W1zzard
08-15-2005, 10:06 AM
[page=Introduction & Packaging]
Introduction
From the Manufacturer OCZ Technology (http://www.ocztechnology.com):
600MHz DDR
CL 2.5-4-4-10
400MHz DDR (Dual Spec)
CL 2-2-2-5
Available in a 512MB module and 1GB (2x512MB) Dual Channel Optimized Kit
Unbuffered
Mirrored Platinum Copper Heatspreader
Lifetime Warranty
2.8 Volts
184 Pin DIMM
Tested to 2T, but may also run 1T on certain motherboards
EVP - use a VDIMM of 3.0V ± 5% without invalidating the OCZ Lifetime Warranty
ULN2 - Ultra Low Noise. Uses various printed circuit board (PCB) techniques to reduce the amount of electrical noise that is present in all high-speed ICs.
TCCD chips guaranteed
OCZ has released the PC4800 Elite Edition in reply to user's claims that their 4800 Platinum modules used Samsung TCC5 chips instead of TCCD. While TCC5 are, according to Samsung, a lower quality than TCCD, OCZ's in-house testing and binning did sort out only the better TCC5 chips for the 4800 Platinum modules. Since some users absolutely want TCCD and nothing else, OCZ guarantees that only Samsung TCCD chips are used on the PC-4800 Platinum Elite, but at a higher cost.
TCCD memory is known for being able to run high clock speeds, without needing as much voltage as Winbond's BH-5. Another advantage is that they do not get as warm during use, so active cooling is not required. Where BH-5 shines is very aggressive timings, 2-2-2-5 is very common. OCZ does offer to run the 4800 Platinum Elite at 2-2-2-5 timings too, but as our testing later shows, there is not much overclocking headroom, nor is there much gain from increased voltage.
Packaging
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/OCZ/PC-4800Elite/images/package1_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/OCZ/PC-4800Elite/images/package1.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/OCZ/PC-4800Elite/images/package2_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/OCZ/PC-4800Elite/images/package2.jpg)
OCZ uses a blister pack, which can be opened without a knife, or injuries resulting from incorrect use of the knife.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/OCZ/PC-4800Elite/images/sticker_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/OCZ/PC-4800Elite/images/sticker.jpg)
Each module has a sticker on it, which gives the rated speed and the stock timings.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/OCZ/PC-4800Elite/images/memory_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/OCZ/PC-4800Elite/images/memory.jpg)
The memory heatspreaders are platinum colored. They are not really needed to keep the temperature of the memory down, it only gets hand-warm during operation, even when overclocked.
However, having a heatspreader sure helps protect the fragile components on the modules. If a stick falls down, there could be a chance that a small IC breaks off, not with this memory.
Last but not least a heatspreader is sure nicer to look at than the bare memory chips.
[page=Performance & Overclocking]
Test Setup
<table border="1" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="0" class="systable">
<tr><th colspan="2" style="font-size:larger;text-align:center">Test System</th></tr>
<tr>
<th width="100">CPU:</th>
<td>AMD Athlon64 3000+ Venice</td>
</tr><tr>
<th>Motherboard:</th>
<td>DFI LanParty NF4 UT</td>
</tr><tr>
<th>Memory:</th>
<td>2x 512 MB OCZ EL DDR PC-4800EL Platinum Elite</td>
</tr><tr>
<th>Video Card:</th>
<td>ATI Radeon X850 Pro PCI-E</td>
</tr><tr>
<th>Harddisk:</th>
<td>Maxtor Diamondmax 160GB</td>
</tr><tr>
<th>Power Supply:</th>
<td>HEC PurePower 475</td>
</tr><tr>
<th>Software:</th>
<td>Windows XP SP2, Catalyst 5.8</td>
</tr>
</table>
OCZ says the memory modules have been tested to run at 2T. We tested only at 1T since this is where the performance is. Why would you buy an "Elite" memory, and not run it at the fastest setting?
Performance
The first test we did, was test how the memory performs at a stock frequency of 200 FSB. We tested both 2-2-2-5 and 2.5-4-4-10 timings. Here you can clearly see how big the performance difference between both timings is.
After this, we tested how far we could overclock the memory at 2.6V. The CL2 timings could only go 6 MHz faster, to 206 MHz, which is not much. However, at CL2.5 the overclocking increase was substantial, at 2.6V, which is 0.2V below OCZ's recommended default voltage, we could gain an extra 45 MHz.
Now we increased voltage in several steps to 2.8V, 3.1V and 3.3V. More voltage does not help the CL2 setting at all which is a bit dissapointing. The lowered maximum clock at 3.3V seems to be caused by the extra heat generated of the memory - we did not use any active cooling.
At CL2.5 the results are completely different, overclocks scale nicely with voltage. The maximum of 282 MHz at 3.3V is quite good.
The last test "JEDEC DDR-400A" is for comparison with a generic DDR module running at JEDEC standard timings.
<table width="640" border="1" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="0" class="ramtable">
<tr>
<th colspan="9" style="font-size:larger">OCZ EL DDR PC-4800EL Platinum Elite</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<th nowrap="nowrap">CPU Clock &<br />
Memory Ratio</th>
<th>Memory<br />
Speed</th>
<th>Memory<br />
Timings</th>
<th>Everest<br />
Read</th>
<th>Everest<br />
Write</th>
<th>Everest<br />
Latency</th>
<th>Quake 3<br />
Timedemo</th>
<th>3DMark<br />
2001SE</th>
<th>SuperPi<br />
Mod 1M</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>9 x 200 1:1</th>
<td>200 MHz</td>
<td>2-2-2-5 2.6V</td>
<td>5345 MB/s</td>
<td>1999 MB/s</td>
<td>45.2 ns</td>
<td>247.3 FPS</td>
<td>21001</td>
<td>45.77 s</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>9 x 206 1:1 </th>
<td>206 MHz</td>
<td>2-2-2-5 2.6V</td>
<td>5413 MB/s</td>
<td>2011 MB/s</td>
<td>45.5 ns</td>
<td>251.5 FPS</td>
<td>21150</td>
<td>44.92 s</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>9 x 206 1:1 </th>
<td>206 MHz</td>
<td>2-2-2-5 2.8V</td>
<td>5413 MB/s</td>
<td>2011 MB/s</td>
<td>45.5 ns</td>
<td>251.5 FPS</td>
<td>21150</td>
<td>44.92 s</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>9 x 206 1:1 </th>
<td>206 MHz</td>
<td>2-2-2-5 3.1V</td>
<td>5413 MB/s</td>
<td>2011 MB/s</td>
<td>45.5 ns</td>
<td>251.5 FPS</td>
<td>21150</td>
<td>44.92 s</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>9 x 198 1:1 </th>
<td>198 MHz</td>
<td>2-2-2-5 3.3V</td>
<td>5276 MB/s</td>
<td>1982 MB/s</td>
<td>45.6 ns</td>
<td>243.9 FPS</td>
<td>20646</td>
<td>46.28 s</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>9 x 200 1:1</th>
<td>200 MHz</td>
<td>2.5-4-4-10 2.6V</td>
<td>5145 MB/s</td>
<td>1986 MB/s</td>
<td>53.7 ns</td>
<td>240.7 FPS</td>
<td>19992</td>
<td>46.77 s</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>9 x 245 1:1 </th>
<td>245 MHz</td>
<td>2.5-4-4-10 2.6V</td>
<td>6303 MB/s</td>
<td>2296 MB/s</td>
<td>43.8 ns</td>
<td>293.6 FPS</td>
<td>23614</td>
<td>38.27 s</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>9 x 260 1:1 </th>
<td>260 MHz</td>
<td>2.5-4-4-10 2.8V</td>
<td>6819 MB/s</td>
<td>2461 MB/s</td>
<td>41.3 ns</td>
<td>312.0 FPS</td>
<td>24723</td>
<td>36.02 s</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>9 x 275 1:1 </th>
<td>275 MHz</td>
<td>2.5-4-4-10 3.1V</td>
<td>7084 MB/s</td>
<td>2541 MB/s</td>
<td>39.2 ns</td>
<td>329.2 FPS</td>
<td>26036</td>
<td>34.30 s</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>9 x 282 1:1 </th>
<td>282 MHz</td>
<td>2.5-4-4-10 3.3V</td>
<td>7245 MB/s</td>
<td>2715 MB/s</td>
<td>37.5 ns</td>
<td>337.8 FPS</td>
<td>26421</td>
<td>33.27 s</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>JEDEC DDR-400A</th>
<td>200 MHz</td>
<td>2.5-3-3-8 2.6V</td>
<td>5246 MB/s</td>
<td>2197 MB/s</td>
<td>50.6 ns</td>
<td>243.4 FPS</td>
<td>20355</td>
<td>46.22 s</td>
</tr>
</table>
Running this memory at CL2 timings does not make much sense in my opinion, since your overclocks are rather limited there. You specifically buy TCCD memory for high clocks at less aggressive timings. If you want tight timings you should look at memory which uses Winbond's BH-5 chips, for example OCZ's 3500 Gold Gamer eXtreme (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/OCZ/PC-3500Gold/).
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/OCZ/PC-4800Elite/images/everestread.gif http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/OCZ/PC-4800Elite/images/everestwrite.gif http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/OCZ/PC-4800Elite/images/everestlatency.gif http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/OCZ/PC-4800Elite/images/quake3.gif http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/OCZ/PC-4800Elite/images/3dmark01.gif http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/OCZ/PC-4800Elite/images/superpi.gif
For 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 DDR-400 memory running at JEDEC standard timings (2.5-3-3-8). The average percentage of the three benchmarks is listed in following table:
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/OCZ/PC-4800Elite/images/vsjedec.gif
[page=Value and Conclusion]
Value and Conclusion
<table width="100%" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0" id="result">
<tr><th>http://www.techpowerup.com/images/dollar.gif</th>
<td>
Two 512MB OCZ PC-4800 Platinum Elite modules are sold for $250, which I find really expensive for 1GB of memory. You do have to consider that the guaranteed TCCD and serious testing at OCZ has its price.</td>
</tr><tr>
<th>http://www.techpowerup.com/images/thumbup.gif</th>
<td>
Great overclocker
Good performance
Can run both CL2 or CL2.5
Warranty covers overvolting
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>http://www.techpowerup.com/images/thumbdown.gif</th>
<td>
Expensive
Higher voltage does not increase overclocking at CL2
</td></tr>
<tr>
<th>8.2</th>
<td>If you absolutely want the fastest memory, you seriously have to check out OCZ's 4800 Platinum Elite. However, think about the hole that these modules will rip into your pocket. Personally, I wouldn't spend that much money for memory, the added performance for the price is too small in my opinion.<br />
It is great that the sticks are able to run either CL2 or CL2.5, at a higher voltage, without losing your warranty. And in case something goes wrong you still have OCZ's excellent technical support to help you out.</td></tr>
<tr><th></th><td>http://www.techpowerup.com/images/editorschoice.gif</td></tr>
</table>
Introduction
From the Manufacturer OCZ Technology (http://www.ocztechnology.com):
600MHz DDR
CL 2.5-4-4-10
400MHz DDR (Dual Spec)
CL 2-2-2-5
Available in a 512MB module and 1GB (2x512MB) Dual Channel Optimized Kit
Unbuffered
Mirrored Platinum Copper Heatspreader
Lifetime Warranty
2.8 Volts
184 Pin DIMM
Tested to 2T, but may also run 1T on certain motherboards
EVP - use a VDIMM of 3.0V ± 5% without invalidating the OCZ Lifetime Warranty
ULN2 - Ultra Low Noise. Uses various printed circuit board (PCB) techniques to reduce the amount of electrical noise that is present in all high-speed ICs.
TCCD chips guaranteed
OCZ has released the PC4800 Elite Edition in reply to user's claims that their 4800 Platinum modules used Samsung TCC5 chips instead of TCCD. While TCC5 are, according to Samsung, a lower quality than TCCD, OCZ's in-house testing and binning did sort out only the better TCC5 chips for the 4800 Platinum modules. Since some users absolutely want TCCD and nothing else, OCZ guarantees that only Samsung TCCD chips are used on the PC-4800 Platinum Elite, but at a higher cost.
TCCD memory is known for being able to run high clock speeds, without needing as much voltage as Winbond's BH-5. Another advantage is that they do not get as warm during use, so active cooling is not required. Where BH-5 shines is very aggressive timings, 2-2-2-5 is very common. OCZ does offer to run the 4800 Platinum Elite at 2-2-2-5 timings too, but as our testing later shows, there is not much overclocking headroom, nor is there much gain from increased voltage.
Packaging
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/OCZ/PC-4800Elite/images/package1_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/OCZ/PC-4800Elite/images/package1.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/OCZ/PC-4800Elite/images/package2_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/OCZ/PC-4800Elite/images/package2.jpg)
OCZ uses a blister pack, which can be opened without a knife, or injuries resulting from incorrect use of the knife.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/OCZ/PC-4800Elite/images/sticker_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/OCZ/PC-4800Elite/images/sticker.jpg)
Each module has a sticker on it, which gives the rated speed and the stock timings.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/OCZ/PC-4800Elite/images/memory_small.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/OCZ/PC-4800Elite/images/memory.jpg)
The memory heatspreaders are platinum colored. They are not really needed to keep the temperature of the memory down, it only gets hand-warm during operation, even when overclocked.
However, having a heatspreader sure helps protect the fragile components on the modules. If a stick falls down, there could be a chance that a small IC breaks off, not with this memory.
Last but not least a heatspreader is sure nicer to look at than the bare memory chips.
[page=Performance & Overclocking]
Test Setup
<table border="1" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="0" class="systable">
<tr><th colspan="2" style="font-size:larger;text-align:center">Test System</th></tr>
<tr>
<th width="100">CPU:</th>
<td>AMD Athlon64 3000+ Venice</td>
</tr><tr>
<th>Motherboard:</th>
<td>DFI LanParty NF4 UT</td>
</tr><tr>
<th>Memory:</th>
<td>2x 512 MB OCZ EL DDR PC-4800EL Platinum Elite</td>
</tr><tr>
<th>Video Card:</th>
<td>ATI Radeon X850 Pro PCI-E</td>
</tr><tr>
<th>Harddisk:</th>
<td>Maxtor Diamondmax 160GB</td>
</tr><tr>
<th>Power Supply:</th>
<td>HEC PurePower 475</td>
</tr><tr>
<th>Software:</th>
<td>Windows XP SP2, Catalyst 5.8</td>
</tr>
</table>
OCZ says the memory modules have been tested to run at 2T. We tested only at 1T since this is where the performance is. Why would you buy an "Elite" memory, and not run it at the fastest setting?
Performance
The first test we did, was test how the memory performs at a stock frequency of 200 FSB. We tested both 2-2-2-5 and 2.5-4-4-10 timings. Here you can clearly see how big the performance difference between both timings is.
After this, we tested how far we could overclock the memory at 2.6V. The CL2 timings could only go 6 MHz faster, to 206 MHz, which is not much. However, at CL2.5 the overclocking increase was substantial, at 2.6V, which is 0.2V below OCZ's recommended default voltage, we could gain an extra 45 MHz.
Now we increased voltage in several steps to 2.8V, 3.1V and 3.3V. More voltage does not help the CL2 setting at all which is a bit dissapointing. The lowered maximum clock at 3.3V seems to be caused by the extra heat generated of the memory - we did not use any active cooling.
At CL2.5 the results are completely different, overclocks scale nicely with voltage. The maximum of 282 MHz at 3.3V is quite good.
The last test "JEDEC DDR-400A" is for comparison with a generic DDR module running at JEDEC standard timings.
<table width="640" border="1" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="0" class="ramtable">
<tr>
<th colspan="9" style="font-size:larger">OCZ EL DDR PC-4800EL Platinum Elite</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<th nowrap="nowrap">CPU Clock &<br />
Memory Ratio</th>
<th>Memory<br />
Speed</th>
<th>Memory<br />
Timings</th>
<th>Everest<br />
Read</th>
<th>Everest<br />
Write</th>
<th>Everest<br />
Latency</th>
<th>Quake 3<br />
Timedemo</th>
<th>3DMark<br />
2001SE</th>
<th>SuperPi<br />
Mod 1M</th>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>9 x 200 1:1</th>
<td>200 MHz</td>
<td>2-2-2-5 2.6V</td>
<td>5345 MB/s</td>
<td>1999 MB/s</td>
<td>45.2 ns</td>
<td>247.3 FPS</td>
<td>21001</td>
<td>45.77 s</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>9 x 206 1:1 </th>
<td>206 MHz</td>
<td>2-2-2-5 2.6V</td>
<td>5413 MB/s</td>
<td>2011 MB/s</td>
<td>45.5 ns</td>
<td>251.5 FPS</td>
<td>21150</td>
<td>44.92 s</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>9 x 206 1:1 </th>
<td>206 MHz</td>
<td>2-2-2-5 2.8V</td>
<td>5413 MB/s</td>
<td>2011 MB/s</td>
<td>45.5 ns</td>
<td>251.5 FPS</td>
<td>21150</td>
<td>44.92 s</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>9 x 206 1:1 </th>
<td>206 MHz</td>
<td>2-2-2-5 3.1V</td>
<td>5413 MB/s</td>
<td>2011 MB/s</td>
<td>45.5 ns</td>
<td>251.5 FPS</td>
<td>21150</td>
<td>44.92 s</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>9 x 198 1:1 </th>
<td>198 MHz</td>
<td>2-2-2-5 3.3V</td>
<td>5276 MB/s</td>
<td>1982 MB/s</td>
<td>45.6 ns</td>
<td>243.9 FPS</td>
<td>20646</td>
<td>46.28 s</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>9 x 200 1:1</th>
<td>200 MHz</td>
<td>2.5-4-4-10 2.6V</td>
<td>5145 MB/s</td>
<td>1986 MB/s</td>
<td>53.7 ns</td>
<td>240.7 FPS</td>
<td>19992</td>
<td>46.77 s</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>9 x 245 1:1 </th>
<td>245 MHz</td>
<td>2.5-4-4-10 2.6V</td>
<td>6303 MB/s</td>
<td>2296 MB/s</td>
<td>43.8 ns</td>
<td>293.6 FPS</td>
<td>23614</td>
<td>38.27 s</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>9 x 260 1:1 </th>
<td>260 MHz</td>
<td>2.5-4-4-10 2.8V</td>
<td>6819 MB/s</td>
<td>2461 MB/s</td>
<td>41.3 ns</td>
<td>312.0 FPS</td>
<td>24723</td>
<td>36.02 s</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>9 x 275 1:1 </th>
<td>275 MHz</td>
<td>2.5-4-4-10 3.1V</td>
<td>7084 MB/s</td>
<td>2541 MB/s</td>
<td>39.2 ns</td>
<td>329.2 FPS</td>
<td>26036</td>
<td>34.30 s</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>9 x 282 1:1 </th>
<td>282 MHz</td>
<td>2.5-4-4-10 3.3V</td>
<td>7245 MB/s</td>
<td>2715 MB/s</td>
<td>37.5 ns</td>
<td>337.8 FPS</td>
<td>26421</td>
<td>33.27 s</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>JEDEC DDR-400A</th>
<td>200 MHz</td>
<td>2.5-3-3-8 2.6V</td>
<td>5246 MB/s</td>
<td>2197 MB/s</td>
<td>50.6 ns</td>
<td>243.4 FPS</td>
<td>20355</td>
<td>46.22 s</td>
</tr>
</table>
Running this memory at CL2 timings does not make much sense in my opinion, since your overclocks are rather limited there. You specifically buy TCCD memory for high clocks at less aggressive timings. If you want tight timings you should look at memory which uses Winbond's BH-5 chips, for example OCZ's 3500 Gold Gamer eXtreme (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/OCZ/PC-3500Gold/).
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/OCZ/PC-4800Elite/images/everestread.gif http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/OCZ/PC-4800Elite/images/everestwrite.gif http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/OCZ/PC-4800Elite/images/everestlatency.gif http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/OCZ/PC-4800Elite/images/quake3.gif http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/OCZ/PC-4800Elite/images/3dmark01.gif http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/OCZ/PC-4800Elite/images/superpi.gif
For 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 DDR-400 memory running at JEDEC standard timings (2.5-3-3-8). The average percentage of the three benchmarks is listed in following table:
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/OCZ/PC-4800Elite/images/vsjedec.gif
[page=Value and Conclusion]
Value and Conclusion
<table width="100%" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0" id="result">
<tr><th>http://www.techpowerup.com/images/dollar.gif</th>
<td>
Two 512MB OCZ PC-4800 Platinum Elite modules are sold for $250, which I find really expensive for 1GB of memory. You do have to consider that the guaranteed TCCD and serious testing at OCZ has its price.</td>
</tr><tr>
<th>http://www.techpowerup.com/images/thumbup.gif</th>
<td>
Great overclocker
Good performance
Can run both CL2 or CL2.5
Warranty covers overvolting
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>http://www.techpowerup.com/images/thumbdown.gif</th>
<td>
Expensive
Higher voltage does not increase overclocking at CL2
</td></tr>
<tr>
<th>8.2</th>
<td>If you absolutely want the fastest memory, you seriously have to check out OCZ's 4800 Platinum Elite. However, think about the hole that these modules will rip into your pocket. Personally, I wouldn't spend that much money for memory, the added performance for the price is too small in my opinion.<br />
It is great that the sticks are able to run either CL2 or CL2.5, at a higher voltage, without losing your warranty. And in case something goes wrong you still have OCZ's excellent technical support to help you out.</td></tr>
<tr><th></th><td>http://www.techpowerup.com/images/editorschoice.gif</td></tr>
</table>