Application Test Results

For application testing I chose CineBench R11.5 OpenGL test. The intro of "The Gulag" from Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (using Fraps to measure FPS). 7-Zip's built-in benchmark test, and the Retouch artists Photoshop CS4 Test, to see how the G.Skill Ripjaws DDR3-2000MHz 8GB memory would perform. First up: CineBench R11.5, this free benchmark tool by Maxon makes use of the same rendering code used in their professional "Cinema" line of products, and it performs several rendering tests to assess system performance. The OpenGL subtest uses a animated car chase scene rendered in real time, and reports the results in frames per second.

With test scores this close it is obvious that memory speed/timings have no influence on OpenGL, we should all know by now that higher end GPU's (even past generation) are powerful enough to handle graphics without calling up on the CPU or RAM for help. With not even one FPS between the results this test has proved its point.

For the next test I recorded FPS using Fraps during the intro of "The Gulag" level from Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. The test is run at 1680x1050 with 4xAA with all other settings enabled and texture settings on high. GPU in use is a 9800GT 512MB.

As we can see again, memory speed really doesn't have any influence over games any more, even with a card that is pushing three years of age. Let's have a look at some different applications now to see what really does benefit from faster memory.

Next up is the Retouch Artists Speed Test for Photoshop CS4. This program can benefit from both CPU and memory overclocks. Retouch Artists Test does a list of basic processes into an image similar to what someone would do to edit their vacation photos. There is some image resizing, duplicated layers, colors levels and image adjustments involved in the test. While this isn't a strict Benchmark (because you need to take the time with an external stopwatch), the results difference can be noticeable.

When we look at the Photoshop speed test results it's almost like there is no real benefit to overclocking your RAM. But let's not forget that Photoshop is also highly dependant on your CPU, and as I have stated previously, the CPU was kept as close to its stock speed as possible. Let's also not forget that this is a very short test and when these numbers are converted to minutes or even hours the benefit can be better appreciated. Increasing the CPU speed to 3GHz (15x200), while keeping the RAM at 2000MHz (2:10) gave an average result of 16.44 seconds to complete the test.

7-Zip is a very simple, yet useful application. How many times do you compress or decompress random files in a day? Well, 7-Zip has its own integrated benchmark which measures an average of KB/s compression. This application supports multi-threading, 64 bits OS, and it is very CPU dependant. We see again that increasing RAM speed will have an impact on overall performance but only when you adjust CPU performance accordingly. Once again increasing the CPU speed to 3GHz (15x200) while keeping the RAM at 2000MHz (2:10) gave a result of 9806KB/s.

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