So with the results in, let's take a look at the summary of how the various sticks perform. The chart below shows the maximum speed obtained at relaxed timings. Sticks that violated the rules of the shootout are highlighted in red. This because they are 256MB sticks that grant the memory a slight performance advantage. I have no doubt in my mind that the Corsair XMS3500 will still perform excellently in its 512MB guise however.
The clear winner in terms of performance of the supertest is the OCZ EL-DDR stick. 490MHz is a truly amazing acheivement, OCZ's new TSOP technology combined with 4.5ns chips really does make a world of difference versus the rest of the crowd.
Performance is one thing, but price is quite another. How do the sticks compare? I have carefully scanned all the stores online to find the cheapest suppliers in the UK of each respective brand. Unsuprisingly, shops that buy the largest quantities have the cheapest prices, so certain names seem to pop up time and time again :)
The Samsung is by far and away the cheapest, and therefore redeems itself somewhat in that respect. The next cheapest in line are OCZ's vanilla 3500, and Geil's PC3200 Ultra. Astoundingly the highest performing memory in this shootout comes in next at just £176. Geil offers good performance for the money at £181, where as adjustments are needed by Corsair and to a lesser extent Mushkin to keep their prices realistic. Time for a summing up!
