I. Introduction
Intel's 12th generation processor performance is really good, its unique size core architecture, so that it is excellent in single-threaded, multi-threaded at the same time, there is a very good power consumption and heat performance. In addition, now Intel's fragments also support warranty, which makes some scattered models particularly cost-effective, very worth buying.
But 12th generation intel processors aren't all pros, and there are some less satisfying things. For example, in terms of memory support, Intel's 12th generation processor supports the latest DDR5 memory at the same time, but also supports the previous generation of DDR4 memory. In theory, that's fine. Because DDR5 memory as the latest product, its price will certainly be high, completely unlike the mature DDR4 memory, the price is more moderate, and a variety of frequencies, models are very much, random choice.
But the reality is that in order to be compatible with DDR5 memory and DDR4 memory, Intel's 12th generation processor memory controller design is interesting, but it also brings some unavoidable problems, such as latency. The high latency of DDR5 memory with high frequency and high timing is understandable, but the latency of DDR4 memory with low frequency and low timing is also not low.
Second, reading and writing is very plump, the delay is very bone, and the memory delay of the 12th generation intel processor is explored architectural analysis
▼ DDR5 memory compared to DDR4 memory, the appearance of the structure of the change is very small, the memory PCB specifications and sizes are almost exactly the same, the number of gold fingers is the same, only the memory gold finger in the middle of the anti-stupid interface has a little displacement. In addition, there are two more chips on the DDR5 memory, one is the SPD Hub, the other is the PMIC, the former is the SPD hub of the memory, mainly to the memory to bring 13C bus upgrades; the latter is the power management module, compared to the DDR4 memory power supply provided by the motherboard, the DDR5 memory power supply is self-sufficient, the motherboard only needs to provide a 5V power supply. We can also clearly see from many motherboards that support DDR5 memory that the power supply circuit next to the memory slot is much simpler.
▼ The remaining difference is that the transfer of DDR4 memory is single channel, 64bits x 1, while DDR5 memory is dual channel, 32bits x 2, single dual channel.
▼ Many small partners think that DDR4 memory, single single channel, DDR5 memory, single dual channel, double DDR4 memory is dual channel, then double DDR5 memory is not four channels?
▼ Even the CPU-Z directly displays four channels on the display of the number of DDR5 memory channels, which causes the illusion that DDR5 memory is a double quad channel. But this is not the case, because there are only two memory controllers on the processor side.
▼ The Rocket Lake architecture of the 11th generation intel processor has only a single memory controller, which communicates with the two memory lines of DDR4 through the A channel and the B channel respectively, and the dual channel is formed here; and on the Alder Lake-S architecture of the 12th generation intel processor, the memory controller is split into two parts, a controller 0, a controller 1, when matching DDR4 memory, the separate controller corresponds to and communicates with a single DDR4 memory, respectively. It is also composed of dual channels; however, in the case of DDR5 memory, a single DDR5 memory has its own dual channels, and each channel of each single memory corresponds to the communication with memory controller 0 and memory controller 1. That is to say, the original is 64Bits x 2 two roads, DDR4 memory is a 64bits, the other is also 64Bits walk, and DDR5 memory is also two 64bits x 2 two roads, but each road DDR5 memory is divided into two parts, each part 32Bits, the road is still those two roads, but DDR5 goes a little more refined.
Third, reading and writing is very plump, the delay is very bone, and the memory delay of the 12th generation intel processor is explored and analyzed
▼ Single and dual memory controllers theoretically have their own benefits, the specific performance of the situation, or need to see the actual test data. Mushroom has prepared two processors here, one is 12700K, the other is 11900K, 12700K with MSI's Z690 Blade Ti motherboard, 11900K with MSI's GAMING EDGE Wifi motherboard, respectively using the same set of memory to test.
▼ Test memory here uses acer predator Vesta glare starship series memory, this set of memory uses a special B-Die particles, in the default frequency of 3600MHz, timing is done C14, which will be very conducive to memory testing, frequency and timing adjustment space will be larger, easier to obtain more group data, compared to easier to find the difference.
▼ The value of the memory is still very beautiful, the soft light strip at the top of the memory stick has a large area, the color transition is very uniform, and the lighting effect is very beautiful.
▼ First of all, the mushroom locked the relevant parameters of the memory, the timing was fixed to 16-16-16-32, the memory mode was fixed gear1, the instruction ratio was locked to 1T, and then the frequency of the memory module was increased from 2133MHz to 4166MHz, and it can be seen that in terms of memory latency, the performance of the 11900K single memory controller will be better. However, the memory controller of the mushroom's 11900K processor is relatively poor, and it can easily go to 4166MHz C16 on 12700K, and even 3600MHz C16 on 11900K cannot be stabilized, which is embarrassing. However, from the existing data, it can also be seen that the latency advantage of the 11900K single memory controller is very large.
▼Although the memory latency performance of 11900K will be better, in terms of the actual reading speed of memory, 12700K will be more excellent, and the advantage is very stable. It looks like dual memory controllers will perform better in terms of performance.
▼ The write performance of memory and read performance are the same, and the performance of the 12700K dual memory controller will be better in terms of performance. With Acer Predator Vesta glare starship memory, the frequency can easily go to 4166MHz, memory reading speed can easily go to 62000 + MB/s, if the timing is slightly put down, the frequency can be higher, read and write performance may be close to 70000MB/s, this performance is very close to some entry-level DDR5 memory.
▼ Then the frequency of the memory is locked at 3600MHz, the memory mode is Gear1, the instruction ratio is 1T, 11900K Because the memory controller is too weak, the instruction ratio cannot lock 1T, the 2T used here, but the impact on the test is relatively small. In terms of memory latency, the advantage of 11900K is still very large, in the case of 3600MHz C14, the memory delay is less than 50ns, very good data. The memory latency of 12700K is generally relatively high, and in the ideal state of 3600MHz C14, the memory delay is also 59.7ns, which is relatively high.
▼ However, in terms of performance, memory read speed, 12700K is the overall lead over 11900K.
▼ In terms of memory writes, the performance of 12700K is still stronger than that of 11900K. However, the write speed has a certain fluctuation law as the timing increases, which is very interesting, and the memory write speed at 16-16-16-32 and 22-22-44 in the timing is good.
Fourth, reading and writing is very plump, latency is very bone, 12th generation intel processor memory latency exploration test platform introduction
▼ Acer Predator Vesta dazzling starship memory packaging is still very beautiful, the middle is the color print of memory, the lower right corner has the capacity and frequency of memory, the upper right corner is a variety of lighting effect support, the major motherboard manufacturers are supported.
▼ The packaging of the memory is very in place, after removing the outer paper shell, there is also an all-black cardboard shell inside, and the inside has a double-sided plastic shell fixed memory stick, and the thick foam plays an anti-seismic cushioning effect, and the protection effect is first-class.
▼ The appearance of the memory vest is very beautiful, the front is a large area of thick aluminum alloy material, the bottom is horizontal stripe, the upper half of the surface has a delicate sandblasting treatment, the left side is the series name of the memory, and the right side has the iconic LOGO of the Acer Predator series memory, black, which looks very designed.
▼ Look closely, this piece of aluminum alloy material is independent, running through the front and back of the memory, very interesting.
▼ This piece of aluminum alloy parts on the top of the memory bar and the memory soft light strip to match, on which is printed acer predator English letters, hollow design, there will be a beautiful lighting effect in the middle.
▼The top lighting effect of the memory is complete, and the left and right sides are taken care of.
▼ The back and front of the memory stick look the same, only the lower right corner has an additional memory label.
▼ The machine effect is quite good, the large area of soft light on the top of the memory stick, the aluminum alloy vest on the memory stick will also have a beautiful light and shadow effect.
▼ After booting, the lighting effect of the memory module supports synchronization, the lighting effect of the magic ARGB is very beautiful, the memory RGB module is composed of 8 independent light zones, the color of the luminous part is many, and the transition is uniform and more delicate and natural.
▼ There is also an aluminum alloy piece on the top of the lamp strip at the top of the memory bar, and the English letter of the Acer Predator is hollowed out in the middle, and there is a light effect in the middle.
▼ The top light strip of the memory stick is extended on both sides, and the sides can also be seen. And there is also a blade shape on the top, which looks very tough.
▼ The test motherboard is MSI's Z690 Blade Ti motherboard, this motherboard supports DDR4 memory, the power supply part of the motherboard is covered with complete metal heatsink, and the surface has beautiful lighting effects.
▼ This motherboard has four M2 slots, all support PCIe4.0, all covered with metal heatsinks, which is a good job.
▼ Heat dissipation is MSI's frost K360 water cooling, this water cooling is very interesting, its default has a GI mode, this mode of cold drain cooling fan support start and stop, in the case of low temperature, cold drain will stop up to two fans, very interesting.
▼ In addition, there is an LCD screen on the cold head of the water-cooled, which can directly display the temperature of the hardware, which is very intuitive. In addition, you can also display GIFs, pictures, text, etc.
▼ The graphics card is Sotec's RTX3070Ti Apocalypse OC graphics card, and the side and front of the graphics card have beautiful lighting effects, which is very good.
▼MSI's MPG A850GF power supply for power supply, the power supply uses all-Japan capacitors, with a 10-year warranty, usually use it is still very assured. In addition, the MSI Dragon Shield LOGO on the side of the power supply looks very beautiful.
▼In terms of details, the 8Pin auxiliary power supply of the graphics card is a single 8Pin design, which is lower in the case of high load of the graphics card, and the daily use is more stable.
▼ The chassis is Antick's DF700 Flux, which has a large area of metal punching mesh at the front of this chassis, and the heat dissipation effect is very good.
▼And this metal punching mesh has a special shape, which looks very beautiful, if it is equipped with some fans that support the arGB illumination effect inside.
5. Summary
The 12th generation intel processor uses a dual memory controller in terms of memory controller, which supports DDR5 memory and is compatible with DDR4 memory. Compared with the single memory controller used by the previous generation intel processor, its performance in terms of latency is slightly worse, with DDR4 memory, under the same parameters, the average delay should increase by about 10 to 20ns. However, in terms of performance, the dual memory controller still has no small advantage, whether it is read performance or write performance, it is ahead of the previous generation of single memory controllers.
It is expected that the next generation of intel processors can optimize this dual memory controller, make its latency performance better, try to make the memory latency catch up with the previous generation, into 50ns, so that the daily play game This situation is more sensitive to memory latency, the performance will be better.
The Acer Predator Vesta Glare Starship memory used in this test is still very good, and its special B-Die does. With 12700K memory, at 3600MHz frequency, the minimum timing can be pressed to 14-14-14-28; under the 16-16-16-32 timing, the frequency of memory can be stabilized at 4166MHz, and the memory read and write performance at this time is very close to the entry-level DDR5 memory. Mushroom personally feels that the overclocking potential of this set of memory has not been fully tapped, otherwise it should be able to touch 4800MHz, or even 5000+MHz, after all, its 4166MHz can stabilize C16.
At this stage, the price of DDR5 memory is high, choosing some good DDR4 memory is also a very good choice, after all, with a fraction of the price barely equal the feeling of entry DDR5 memory performance, it is still very good.
Thank you!
The End