Test Setup
Motherboard |
ASUS Maximus V Gene |
CPU |
Intel Core i7-3770K |
Graphic card |
ATI Radeon HD 4850 |
Memory |
Kingston HyperX KHX2800C12D3T1K2/4GX |
HDD |
Western Digital 360 |
PSU |
Corsair 1000 Watt |
OS |
Windows 7, 64 bit |
We were thinking a lot about how to test memory in a way that one can come up with a qualitative conclusion rather than a quantitative one. Our goal is to be able to comment on the memory kits quality. Furthermore, standard performance tests with memory do not have any significance at all. This is because almost the only thing you're measuring is the error in measurement.
What we do instead of performance tests are "scaling test". First we start with the standard voltage and increase the frequency until the system becomes unstable. To test the stability we use MaxxMem. Then we increase the voltage by 0.025 Volt and again we increase the memory frequency until the system becomes unstable. This we repeat until we reach 1.85 Volt.
Using this method one can do statements on the modules potential and on the quality of the chips used. Generally you can say the lower the voltage needed for high overclocking results the better the chips.
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