Significance of North Bridge frequency over Ram Timing ! benchmakrs Available !

This afternoon, I did another series of ram tests and the results were quite interesting. It shows that always aiming for the lowest possible timing is not the best option in AMD platform, sometimes its just wasted effort . A balanced setting can be as effective, and yet much less stress on ram + less voltage !!
If you can get a very high NB freq, it actually reduces the significance of low timings a great deal !
I spent hours today to get my ram stable at 1784 6-8-6-21-24 @ 1.73, and I did. But my WOW just disappeared after an hour ^^ . you will see why !

Generic 1664 9-9-9-24-1T - NB 3100+ Mhz VS 1600 6-6-6-18-1T-NB 3009 Mhz
1664 CL9



1600 CL6



The Generic 1666 CL9 only lost in latency and its overall score beats 1600 cL6.
that lower latency is noticeable in desktop application and...... but that generic 1664 CL9 performs really good !
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1800 7-8-7-21-24-1T @ 1.63v --> NB 3100+ Mhz VS 1784 6-8-6-21-24-1T @ 1.73v --> NB 3100+ Mhz

1800 CL7 @ 1.63v




1784 CL6 @ 1.73v



I had to add 0.1 extra voltage too get that 1784 CL6, But the gain is almost zero, and overall scores only differ by 0.01 !!! The latency difference is minimal too !

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My conclusion
-It is common knowledge that very low timing rams always fare better than rams with higher latencies, though What I see form these bechies is the opposite . Take the NB frequency factor into account and a generic ram can perform really well.

- NB frequency is very very crucial in ram overclocking. We see that a High NB can make up for lower latencies splendidly. In the second test I also added voltages. 1.73v for CL6, while there is barely any difference from 1.63v CL7. If it is me I go with CL7 1.63v. lower voltage is better anyway, and the latency difference wouldn't be noticeable either.

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I'm open to all idea and opinions, so feel free to speak your mind about tests and results.

I know its not a 100% fair or anything but my point is just to show that NB frequency should not be forgotten if you're adjusting your timings, unless you want to end up like this

1800 CL7 - NB 2025 Mhz


+30% bottleneck
Edited by luches - 2/5/11 at 1:26pm

yeh I know its not 100% fair but my whole point from doing this was to show the importance of NB frequency ^_^ , and that giving too much credit to timing doesn't always give you the best.

I also posted a pic of the bottleneck you will get with stock NB XD . it makes you want to cry. HUGE bottleneck
Edited by luches - 2/5/11 at 1:13pm

You are correct sir. again my whole point is too prove the importance of NB frequency ^^ . I did say application speed will be noticeable with lower latency !

If you can get low timing + high NB , then thats certainly the best. Though it should be kept in mind that sometimes a simple drop in CL factor needs a ton of extra voltage ( test 2). I often used to struggle between CL6 and CL7 and would add the extra voltage for CL6 but now it does not seem justifiable ! there isn't a world of difference between 46.7ns and 45.7ns but the latter needs 0.01v extra voltage !
Edited by luches - 2/5/11 at 1:40pm