2GB of memory was seen as an unnecessary luxury just a few months ago, with most enthusiasts more than happy enough to use 1GB. Something happened recently to change all that, and that something is called Battlefield 2. Whilst most games still run at their full potential with a single GB of memory, Battlefield 2 can improve in performance by as much as 30% with an extra GB of memory installed.
Plenty of memory is also a priority if you work with ultra high resolution images in Photoshop, or do an insane amount of multitasking. Dual core CPUs are now available that make it possible to simply Alt+Tab out of a game, and continue working with the other core with no noticeable slowdown, provided you have enough memory of course. Regardless of what you use your PC for, if you find it using the page file all too often, its time to start looking at a 2GB matched pair.
2GB matched pairs are becoming big business for the performance memory manufacturers, and whilst they still have some way to go before outselling 1GB matched pairs, come back next year and people using 2 x 512MB sticks will be as obsolete as those using just 512MB today. We asked seven of the most respected performance memory manufacturers to submit their best 2GB kit, and got the following:
Our test rig consisted of an Abit AN8 Fatal1ty SLI motherboard, an AMD Athlon 54 FX55 Processor, an Enermax 600W PSU and a 7800 GTX Video card. We ran Memtest86+ to verify stability of each module in Dual Channel mode. If the modules pass 5 runs of memtest we then proceed to windows where they must complete a 30min Sandra memory burn in, whilst 3DMark 2001SE loops over the top. If they pass this they are considered stable. When overclocking each kit of memory, we kept the processor at or as close to 2.6GHz as possible by adjusting the multiplier.
We tested each kit at various speed bumps, and recorded the most aggressive timings at which they were stable. We also recorded their maximum obtainable speed. The speed bumps were 200MHz, 217MHz, 233MHz, 250MHz, 260MHz and 270MHz. In addition to performance, we also rated the sticks out of 5 for aesthetics and Value.
