Shortly after our DDR500 roundup Searching for the Memory Holy Grail — Part 2 appeared, Mushkin sent us samples of their prototype DDR500. While that early Mushkin DDR500 did meet specifications, it was not very competitive with the best DDR500, so Mushkin continued working on further revisions to their PC4000 memory. A few days ago, we received Mushkin’s latest update to their DDR500.

The new memory will be called PC4000 High Performance, and our testing indicates that the new memory is another Universal High-Speed DIMM like the Corsair XMS4000PRO we recently tested. What we mean by Universal High-Speed is that the memory is very competitive at DDR500, but that it also performs at DDR400 with aggressive CAS2 timings. Early DDR500 does well at the high end, but at DDR400, you are often stuck with CAS2.5 or CAS3 timings, which perform poorly at DDR400 compared to the fastest DDR400 modules.

The Mushkin PC4000 High Performance came with purple Aluminum Heatsinks over Mushkin’s trademark black PCB, but Mushkin says you may or may not receive the same purple heatsinks. Mushkin uses Revision B Hynix memory chips in the manufacture of the new PC4000, which are the same chips used by Corsair in their new XMS4000 PRO.

Mushkin did not use flashing LEDs or any other distinguishing packaging with PC4000 High Performance. However, the purple heatspreaders that we received certainly stood out and reminded us that purple is the color of royalty.

Mushkin PC4000 High Performance Specifications

Mushkin PC4000 High Performance Memory Specifications
Number of DIMMs & Banks	2 DS
DIMM Size Total Memory	512 Mb 1 GB
Rated Timings	3-4-4-8 at DDR500
Rated Voltage	2.75V Maximum Voltage Not Specified

Mushkin tests performance at DDR500 in Intel 865/875 motherboards. Performance at DDR400 is tested on Intel 875/865, VIA KT400/KT600, VIA P4X400 and nVidia NForce2/Ultra 400. Versions of all of these boards officially support DDR400 memory.

Performance Test Configuration

The Memory testbed is the same used in our earlier reviews of DDR500 and other High-Speed Memory:

Corsair TwinX1024-4000 PRO: Improving DDR500 Performance
Mushkin & Adata: 2 for the Fast-Timings Lane
Searching for the Memory Holy Grail — Part 2

All test conditions were as close as possible as those in our earlier memory reviews.

INTEL 875P Performance Test Configuration
Processor(s):	Intel Pentium 4 2.4GHz (800MHz FSB)
RAM:	2 x 512MB Mushkin PC4000 High Performance (DS) 2 x 512MB Corsair TwinX4000 PRO (DS) 2 x 512MB Mushkin Level II PC3500 (DS) 2 x 256Mb Adata DDR450 (SS) 2 x 512MB Adata PC4000 (DS) 2 x 512MB Corsair PC4000 (DS) 2 x 512MB Geil PC4000 (DS) 4 x 256MB Kingston PC4000 (SS) 2 x 256MB Kingston PC4000 (SS) 2 x 512MB OCZ PC4000 (DS) 4 x 256MB OCZ PC3700 GOLD (DS)
Hard Drives	2 Western Digital Raptor Serial ATA 36.7GB 10,000 rpm drives in an Intel ICH5R RAID configuration
PCI/AGP Speed	Fixed at 33/66
Bus Master Drivers:	875P Intel INF Update v5.00.1012, SATA RAID drivers installed, but IAA not installed
Video Card(s):	ATI 9800 PRO 128MB, 128MB aperture, 1024x768x32
Video Drivers:	ATI Catalyst 3.6
Power Supply:	Vantec Stealth 470Watt Aluminum
Operating System(s):	Windows XP Professional SP1
Motherboards:	Asus P4C800-E (875) with 1010 Release BIOS

Mushkin targets their PC4000 High-Performance at the Intel 875/865 enthusiast. They consider the better memory for an Athlon user to be their new PC3500 Level II, which we reviewed in Mushkin & Adata: 2 for the Fast-Timings Lane or their fast DDR400. Our benchmarks confirmed that PC3500 Level II is one of the few remaining memory modules that can perform with complete stability at 2-2-2-5 timings at DDR400. Since PC4000 High Performance is not targeted at Athlon, performance on an Athlon nForce2 Ultra 400 was not tested.

Test Settings

The following settings were tested with Mushkin PC4000 High Performance:

1. 800FSB/DDR400 — the highest stock speed supported on 875/865 motherboards.
2. 1000FSB/DDR500 — the specified rating of the memory modules we were testing.
3. Highest Stable Overclock — the highest settings we could achieve with the memory being tested.

These are the same settings used in benchmarking other memory in the above list of memory tests.

Test Results

To test overclocked stability, we used the very demanding Gun Metal 2 — Benchmark 2, which pushes systems with its DX9 routines. To be considered stable for test purposes, Gun Metal, our Quake3 benchmark, UT2003 Demo, and Super PI had to complete without incident. Any of these 4, and in particular Super PI and Gun Metal, will crash a less-than stable memory configuration.

Mushkin PC4000 High Performance — 2 x 512Mb Double-Bank
Speed	Memory Timings & Voltage	Quake3 fps	Sandra UNBuffered	Sandra Standard Buffered	Super PI 2M places (time in sec)
400DDR 800FSB	2-3-3-5 2.55V	322.4	INT 2817 FLT 2835	INT 4780 FLT 4794	130
500DDR 1000FSB	2.5-3-4-6 2.65V	392.6	INT 3419 FLT 3343	INT 5951 FLT 5922	106
535DDR 1070FSB	3-3-4-7 2.85V	420.9	INT 3540 FLT 3524	INT 6351 FLT 6256	100

The latest revision of Mushkin PC4000 High Performance performed significantly better than its rated 3-4-4-8 specification. In fact, at DDR400, like Corsair XMS4000PRO, it allowed some of the fastest timings that we have seen with DDR500 memory.

Performance Comparisons

Performance of the Mushkin PC4000 High Performance was compared to all of the memory recently tested in:

Corsair TwinX1024-4000 PRO: Improving DDR500 Performance
Mushkin & Adata: 2 for the Fast-Timings Lane
Searching for the Memory Holy Grail — Part 2

Memory performance was compared at DDR400, DDR500 — the rated speed for most of the modules, and the highest stable overclock we could achieve that would run Gun Metal 2 Benchmark 2, Quake 3, UT2003, and Super PI to 2MM places.

Results are compared for Quake 3, Sandra UNBufferred Memory Test, and Super PI. The SiSoft Sandra reports 2 results for each memory test – an Integer value and a Float value. Results reported in our charts are the result of averaging the INT and FLOAT scores, which are normally close in value. INT and FLOAT scores were added and divided by 2 for our reported score.

DDR400 Test Results

DDR500 Test Results

Highest Memory Test Results

Final Words

Mushkin’s latest PC4000 High performance is the second DDR500 memory that we have evaluated, which performs competitively at its rated DDR500 speed, and also is fast enough at DDR400 to compete with the fastest DDR400 memory available. We called this Universal High-Speed memory in our earlier Corsair review, and we are glad to see this trend developing in the latest memory offerings. Actually, as readers have pointed out, the first of this group was OCZ3700 Gold, if we look at its actual performance numbers. It will do DDR500 very well, overclocks to about the same level, and is quite fast at DDR400. Since it is not officially rated at DDR500, we did not mention this excellent PC3700 memory in our last memory update, but in fact, it still competes very well with these newer “extended range” DDR modules.

The Mushkin PC4000 High Performance we tested is among the top performers in virtually every test we ran at DDR500 and at the highest Overclock of DDR535. Like the Corsair XMS4000 PRO, the Mushkin still does not quite match the overclocks that we could achieve with OCZ DDR500 or Geil Platinum4000. Based on DDR500 performance alone, we would have a hard time choosing among Mushkin, OCZ, Corsair, and Geil.

At DDR400 — the memory spec for Intel 875/865 boards — Mushkin PC4000 High Performance is only the second DDR500 that can actually run at a fast CAS2 memory timing. At 2-3-3-5 timings it is, in fact, as fast as many top DDR400 modules that certainly will never come close to running at DDR535.

It is clear that the latest revision of Hynix memory chips were designed to behave quite differently than the first revision seen in early DDR500 memory. Hynix gave up some performance at the high-end (DDR533+) in exchange for CAS 2 performance at DDR400 speed. We think it is a good compromise in that it makes the decision to buy DDR500 memory an easier one for computer hobbyists. The dilemma before was whether to get the fast DDR400 modules and run them at 5:4 asynchronous ratio, or get the fastest memory you could find to run at synchronous 1:1 timings. With the latest Hynix, it appears you can get both — great DDR400 timings for 5:4 and DDR500 performance near the maximum that can be achieved with current technology. The latest revision of Hynix memory chips is currently used in both Mushkin PC4000 High Performance and Corsair XMS4000 PRO. It is also likely you will see the new Hynix chips in memory from other Performance Memory Manufacturers very soon.

As we stated in our review of Corsair XMS4000 PRO, if your goal is the highest 1:1 overclock you can achieve, then OCZ PC4000 or Geil 4000Platinum should be your choice. If you want the fastest DDR400 memory performance you can get and a reasonable overclock, then Mushkin 3500 Level2 or OCZ 3700 GOLD are still the fastest choices for DDR400.

However, if you want great timings at DDR400, top performance at DDR500, and a reasonable compromise on the top overclock that you can achieve above DDR500, then Mushkin PC4000 High Performance or Corsair TwinX1024-4000PRO should be your choice. The performance is very similar, but the Corsair has the unique memory LEDs to show activity.

Mushkin PC4000 High Performance is very competitive with the best DDR500 available. It is our second Universal High-Speed DDR500 memory that gives you the real choice to run 5:4 synchronous at DDR400 with CAS2 timings or 1:1 synchronous at a FSB up to 1070 (265) — doing both with the same memory.