Performance - DDR3 Memory read | write

Memory Read test

We also had to peek at memory bandwidth performance. Now, Intel has an advantage here, triple-channel memory. This explains the tremendous amount of read performance for the Core i7 platform.

On average indeed you'll notice 8000 MB/sec for an AMD chipset with DDR3 memory at 1333 MHz (C9) and thanks to the point to point memory controller in Intel's Core i3/i5 chips roughly 9000 MB/sec for dual channel configurations.

Memory Write test

The very same can be said for the memory write tests. Of course Intel dominates here considering we used 1333 JEDEC timed memory on both platforms. Triple channel performance on Nehalem is just frighteningly good really.

A Phenom II processor should perform roughly in-between 6500 and 7000 MB/sec, with some random performance occurrences here and there taken into account where Intel's latest offering will offer roughly 7000~7500 MB/sec of bandwidth depending on your memory frequency used and memory timings. We measure at 1333 MHz CAS8 in a dual-channel setup.