Intel Ivy Bridge: Comparison of performance of RAM at different speeds

The new Intel microprocessors that are gaining attention lately, is the Ivy Bridge for socket LGA 1155 that happens to come with Sandy Bridge, that have some improvements over the previous generation among which its integrated memory controller (IMC ) , with native support for DDR3 RAM at 1600 MHz against BMI of Sandy Bridge with support for DDR3 RAM at 1333 MHz .

Many of you will say that the previous Sandy Bridge was able to support RAM at higher frequency, but support for such RAM comes with the chipset used in the motherboard, not because the type of RAM the IMC from the microprocessor supports in principle. If you look at the official specifications of Intel you will see that this is so, and if using a micro Sandy Bridge on plates with certain chipsets it does not support RAM over 1333 MHz frequency.

Computer Base have made possible an extensive and comprehensive performance analysis of RAM with these new chips from Intel Ivy Bridge using a wide range of memory DDR3 modules, covering frequencies from 1066 MHz up to 2133 MHz and also with different latencies. Here you can see some of the results, which reflected no significant differences when using RAM with frequencies above 1600 MHz :

Test results vary depending on the application used, but highlights the fact that no substantial differences were obtained when using modules with frequencies above 1600 MHz , the frequency is officially supported by the BMI from the new Ivy Bridge.

The average testing modules of 2133 MHz provides superior performance around 1 or 1.1% of using RAM at 1600 MHz , an insignificant truth, which together with the existing price difference is not worth it for most users, although it is true that in certain very specific areas the difference can be noticed more, but linked to the performance impact of RAM on the overall performance of a sytem is not something that has a specific gravity of importance, one can conclude that in the vast majority of cases it is not worth investing in very expensive RAM modules and with frequency latency that are low.

You can see the full analysis of Computer Base at the following link (note that is in German, you should use Google Translator): Computer Base.

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