DDR3 is the third generation of double-data-rate (DDR) memory, promising record speeds and a host of improvements over the now-ubiquitous DDR2. While it’s true that the hottest DDR3 modules are reaching hypersonic speeds, their prices are currently stratospheric.
The OCZ’s DDR3 PC3-14400 Platinum Edition includes two 1GB DDR3 modules that are guaranteed to run at up to 1,800MHz. OCZ’s heat-sink-equipped modules have a latency rating of 8-8-8-27, which is better than many slower 1,333MHz modules currently available. They’re backed by a lifetime warranty.
To reach 1,800MHz, however, you’ll need to overclock your motherboard’s front-side bus (FSB), and the rest of your system may not be able to reach fast-enough speeds to max out the memory’s performance. We reached 1,800MHz on an Asus P5K3 Deluxe motherboard, but on the Gigabyte P35C-D3SR we used for comparative testing, we could only push the FSB far enough for the memory to reach 1,740MHz.
The OCZ DDR3 memory showed a clear win in video editing. Our multi threaded MPEG-2 rendering test using Sony Vegas 7.0 dropped from 8 minutes and 18 seconds to 7 minutes and 22 seconds when we swapped in the DDR3 RAM. iTunes audio conversion saw a slight speedup, dropping from 6 minutes and 45 seconds to 6 minutes and 24 seconds. Most other applications, however, showed only negligible increases.
We did see speedups across the board in our tests, but only video rendering and similar memory-and-CPU intensive tasks are likely to make you feel like you’re getting enough bang for your buck, at the moment. Still, it’s clear that DDR3’s additional performance will make it the standard for performance oriented machines, once prices drop.
Click here to find out more: OCZ Platinum Dual Channel Kit – Memory – 2 GB ( 2 x 1 GB ) – DIMM 240-pin – DDR3 SDRAM – 1800 MHz / PC3-14400 – CL8 – 1.95 V – unbuffered






