a great performer at standard clocks. With a good motherboard, that can deliver a lot of memory voltage, overclocking will be very solid as well.

Performance gains scale consistent through all benchmarks.

For an easier comparison with other modules, we set a maximum voltage of 3.1V and tested until we found the highest clock frequency and fastest timings for this memory. The benchmarks Everest Read, Everest Write and Quake 3 were run. We then calculated the performance increase in percent compared to some standard DDR400 memory running at JEDEC DDR400A (2.5-3-3-8). The average percentage of the three benchmarks is listed in following table: