Below you can see our test PC configuration for all the tests:

• CPU: AMD Phenom X4 9950BE
• CPU Cooler: Scythe Mugen (with two 120mm fan)
• Memory: 2x1GB OCZ PC2-8500SLI @ 1067Mhz (5-5-5-15-2T@2.30V Unganged)
• VGA: MSI 7600GT Silent
• HDD1: WD 800JB 80GB 7200rpm
• HDD2: WD 800JB 80GB 7200rpm
• Windows XP SP2 with all the latest updates
• Windows VISTA SP1 with all the latest updates
• DirectX10 Sept2008 updated

Our testbed includes several benchmarks, real life applications under both Windows XP and VISTA:

Windows XP

• Everest Ultimate Edition
• Sisoft Sandra
• wPrime
• x264Benchmark
• SuperPI
• SysMark 2007 Preview
• CineBench
• TMPGEnc

Windows VISTA

• PCMark Vantage
• 3DMark 06
• Crysis Retail
• Unreal Tournament Demo

Just before we start throwing the test results, let' s try to answer to some questions regarding the Ganged vs Unganged modes of testing. So what is their differences and which one should we use?

Ganged refers to the use of both DRAM controllers within a memory controller acting in concert to access memory. Below is a description of ganged (128-bit DRAM data width) and unganged (64-bit DRAM data width) DRAM modes:

Ganged channels

• DCT channels A and B can be ganged as a single logical 128-bit DIMM
• Offers highest DDR2 bandwidth
• Requires both DIMMs in a logical pair to have identical size and timing parameters, both DCTs programmed identically.

Unganged channels

• DCT channels A and B operate as two completely independent 64-bit channels (both channels operate at the same frequency).
• Reduce DRAM page conflicts – more concurrent open dram pages
• Better bus efficiency.

In theory, both modes has their own negative and positive points. However, which one is d faster? We have done some quick tests for you:

At the SuperPI calculation, the Unganged mode was faster.

Proceeding to the Everest Ultimate, we can see that the Ganged mode gave better Memory read/write performance but lower Memory copy results. In addition, the wPrime95 32M benchmark is better under the Unganged mode. All of our tests results were performed in the Unganged mode.