OCZ Flexx memory cranks up the megahurtz

LAST FRIDAY we got our hands on OCZ's PC2-9200 FlexXLC memory and we didn't rest this Sunday. We managed to finish up a massive test where we think we broke some memory overclocking records. The preview is here.

OCZ DDR2 PC2-9200 FlexXLC Edition Dual is available and you can find it in even more stores for €499 to €530 on this side of the pond. PCs 9200 means that memory works at 1150MHz with 5-5-5-18 settings.

We had a word with chaps from OCZ and they told us that in the lab they were able to push the memory to far more than 1200MHz and we wanted to give it a try. After testing the memory at 1144 and 1155 and haven't it all stabile we decided to move for the higher speeds. The first milestone was 1200MHz and we didn't had any issues to run the machine as 1205MHz. we decided to push even more and pushed the memory to 1244 and managed to get Pi stabile even the 32MB one. Quake 4 and Sandra were stabile all settings till this speed.

We used OCZ recommended 2.35 V for all settings to 1244MHz but for the highest one, 1280MHz, we had to increase it to 2.5V. We did this in EVGA 680i Premium motherboard a very hot-selling cake and despite some ghosts in bios we found this board to be super overclocker friendly.

It is Nvidia's reference board but it works well. We didn't like the fact that a single module works at much slower speed than two. One thing you want to do when you overclock is to actively cool the northbridge as this baby really gets hot without a fan. The fan is optional and comes in the box and without it at high overclock it warmed up to almost boiling temperature of 98 Celsius. With a fan it works at 45 to 50 Celsius.

OCZ's PC2-9200 FlexXLC memory worked at 5-5-5-18 settings at all time without any additional cooling. It doesn't need water or air cooling but with it it might go even faster. We faced some bios limitations as we couldn't use all the settings especially in unlinked mode. We could not set any memory settings from 1244 to 1280. We don't know why is that but we are sure that Nvidia can do something about it. I am very certain that this is a bios issue that they can fix.

Benchmarketing

We used:
EVGA nForce 680i SLI board
Intel Core 2 Duo E6700, 2x 2.67GHz, 266MHz FSB, 4MB Cache
Leadtek Geforce 8800 GTS
Seagate Barracuda 7200.9 400GB SATA NCQ hard drive
Akasa EVO AK 922 Blue Athlon 64/X2/FX cooler and Intel CPU's
OCZ 700W GameXstream power supply

Quake 4	1024x768	1600x1200	?	?
OCZ 1155MHz bus 1066MHz cpu 2667MHz	218.1	192.7	?	?
OCZ 1244MHz bus 1066MHz cpu 2667MHz	219.8	193.8	?	?
OCZ 1280MHz bus 1066MHz cpu 2667MHz	222.0	196.2	?	?
OCZ 1250MHz bus 1250MHz cpu 2812MHz	231.0	200.6	?	?
?	?	?	?	?
Quake 4 High Quality FSAA 4X + Aniso 8X	1024x768	1600x1200	?	?
OCZ 1155MHz bus 1066MHz cpu 2667MHz	200.4	150.7	?	?
OCZ 1244MHz bus 1066MHz cpu 2667MHz	200.5	151.4	?	?
OCZ 1280MHz bus 1066MHz cpu 2667MHz	200.8	151.5	?	?
OCZ 1250MHz bus 1250MHz cpu 2812MHz	209.7	152.5	?	?
?	?	?	?	?
Super_Pi	1MB	8MB	16MB	32MB
OCZ 1155MHz bus 1066MHz cpu 2667MHz	18s	03m 53s	08m 39s	18m 13s
OCZ 1244MHz bus 1066MHz cpu 2667MHz	18s	03m 50s	08m 33s	18m 03s
OCZ 1280MHz bus 1066MHz cpu 2667MHz	18s	03m 49s	08m 30s	17m 58s
OCZ 1250MHz bus 1250MHz cpu 2812MHz	17s	03m 39s	08m 08s	17m 05s
?	?	?	?	?
Sandra 2007	Memory Bandwith	Memory Latency	Cache&Memory
OCZ 1155MHz bus 1066MHz cpu 2667MHz	5925/5920	68ns / 59.6	23264MBs / 66.3	?
OCZ 1244MHz bus 1066MHz cpu 2667MHz	5966/5970	67ns / 58.8	23838MBs / 62.0
OCZ 1280MHz bus 1066MHz cpu 2667MHz	6018/6015	65ns / 57.8	23936MBs / 61.5
OCZ 1250MHz bus 1250MHz cpu 2812MHz	6867/6878	61ns / 56.6	24801MBs / 64.6	?

We tested a few configurations. At first we just wanted to get the memory at default 1066 FSB CPU and we tested the applications at 1155MHz, OCZ 1244MHz and OCZ 1280MHz. we did it in Quake 4, Super Pi and Sandra 2007. After that batch of testing and playing a bit more we managed to overclock the CPU from 2666MHz to 2812MHz with a FSB 1250MHz and we set the memory at 1250MHz as we knew that this will be the winning combination.

We tested Quake 4 and FLEXX OCZ 1280MH scores four frames faster than the one clocked at 1150 MHz, at 16x12 we are talking about less than four frames difference. We are talking about two percent performance increase. But the real power comes from the Overclocked FSB and Memory that can match its frequency at splashing 1250 MHz. this gets you thirteen frames more at 10x7 as the system runs almost six percent faster. at 16x12 there is a five percent difference. FSB 1250 and memory at that speed is just a bit over than two percent faster.

Quake 4 FSAA and Aniso on shows a little difference unless you overclock the FSB. In that case the machine runs four and a half percent faster but this is a graphic limited setting anyway.

Super Pi was a good example how the see the difference. At 1MB test only the FSB and memory clocked at 1250MHz managed to be a single second faster than the rest of settings. One second in this case means six percent difference or being six percent fast.

There are a few second differences in Pi with 8 MB where 1280MHz memory does the job four seconds faster than the default one. OCZ 1250MHz memory with 1250MHz buss and CPU at 2812MHz runs Pi 10 seconds faster or four and a half percent faster. The bigger you go the bigger the difference. At Super Pi 16MB 1280MHz does the job nine seconds faster than the 1150 one. Overclocked FSB and memory at 1250MHz is again the fastest being able to do the same job 22 faster than the 1280MHz memory at 1066 FSB and 31 seconds faster than the 1150MHz setting.

32MB test increases the gap where 1150 scores 15 seconds slower than 1280MHz memory. This memory loses by massive 53 seconds from 1250MHz FSB and memory setting and this setting is sixty eight seconds or more than seven percent faster.

Sandra 2007 can show you what you are gaining when overclocking. 2180 MHz memory is 93MB/s faster than 1150MHz memory.

Memory and FSB at 1250MHz really rocks the board as the memory runs 850MB/s faster than 1066 tested 1280MHz. you can see that latencies goes down with the speed. It is not a big difference ut 1280MHz memory has three ns lower latency than the 1150MHz settings. The overclocked FSB and memory at 1250MHz has seven ns difference from 1150MHz setting.

You can see that cache test really likes the speed. There is almost 700MB difference from 1150 and 1280MHz settings. 1280MHz is dominant faster. 1250 MHz FSB and memory in linked mode pushed the limits and manages to be 865MB faster than 1280MHz setting with 1066FSB. OCZ DDR2 PC2-9200 FlexXLC has the lowest latency at 1280 MHz speed and even the 1244MHz setting is beating 1250MHz memory and FSB.

In Short
OCZ DDR2 PC2-9200 FlexXLC is the fastest memory we have seen or tested. It is the only one that will get your system at 1280MHz in unlinked mode or magnificent 1250MHz in unlinked mode. It is not cheap but for around €500 you are getting the fastest memory around that easily breaks the 1200MHz magical barrier.

We didn't even had to actively cool it or to use water cooling it worked at 1280MHz at 2.5 V stable and it is still covered with a life-time warranty.

If you are memory overclocker you should definitely consider buying this memory. It is the fastest.

OCZ did a great job killing the unavailability and vapourware myth as it shipped, the super fast memory in just a week from announcement. We love it as it is a low-headache memory just set the settings we used and it will work. EVGA did a great job on the board - or actually Nvidia did a good job making it. It needs some polishing on the BIOS side but we are sure that we shocked a few engineers at Nvidia with our scores and these guys will certainly try to make new BIOS that will remove these limitations.

Now we'll have to see if we can reach 1300MHz with better cooling. We will certainly give it a try. ?

Reviewed and tested by Sanjin Rados and Fuad Abazovic