Anandtech reviews Cell Shock DDR3-1800, Corsair DDR3-1800, and Kingston KHX14400D3K2/2G DDR3 memory kits
We're still working on providing detailed results, but one of the interesting aspects of the new Intel X38 chipset is that memory performance improves with X38 - but only with DDR3 memory. Improvements over P35 range from 3 to 5% with DDR3, but there are no real improvements in DDR2 performance compared to P35. It should be clear to enthusiasts at this point that DDR3 appears to offer more potential for high performance than DDR2. This is certainly borne out by the dramatic memory speed increases that have been achieved with DDR3 so quickly after introduction.
There are still early issues with X38 and it will take a while for the market to sort these out, but we do expect BIOS updates and potentially hardware revisions to fix the major issues in the near future. When that happens X38 will fill the position of top performer in the Intel chipset lineup, and DDR3 memory will be the memory of choice for best performance. Looking toward that end, what DDR3 memory is best for X38 and P35 based DDR3 motherboards?
Memory based on the exciting new Micron Z9 memory chips for DDR3 first appeared a few days after the Intel P35 launch in late July. We took a look at these early high-speed DDR3 in Super Talent and TEAM: DDR3-1600 is Here! The Super Talent memory was very memorable in that review as it was the first memory product to ever reach a stable DDR3-2000 speed. OCZ followed with a refinement of the early Micron products and introduced their own higher speed DDR3-1800 a couple of weeks later, which we reviewed in OCZ Introduces DDR3-1800. OCZ extended the performance even further with stable DDR3-2040 performance and the even more remarkable DDR3-1900 at 7-7-7 timings...
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