DDR versus DDR2 on i915
Bluetooth 21 June 2004

Benchmark - PCmark2004

We are always wondering if we should embrace and adopt new technology. While DDR2 is on its verge of replacing DDR, we take a look at this point of time if it good to switch to the more expensive ram type.

In our experiement, we use a Gigabyte i915 board supporting both DDR and DDR2 to test the performance using PCmark2004.

PCmark2004 tests a number of important items in today's computing world. File Compression, Encryption, Decryption, Audio Conversion, Web Page Rendering, WMV Video Compression, DivX Video Compression, Physics Calculation and 3D, Graphics Memory etc.

*As we can see that the performance of the board using two types of RAM varies. It is also important to note that as the DDR-2 is still not very mature and can only run CAS 3 (default SPD - CAS 4, 11-4-4). In reality, DDR2-533 if compared to DDR at SPD (CAS 2.5, 7-4-4), DDR2 should be faster. In this case, the comparison is done for both ram tweak to its most aggressive settings.

It seems that DDR2 do gives a bit of lead when compared to DDR at super aggresssive timings.

In conclusion, it really depends on a few factors. Pricing, availability and performance. Do take note that the current DDR2 are only supported on Intel 915 and 925 boards. Unless you are really keen to upgrade, I would advise you to wait a while when prices drop and more platforms adopt DDR2 and latencies reduced.

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