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[Testing] HyperX DDR3L RAM - Energy Efficiency and Performance

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Vladimir Mayakovsky

Hi, Giktayms! The share of the standard of DDR3 RAM was a long and happy life - a lot of things changed, the frequencies increased, the volume of modules grew. At the beginning (with the development of the Intel Socket platform LGA775 ), the standard supply voltage was 1.5 volts, the chips were hardy, the chipsets were hot, and the range was extremely wide. For overclockers, remembering less than 2.0 V was considered bad form, and radiators did serve to remove heat. Everything changed with the relocation of the memory controller under the processor cover - the fantasy of an enthusiast received many restrictions, and manufacturers were able to relax timings and reduce the cost of modules. Throughout the release of all previous generations of Intel Core processors, the power standard remained unchanged, and only in the current, sixth generation Intel Core (SkyLake), which supports two types of RAM - DDR3 and DDR4 - it is officially proposed to use a special type - DDR3L , which is optimized for work with Intel 100 series chipsets.
Under the cut - testing kit HyperX Fury DDR3L-1866 .




By the way, voltage reduction is not a marketing whim of memory manufacturers, but a requirement from Intel, about which many authoritative resources wrote. The fact is that working with a voltage of 1.5V can lead to failure of the chipset or the integrated memory controller.
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Appearance and characteristics of RAM


A transparent plastic blister is used to pack the memory, which reliably protects the modules during transportation from most minor annoyances. The sticker with information about the kit serves as a seal at the same time, its wings cover the blister and without accessing the sticker you cannot access the modules.



The modules look exactly the same as regular DDR3 memory - apparently there are no differences between the standards. On an aluminum radiator of black color, the affiliation to the type of memory with low voltage is clearly indicated. Radiators, by the way, have a compact design and will not have any compatibility problems with tower-type coolers.



The slats are assembled on SK Hynix production chips labeled H5TC4G83BFR-PBA . Nominal for this batch is operation at 1600 MHz with CAS 11 timing.

Test bench and testing methodology






Modules are made on the 32nd week of 2015, support the XMP version 1.3 profile. For the frequency 1866 MHz, the timings are 11-11-11-32-2T with a supply voltage of 1.35V, of course.

I’ll say right away and honestly, there is no difference in performance between HyperX Fury DDR3 and DDR3L at equal frequencies, so it makes no sense to measure the numbers and zeros in the tests. Let me remind you that the advantage of the updated standard is in a lower standard supply voltage, which means in a lower heat release. For comparison, I took the HyperX Fury Black kit with the same frequency, 1866 MHz, and relaxed the timings prescribed in the SPD, until 11-11-11-32-2T, as in the DDR3L kit.
As a comparative base I will use two indicators - the temperature of the module (DDR3L versus DDR3) and the total power consumption of the system.



Test results


For the seed, I will give a screenshot of the “blue” AIDA64 test, actually under such a load, and I will check the temperature and power consumption.

AIDA 64



An infrared thermometer UT302A was used to measure the temperature, and a Robiton PM-1 was used to measure the amount of energy consumed.



The temperature is a couple degrees lower, pure physics, nothing surprising.



Energy consumption is quite a bit, but also lower in the updated standard, the results diverge by about 5%.

Conclusion and conclusions


As I said at the beginning, for owners of the Intel SkyLake platform, the use of DDR3L is mandatory, but this does not mean that this memory is not suitable for other systems. Surely, with the upgrade of previous generations of computers DDR3L will have to court. For owners of compact systems with integrated video adapters, reduced supply voltage will be a good help while maintaining performance.

Thank you for your attention, stay with Kingston on Geektimes.ru!

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Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/367329/

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