A-DATA was one of the first to present memory kits designed for Core i7 with three memory modules packed together to go with the new triple channel memory controller. A-DATA has now taken things one step further by presenting some extreme overclocking results with Intel’s not yet launched processor platform. A-DATA has namely overclocked its 1600MHz DDR3 memory kit with help from ASUS and pushed it to 2000MHz on ASUS P6T Deluxe.
DDR3 working at 2000MHz is not really that impressive for those who hang around here, but if you have been reading the worrying reports posted elsewhere that Nehalem (Core i7) and its integrated memory controller is easily damaged and so forth, it may be soothing to hear that you will be able to run speeds at up to 2GHz and beyond. Higher frequencies does require higher voltages, which could harm the processor, but you will still be able to run high frequencies with the voltages available.
ASUS has fitted its X58 motherboards with warning stickers that you should not feed the modules with more than 1.65V. A-DATA fed its modules with an operating voltage of 2.0V! Later revisions of Core i7 will be even more tolerable for higher voltages, but this is certainly pushing things, which is also stated in the press release;
“These results demonstrate the overclocking and high speed memory expertise within A-DATA OC-Team and its commitment to push memory technology to the limits and beyond.”
There is no mention of the actual voltage in the press release, but A-DATA has informed us that they used 2.0V. Whether you should consider this a piece of misleading marketing or if other reports are slightly exaggerated in terms of what will kill your CPU is another question.
Either way the results are quite impressive and the memory performance is pretty absurd. Or what else can you about 20,000MB/s in Everest memory benchmark.
During the weekend at Intel we learned a lot about how the memory frequency affected overall performance and how much the timings mattered, we will try to cover the memory reports on Nehalem and the Core i7 platform to steer you right. You should not be surprised if you see more of these reports from other companies.
