DDR4 Memory Scaling on Intel Z170 – Finding The Best DDR4 Memory Kit Speed

3DMark Sky Diver and Handbrake

Futuremark 3DMark Sky Diver

3DMark Sky Driver is the latest test in the worlds most popular benchmark for measuring the 3D graphics performance of gaming PCs. We’ll be using the Physics test to look at memory performance. The Physics test introduces a new approach that extends the performance range for which the test is relevant. The test runs through four levels of work starting with the lightest and continuing to the heaviest unless the frame rate drops below a minimum threshold. The GPU load is kept as low as possible to ensure that only the CPU is stressed. The test uses the Bullet Open Source Physics Library.

Results: The Physics score went up 5.7% by going from the DDR4 2133MHz kit with CL14 timings to the DDR4 3733 MHz kits with the CL17 timings, so there isn’t a big performance difference to be had despite the 1600 MHz or 75% increase in memory clock on the Intel Z170 platform for this particular test. The 5.7% increase in the score is a significant improvement though. Not that the 3000MHz kit scored 47.31 FPS and the 3733MHz kit scored 47.65, so there is a very small difference in performance once you get to 3000MHz with somewhat aggressive 15-15-15-36 1T timings.

Handbrake

HandBrake is an open-source, GPL-licensed, multiplatform, multithreaded video transcoder, available for MacOS X, Linux and Windows. It is popular today as it allows you to transcode multiple input video formats to h.264 output format and is highly multithreaded.

We used Big Buck Bunny as our input file, which has become one of the world standards for video benchmarks. The 1080P clip was used in the MP4 format and the workload is encoded into h.264 output format using the preset – high profile. This benchmark test was setup to give you an idea of how these processors can take a 1080p BD rip and turn it into a 1080p H.264. HandBrake version 0.9.9 was used for benchmarking and we highly encourage you to download this MP4 clip and compare your system to ours with Handbrake!

Benchmark Results: HandBrake version 0.10.1 showed nice performance increase from DDR4-2133 to DDR4-2400 and then we see performance pretty much plateaus.