Intro

If you have been keeping up with recent technology then you know of or have heard about Dual Channel DDR. There are chipsets out on the shelves that already utilize this new technology from both nvidia and Intel. nvidia's nForce2 chipset and Intel's Grantie Bay chipset both support Dual Channel DDR. Simply put, Dual Channel DDR is designed to reduce the bottleneck that the front side bus causes by using two seperate channels for data instead of just one. It's a great technology that has already proven it's benefits. The only drawback is that you HAVE to use at least two sticks of RAM to gain the benefits of it. So, if you already had a single stick of RAM in your PC and you upgraded to a new dual channel DDR motherboard, you would need to also get another stick of RAM in order to fully use it. To ensure completely stable operation and the best speed potentials you would need to make the sticks of RAM a matching pair.

This is where Geil comes in. They thought it would be nice if someone offered a high performance matched pair of RAM specifically for those Dual Channel DDR boards out there. Not a bad idea... this way you know you have a set of RAM sticks that are identical. Geil went a step further and made them a FAST matched pair. The kit I will be looking at is their PC3200 Dual Channel DDR Kit. The stats this RAM puts up makes it attractive even if it was a single stick. This kit has two 512MB PC3200 RAM sticks for a total of 1GB RAM. Timings are CAS 2 6-3-3 1T Running @ DDR400Mhz... Niiiiiice. Here are the stats from their website:

PC3200 400Mhz ULD Version:

· Hand Picked 5ns GeIL Chips
· Enhanced SPD for Dual Channel DDR motherboards
· Tin Coated Platinum Copper Heat Spreader with Fashion-Designed Retail box
· Lifetime Warranty
· 6 Layer Ultra Low Noise Shielded PCB
· 184pin High Performance DDR module
· 32x8 Low Density, Un-buffered
· CAS 2 6-3-3 1T Running @ DDR400Mhz PC3200
· 2.5v-2.9V

The Contents

Funny that the package is mentioned as a product feature. I couldn't care less how my RAM is packed. I don't care if my RAM came in a pink fuzzy package and had a mug shot of Barney the Dinosaur stamped on it... whether or not it kicks ass is what matters. Anyways... the package is a bit snazzier that what you normally see. Slide open, blue-tinted package. One thing I can say about it is that the RAM modules are well protected. The modules are squeezed snugly into some protective foam and the modules themselves seem as though they are vacuum sealed. Good thing, too... I just hate it when my RAM gets stale. Here are some shots of the packaging and the RAM.

The Test

I will be benchmarking this RAM as well as a mismatched pair of Xtreme DDR PC3200 RAM (One stick is Version 1 and the Other is their V2 DDR400 stick).

Tests ran:
- PCMark 2002 (CPU and Memory Scores)
- 3DMark 2001 SE (Default benchmark settings)
- 3DMark 2003 (Default benchmark settings)
- Memtach
- Sandra 2003 Memory Bandwidth Benchmark

Test System:
CPU: AMD Athlon 2600+ (266 FSB)
Motherboard: Asus A7N8X Deluxe
Memory: Geil Dual DDR PC3200 Kit and 2 different versions of Xtreme DDR PC3200 RAM

In addition to stock speeds I also benchmarked the Geil RAM at DDR410 speeds. The RAM handled that overclock very well. Anything higher and my CPU started to dislike the FSB increase (stupid 266FSB!).

PCMark 2002

Already we can see the benefits of the low latency matched pair. From an earlier review of the Xtreme DDR modules I can tell you that they certainly are not slackers.

3Dmark2001 SE

One of the staple tests out there for becnhmarking a system. So many people use it and are familiar with the scoring and how significant various increases in score are that it would be a crime to ever leave it out. Again we see the Geil pair jammin'.

3DMark 2003

The latest benchmark app from Futuremark (Formerly MadOnion) is a behemoth of a benchmark. The minimal use of DX9 benchmarking in this app has disappointed quite a few video buffs but still is nice to use for its sheer amounts of polys and the raw power it requires to run the tests well. We can see even more ownage by the Geil RAM in this situation.

Memtach

Strictly a memory benchmark. I used the average Set and Copy scores in this test.

Sandra 2003 Memory Bandwidth Benchmark

Another staple in benchmarking is SiSoftware's Sandra. I used the Memory Bandwidth Benchmark from their latest offering, Sandra 2003.

Conclusion

The results speak for themselves. Pretty one sided comparison, but keep in mind that Xtreme DDR RAM is a good product itself as well. If you want the most performance you can squeeze our of your Dual Channel DDR motherboard, then this would be the kit for you. Geil has made things easy for you by selling a high-performance, low-latency pair of RAM. You can currently get the 512MB kit for around $180, which comes out to less than $100 per stick.

Pros:
- FAST
- Stable
- Optimized for Dual Channel

Cons:
- The 1GB kit may be a bit expensive.

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