Corsair TWINX2048-3500LLPRO 2 GB Dual Channel Memory Kit Review

Benchmarking at 200 MHz/DDR400

 We used four programs to measure the performance of the memory modules: Sandra Lite, 3DMark2001 SE, Quake III and Super Pi Mod 1.4.

The following memory modules were selected to be compared with Corsair TWINX2048-3500LLPRO 2 GB Dual Channel kit, all containing two 1 GB modules each:

• OCZ EL DDR PC-4000 Gold GX XTC
• Patriot PDC2G3500LLK

We separated our tests according to the memory clock we configured. Let’s see the results achieved by the reviewed modules running at 200 MHz/DDR400, i.e., at the system default configuration.

Sandra Lite 2005.SR3 10.69

We used the Memory Bandwidth Benchmark module from Sandra to measure the maximum transfer rate that the memory was able to achieve. The result published is an arithmetic average from the Buffered Integer Stream and Buffered Float Stream results.

You can check the results on the graph below.

Memories – 200MHz/DDR400 1T	Sandra – Int and Float Average	%
Corsair TWINX2048-3500LLPRO (2-3-2-5) – 2.6 V	5773
Patriot PDC2G3500LLK (2-3-2-5) – 2.6 V	5731	-0.73
OCZ EL DDR PC-4000 Gold GX XTC (2.5-3-3-7) – 2.6 V	5698	-1.32

Even though it has a lower latency Corsair TWINX2048-3500LLPRO achieved a performance similar to the other memory modules we tested.

3DMark2001 SE Build 3.3.0

3DMark2001 SE simulates older games based on DirectX 8.1 and it is very sensitive to changes in the hardware configuration of the system.

You can check the results on the graph below.

Memories – 200MHz/DDR400 1T	3DMark2001 SE (Build 3.3.0)	%
Corsair TWINX2048-3500LLPRO (2-3-2-5) – 2.6 V	22690
Patriot PDC2G3500LLK (2-3-2-5) – 2.6 V	22676	-0.06
OCZ EL DDR PC-4000 Gold GX XTC (2.5-3-3-7) – 2.6 V	22408	-1.26

At 3DMark2001 SE all tested memories achieved the same performance level.

Quake III Arena 1.32

Even though this is an old game its importance comes from the fact its engine is used by several other games, like Jedi Knight II and Medal of Honor, and also because this game is very sensitive to any changes on the hardware configuration.

We used the demo four available on version 1.32 of Quake III to make our benchmarking with this game. We ran this demo three times at 1024x768x32 resolution and all image quality settings on their default configuration and we picked the middle value for our comparisons, i.e., we discarded the highest and the lowest values.

Check the results below.

Memories – 200MHz/DDR400 1T	Quake III Arena – FPS	%
Patriot PDC2G3500LLK (2-3-2-5) – 2.6 V	456	+0.53
Corsair TWINX2048-3500LLPRO (2-3-2-5) – 2.6 V	453.6
OCZ EL DDR PC-4000 Gold GX XTC (2.5-3-3-7) – 2.6 V	444.4	-2.07

Corsair’s kit achieved a performance similar to Patriot’s, which is also based on Infineon chips, and was 2.07% faster than OCZ’s, which, according to our methodology, means that they have a similar performance, since the performance difference was below 3%.

Super Pi Mod 1.4

Super Pi is a benchmarking software created at Tokyo University which measures the time spent to calculate Pi up to 32 million decimal places. In our tests we calculated Pi with 1 million decimal places.

Check the results below.

Memories – 200MHz/DDR400 1T	Super Pi Mod 1.4	%
Corsair TWINX2048-3500LLPRO (2-3-2-5) – 2.6 V	38.640
Patriot PDC2G3500LLK (2-3-2-5) – 2.6 V	38.750	+0.28
OCZ EL DDR PC-4000 Gold GX XTC (2.5-3-3-7) – 2.6 V	39.172	+1.36

On Super Pi the lower the result, the better, since it means seconds. Corsair’s kit achieved a performance similar to Patriot’s and was 1.36% faster than OCZ’s, which, according to our methodology, means that they have a similar performance, since the performance difference was below 3%.