Corsair 2x2GB XMS3 DHX DDR3-1600 TW3X4G1600C9DHXNV – Living Review

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Corsair 2x2GB XMS3 DHX DDR3-1600 TW3X4G1600C9DHXNV – Living Review.

Corsair have long been at the forefront of memory technology, and recently have been pushing the performance of DDR3 to new heights.

So today, I am pleased to announce our first Corsair Living Review! - We have Corsair's brand new XMS3 DHX DDR3-1600 4GB (2x2GB) kit to put through it's paces.

I am currently reviewing the DFI UT X48-T3R, so I will be referencing that in this review, as well as having a look at some real world tests. I will also be exploring the benefits of 4GB over 2GB, and what it means for everyday users.

I will be testing with some of the traditional, synthetic benchmarks, but I will also be using current games and applications that many of us find grinding to a halt with 2GB RAM and Vista installed.

What I will be looking for is tangible benefits in things like frame rates, program loading times, task completion times and so on.

Read on to find out how things pan out....

Index.

1. Index & Intro
2. Corsair DDR3-1600 2x2GB DHX Kit - First Look
3. Official Specs
4. First Tests
5. More on the way



Firstly, let's take a look at the memory in question.

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Corsair DDR3-1600 2x2GB DHX Kit - First Look.

Packaged in an eyecatching orange and black blister pack.



The modules look fantastic. The DHX (Dual-path Heat eXchange) heat spreaders are made from aluminium and are quite tall, but very narrow, so fitting four modules side by side won't be a problem.


More eye catching graphics, this time in a kind of dayglo green, very similar to the green DFI use on their boards!



As you can see from this shot, the DHX heat spreader assembly comprises of four metal parts that are sandwiched together.

DHX works by removing heat from both the ICs and the PCB. If you look at the image below, you can see that the smaller, inner two sets of fins actually bond to the PCB and the outer heat spreaders bond to the ICs.

I quite like this idea and I am keen to see how it does during testing.



This shot shows the 108 fins that give the DHX heat spreaders their large surface area.



Next, The Specifications...

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Official Specs.

The TW3X4G1600C9DHXNV is a DDR3 2GB kit delivering 1600MHz memory frequency at 9-9-9-24, which includes Intel’s Extreme Memory Profiles (EPP2.0EPP2.0).

• Ultra-Fast 1600MHz 9-9-9-24 operation
• Pair of matched 2 GB modules
• DHX Technology for superior thermal performance
• Performance optimized for platforms based on NVIDIA 790i chip set
• EPP2.0EPP2.0NVIDIA EPP2.0 Certified
• Profiles supported: EPP2.0EPP2.0 profile: 1600MHz, 9-9-9-24
• Typical CAS-8 Performance: 1800+ MHz
• Each module is 100% hand tested using the Asus Striker II Extreme
• Lifetime warranty

Features.

• 4096 Megabytes of DDR3 memory
• Two matched CM3X2G1600C9DHX modules
• Using DHX technology providing maximum cooling
• 100% tested at 1600MHz in high performance DDR3 motherboards
• Lifetime warranty

Corsair's TW3X4G1600C9DHXNV marketing info.

"Optimized for NVIDIA nForce 790i Ultra SLI-based motherboards, the TW3X4G1600C9DHXNV is the best price for performance
solution in the market. Available at around $300USD the TW3X4G1600C9DHXNV is aimed at those users wanting an affordable,
quality, overclockable 4GB kit for their NVIDIA-based platform.

Corsair designed to offer customers excellent overclocking experience the TW3X4G1600C9DHXNV will be adopted by mainstream
and enthusiast alike choosing to build DDR3 systems, looking for over-clocking headroom and reliability from their memory modules.

Protect Components While Pushing Performance

As with DDR2 modules, the need to minimize heat to maximize performance remains the same with DDR3. Pushing performance
specs generates heat, and that can compromise reliability and component life. The advanced cooling ability of Dual-path Heat
Xchange (DHX) heat sinks keeps system memory safe and reliable even when systems are pushed to the limit. DHX technology will
be incorporated into Corsair parts designed for extreme over-clocking and on memory designed for performance computing and
gaming.

Why Performance DDR3 Memory Must Have Superior Heat Dissipation

Heat is the enemy of a computer's key components. Heat will slow down systems and impact long term reliability. And the more
one tweaks components for performance, the more heat that is generated. With traditional DDR3 memory the standard method of
chip packaging involves a BGA (Ball Grid Array). In a BGA, small balls of solder, organized as a grid, are the leads that connect the
device to the module circuit board. A Micron Semiconductor study shows that in a BGA memory device as much as 50% of the heat
sinks are only attached to the front surface of memory chips, there's no easy thermal path for the heat coming from the back of the
chips.

Corsair's Unique Dual-path Heat Xchange (DHX) Solves the Problem

Dual-path Heat Xchange (DHX) is the world’s most advanced memory module thermal dissipation technology. This
patent pending heat sink technology substantially increases the memory module’s thermal dissipation so that the
heat generated by the RAM cells can be more efficiently removed from the module. RAMs that run at lower
temperatures enjoy improved performance and extended reliability.

Since traditional heat spreaders are only attached to the back surface of the memory packages there is no direct thermal path for the
heat coming from the surface of the RAMs to escape through. The new Dual-path Heat Xchange technology developed by Corsair
engineers uses two paths for the heat to escape from a memory device.

Conductive Heat Dissipation Path 1

The innovative first path is through the leads of the BGA chips into the printed circuit board (PCB). When BGA devices are soldered
on to a memory module, an all-metal thermal path is created from the surface of the RAM to the copper ground plane of the PCB.
This thermal path provides very efficient heat removal. In fact, a study by Micron Semiconductor indicated that well over half of the
heat generated by a memory module is removed in this manner. In order to maximize the performance of this thermal path, a
special PCB was constructed. The height of this PCB was extended to allow installation of a dedicated heat sink. This heat sink is
used to dissipate the heat generated by the RAMs on the module which has been conducted into the copper ground plane of the PCB.

Conductive Heat Dissipation Path 2

The second, more typical thermal path is through the back of the BGA packages and into high-performance extruded aluminum heat
sinks. Overall, the module has four heat sinks, two connected to the RAMs and two connected to the PCB. These heat sinks were
designed specifically for the personal computing environment, with fins oriented both in latitudinal and longitudinal orientation to
take advantage of air provided by CPU fans as well as case fans. The result is a module with superior thermal characteristics which
will run cooler than a module with stamped or mesh heat spreaders, and thus have greater reliability and over-clocking capability."

Next up, first tests with the DFI UT X48 T3RS...

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First Tests.

Here we have a couple of quick tests using air cooling that I did to get the feel of things.

The test setup is as follows;

• Intel E8500
• DFI UT X48-T3RS
• Gainward 8800GT
• Thermalright Ultra Extreme 120
• Raptor 74GB 16MB Cache

First up, I wanted to check the RAM at it's rated speed - Works perfectly, as expected.

400x9.5 @ 1.36v - 3800Mhz CPU - 1600Mhz RAM @ 1.8v - 9-9-9-24



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410x9.5 @ 1.365v - 3895Mhz CPU - 1640Mhz RAM @ 1.8v - 9-9-9-24

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420x9.5 @ 1.4v - 3991Mhz CPU - 1680Mhz RAM @ 1.82v - 9-9-9-24

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More on the way...

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More Tests & Results.

I'm still using the shipping BIOS as I have seen quite a few reports of people not being able to boot with their 2GB modules installed. The Corsair modules booted first time and the results have been quite impressive so far.

I have also decided to switch to the phase cooling setup earlier than planned because the hot weather (Yes, hot weather in the UK, it's a miracle!) has caused the temps to soar in this room, resulting in higher temps all round and higher voltage needed - The phase has fixed that problem.

CAS 7 wasn't doable with these modules on this BIOS unfortunately, but I managed a fairly healthy CAS 8 @ 1600Mhz at stock voltage. I will try CAS 7 again later with a different BIOS.

400x9.5 @ 1.30v - 3800Mhz CPU - 1600Mhz RAM @ 1.8v - 8-8-8-18 - 1:2



Click Images For Full Size.



Cinebench.



430x9.5 @ 1.33v - 4086Mhz CPU - 1720Mhz RAM @ 1.82v - 9-9-9-24 - 1:2



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Cinebench.



440x9.5 @ 1.36v - 4178Mhz CPU - 1760Mhz RAM @ 1.82v - 9-9-9-24 - 1:2



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Cinebench.



At this point, I started to have some problems with OCCT, and I don't think it was due to stability issues with the system as prime95 worked fine.

The issue was that OCCT just hung, but didn't display a warning, and yet the rest of the PC carried on as normal. I haven't seen this before on my systems, so at the moment, I'm not sure what to make of it.

While trying to get OCCT stable, I relaxed the tRCD to see if it made any difference, and it didn't, however, I forgot to change it back for this quick prime run - I will redo it later.

450x9.5 @ 1.38v - 4276Mhz CPU - 1800Mhz RAM @ 1.82v - 9-10-9-24 - 1:2



Click Images For Full Size.



Cinebench.



More results on the way...

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Observations so far.

I've been running this kit in my test rig for a couple of weeks now and I have been able to draw some non-scientific conclusions, observations and things that I can't really measure (The tests are up next).

2x2GB Kit Benefits – Vista x64.

Day to day windows tasks, opening browsers, opening outlook and so forth are greatly enhanced when using 2x2GB.

Photoshop is a joy to use with 4GB+ fitted. Not only does it open faster, but large RAW files are easily edited and manipulated and processed.

2x2GB Kit Benefits – XP 32 Bit

XP 32 Bit is a slightly different story. We already know that a 32 bit operating system can’t address 4GB of memory and we aren’t going to go there as there are countless articles regarding this already.

What I will say, is that the extra 1.5GB available (assuming you aren’t running a 1GB graphics card) does make for a nice increase in performance in memory intensive applications such as Photoshop, and in all honesty, it actually feels faster than the Vista x64 install that uses the whole 4GB! For most windows tasks though, there isn’t much of a difference in speed (to me at least).

Other Findings.

For the gaming tests, I have used three popular games - Bioshock, Crysis and Call Of Duty 4.

I anticipated some straightforward results between the 2x2GB and the 2x1GB kits, yet this wasn't the case.

While doing my tests, I was trying to think of the best method to provide the same in-game conditions each time, and while running through each level may look the same to the naked eye, some runs show that there is much more going on than other runs of the same level.

This led to some truly odd results and led me to redo the tests over and over.

I recorded my first set of results for the three games, simply the Min, Max, Average frames per second for the level using Fraps.

On the first run of the 2x1GB kit, I could see a tiny speed increase over the 2x2GB kit (yes, I was amazed too), however, the second run, the 2x2GB clawed it back, and so it went on.

I realised that each time I ran the tests, the results were vastly different with results so varied that they couldn't be conclusive, so I decided to try a different approach.

One thing that was always the same was some of the intros to the levels - COD4 for example has some spectacular intros, such as "The Coup".

While not being 100% representative of an in-game situation, it was very close, and it was consistent, so for these tests, that is what I used.

First, Bioshock...

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Bioshock.

From the Bioshock charts, you can see the benefits of using a 2x2GB kit are negligible as far as frame rates go.

What I did notice though, was that the levels loaded much quicker with the 4GB kit, and there was a more fluid and seamless feel as the levels were loading - This in itself makes the gameplay more enjoyable.





Next Call Of Duty 4...

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Call Of Duty 4.

The benefits of the 2x2GB kit are more pronounced on COD4, the game clearly likes the extra memory, although this is reflected more in the minimum frame rates at higher settings.

Much faster loading times were also apparent.





Next, Crysis...

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Crysis.

Crysis was a tricky one to measure.

As with the other games, I have performed several runs and taken an average.

In most scenarios, the 2x2GB kit performed better.

Again, the level loading times were noticeably cut and things felt smoother overall.





Next, 3dmark...

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3DMark.

3DMark05 and 06 show no benefits at all from the extra memory.

I re-ran these tests several times and each time the results were within a few points of each other.

ORB - Compare

ORB - Compare

ORB - Compare

ORB - Compare



Next, Conclusion & Thoughts...