ServerWorks HEsl: DDR bandwidth without DDR SDRAM

Useable Memory Bandwidth

We've been talking about useable memory bandwidth throughout this review and to conclude our performance comparison we'll have a look at some STREAM results indicating exactly how much memory bandwidth the CPU is actually making use of. Let's start out with some Integer-STREAM results:

We would expect the i840 to come out on top because of its dual channel RDRAM memory bus offering a total of 3.2GB/s of memory bandwidth. Of that 3.2GB/s the system managed to pull through a total of 582MB/s during this Integer-STREAM test. While that may seem disappointing don't forget that the i840 also took the first place, meaning that all of the other platforms offered even less.

The HEsl came in second place with 535MB/s which was also very expected. Remember that DDR SDRAM isn't 100% efficient, meaning you're always going to get more bandwidth out of a SDR solution capable of pushing the same theoretical bandwidth figures.

The Apollo Pro 266 obviously comes in third followed by the 133A with 402MB/s.

Next we have an even more memory-bandwidth intensive measurement using FPU calculations.

Here the standings remain the same although the top three positions get a small boost in terms of bandwidth because of the bandwidth hungry nature of most FPU calculations.