Benchmarks II
Putting greater bandwidth and FSB to practical use now. Starting with Pifast. This constant calculator thrives on bandwidth and low latency. The XMS4400 line keeps the relaxed 3-4-4-8 settings but adds higher speeds in the mix.
The differences are almost exclusively down to bandwidth.
Again, not huge changes when adjusting FSB and memory speeds. We must bear in mind that the overall CPU frequency is almost constant. The rise in performance is from the increased ability to request and forward data. The differences would have been larger with, say, a Radeon 9800XT video card. The RAM's expense is offset by the CPU's 'cheapness'. End result is that a higher FSB, given a constant CPU speed, will win out in the majority of benchmarks.
That's echoed by our custom Unreal Tournament 2003 test. It's run at 800x600. The bot match places the greatest emphasis on the interaction of CPU and system RAM. Ramping up the FSB and memory speed produces significant gain. ~ 7FPS may not be much, but it will be enough to persuade enthusiasts to opt for faster RAM.