Crucial Ballistix DDR3-1866 8GB Kit - Let the Benchmarks Begin

Benchmarks:

In this section we will be running four benchmarks.  The four benchmarks we are using are Super Pi, SiSoftware Sandra, AIDA64 and CPUID CPU-Z (this isn't really a benchmark it just shows what is actually has been changed in the system).

CPUID CPU-Z:

Below you can see that most system will default the memory timings.  This is done mainly to make their memory module backwards compatible with older motherboards.  As you can see the default frequency is 667 MHz for both memory kits.  The Corsair Vengeance DDR3 PC-3 12800 (1600 MHz) with the timing of 9-9-9-24 Command Rate (CR) 1T @ 1.5Volts with the default setting it is actually @ 1333MHz.  This is a little short from what is advertised.  The Crucial Ballistix Elite DDR3 PC-3 14900 (1866MHz) with the timings of 9-9-9-27 Command Rate (CR) T1 @1.5Volts with the default setting is actually at 1333MHz.  This is way below advertised speeds.  When you change the BIOS DRAM configuration from the default profile (auto) to the XMP profile, the frequencies come into line with what you expect.

The Corsair Vengeance DDR3 PC-3 12800 memory module with the same timings and CR is actually at the advertised speed of 1600MHz. The Crucial Ballistix DDR3 PC-3 14900 memory module came up to its advertised speed of 1866MHz with a slight change in the timing.

Super Pi:

Super Pi is a program that calculates Pi to a specific decimal point and times it.  We included this result in the review, but when looking at the different profiles, this seems to be largely CPU dependent anymore.  Back in the day, memory made more of an impact on these results.

On the next page we'll continue with the benchmarks as we compare the two kits in SiSoft Sandra as well as AIDA64.