SiSoft Sandra
Bandwidth
Similarly to PCMark, SiSoft Sandra is another synthetic benchmark that analyzes RAW performance of computer components based on inclusive tests. In this case, however, it serves well to measure results of the overclocking. As you can see in the images below, the RAM at stock speed was capable of attaining 28.688 GB/s memory bandwidth and was able to outperform a similar X58 system with the same speed but faster timings. A 50 MHz overclock of Sector 7 RAM improved the performance another GB/s yielding a result of 29.763 GB/s bandwidth.
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| SiSoft Sandra Bandwidth @ 1800MHz | SiSoft Sandra Bandwidth @ 1850MHz |
Cache/Memory Bandwidth
This actual benchmark pertains to the bandwidth between the different caches in the processor. The processor uses the cache to store common instruction that are used in almost every operation for quick access. Not all instructions, however, can be stored inside the cache. When an instruction that a processor needs is not found, the processor has to fetch it from the memory. The faster the memory, the faster the processor can fetch the data. Faster numbers are imperative in this aspect. At 1800 MHz Sector 7 kit scored an impressive 72 GB/s and overclocking it another 50 MHz added another GB/s on top of that. In comparison to other model systems, the only ones capable of outdoing these ratings were kits rated at 2000 MHz and the margin by which they surpassed Sector 7 was not large at all.
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| SiSoft Sandra Cache @ 1800MHz | SiSoft Sandra Cache @ 1850MHz |
Latency
Latency refers to the time between when the request to pull information from the memory was made to when the RAM actually provided the information. The timings and speeds of the RAM modules play a key role in this test. This means that lowest scores are the best. After getting the latency, SiSoft Sandra does some black magic and outputs a “Speed Factor” based on internal calculations. For stock settings the our RAM’s latency was 60 ns and was only beat by RAM who’s speeds were clocked at 2000 MHz. At 1850MHz, the latency was 59 ns. The speed factors for both tests were 40.9 and 41.3 respectively.
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| SiSoft Sandra Latency @ 1800MHz | SiSoft Sandra Latency @ 1850MHz |
MemTach
Similarly to SiSoft Sandra tests, MemTach also runs a series of tests and analyzes them in order to determine speed of the RAM. In this case the tests are a series of mathematical and logical operations. MemTach measures the average, min and max speeds of the RAM. The total run time of the benchmark at stock settings was 12.5 seconds at stock speed. At 1850 MHz the benchmark too 12.15 seconds to run and displayed significantly better results in the min transfer rates of the benchmark. This is demonstrated in the memset test where the min transfer rate at 1850MHz is 7517MB/s compared to 4961 MB/s.
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| MemTach @ 1800MHz | MemTach @ 1850MHz |
