Interesting Super Pi result with w7j

I have had my w7j for about a week now and once I resolved a few issues (mostly just me figuring out how to configure it to do certain tasks) I thought I would look at whether changing my w7j's shipped PC 4200 500 mb ram module with a 1gb module would have any detectable difference in speed. First please note that I am not a professional benchmarker and the results presented here are to simply communicate what I found.

My machine:
w7j
2.16 T2600 cpu
Hitachi 7200 rpm hard drive
Same drivers as shipped with the exception that I updated the graphics card driver with a more recent driver from laptopvideo2go.com.

I ran Super Pi version 1.1 to calculate Pi to 2 million decimal places six times. First with the memory shipped from Asus total RAM 1.0 gb working in dual channel.

Results:
1 1 min 08 sec
2 1 min 11 sec
3 1 min 11 sec
4 1 min 11 sec
5 1 min 10 sec
6 1 min 12 sec


Now replacing the Asus module with an OCZ value series 1 gb module (4-4-4-8) part number OCZ5331024VSO (clock rate PC4200)

1 1 min 15 sec
2 1 min 14 sec
3 1 min 15 sec
4 1 min 14 sec
5 1 min 15 sec
6 1 min 15 sec


Based on this comparison there is a small but noticeable difference in the performance througput in Super Pi.

Looking at the memore that came with the notebook it is branded Nanya
PC24200S-444-12-A2.

The CAS rate on the OCZ ram is pretty slow, I am not sure what the Nanya is. So what do you guys think would make the difference here? Dual Channel lost when you add the 1 gb memory stick plus the addition of a slow CAS rate?

Also note that the performance difference with the more expensive t2600 in Super Pi with the 1 GB ram module is negligible, benchmarks for super Pi to 2M digits are around 1 min 15 sec with the stock processor, so stick to the 1.83 core duo chip folks.

 

Everything you mentioned seems correct except for one thing.

the CAS rate and Dual Channel setup.

The interesting is if you had an identical setup, like 1 more OCZ 512mb stick and if the performance went down, then you know the ram is slower.

Obviolsy you purposely used the 1gb stick of ram so now u have 1.5gb of ram, cos you wanted more ram. Unfortunatly it came at a cost of a slight performance loss.

Here's the thing, a while ago i believe Eddie mentioned that Dual Channel really does improve your speed A LOT, ever since we have Yonah, Dual channel ram has really boosted performance overall by a lot, and not by just 1-3% that many have talked about.

How about trying to use 667mhz ram, maybe that would speed things up?

I hoped this may have cleared up somehing.

Thanks for sharing,

MysticGolem

 

I read some stuff though that talked about slight performance decreases with dual channel memory - I don't remember why, but the long story short is that in benchmarking, it appears slower, but when you actually start using the RAM, it is significantly faster.

 

super pi never has the exact same time every time you run it. for all your know some background process started running or something that used a tad more cpu.

 

@ SRD: In theory it should be identical, but I do not think you can discount a reproducible difference (decrease in time) simply by saying that all six tries just happened to have less cpu utilization than when 1.5 gb are installed.