SiSoftware Sandra Lite 2009.SP1 Beta (15.42)

Website: Sisoftware


Sisoft Sandra shows better performance for the DDR3 equipped systems, but also benefits from the faster memory controller clock, an improved CPU frequency and more cores to play with too (it's a multi-threaded memory bandwidth test). The Core i7 CPUs storm away, as expected - triple-channel DDR3 and HyperThreading do well in this synthetic test, but the triple and quad-core AMD CPUs also fare pretty well too.

It seems the smaller L3 cache also has a deficit too - because the Phenom II X4 at 2.6GHz and a 2.0GHz core clock on DDR2 mixes it in with the DDR3 results, yet the Phenom II X4 810 on DDR2 which is virtually identical, bar a 4MB L3 cache instead of 6MB, takes quite a big drop in performance.


The AM3 DDR3-1,333MHz C7 latency is basically equalling DDR2 latency at 1,066MHz C5 - AMD needs more frequency, more channels, or a better memory controller, because when we tested the Core i7 with single and dual channel DDR3 1,066MHz, it was still cutting 10ns less than the AMD parts here.