Memory
$ phoronix-test-suite benchmark ramspeed
RAMspeed tests the system memory (RAM) performance. With the exception of the N100 mini PC, all the machines are running dual-channel memory.
The MS-02 Ultra delivers strong RAMspeed SMP results, but the figures need context. The system is fitted with DDR5-5600 SODIMMs, but the motherboard runs them at 4800 MT/s. Even with that restriction, the MS-02 Ultra essentially matches the Core Ultra 9 285H system and edges ahead of the Core Ultra 7 255H. It trails the Ryzen 9 7940HS and Ryzen 9 8945HS machines by around 9 to 11%, a gap that’s likely influenced heavily by the lower operating memory speed. The Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 is in a different league, topping 50 GB/s and leading the rest of the field by a wide margin. Older DDR4-based systems sit well behind the DDR5 machines, while the single-channel N100 result highlights how much memory channel configuration affects bandwidth
$ phoronix-test-suite benchmark tinymembench
This benchmark also tests the system memory (RAM) performance. memcpy() copies a block of memory from one location to another. memset() fills a block of memory with a specified byte value.
Tinymembench tells a noticeably different story from RAMspeed. While RAMspeed favours the Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 and broadly tracks raw memory bandwidth, tinymembench is more sensitive to the CPU’s actual memory copy and fill paths. In memcpy, the MS-02 Ultra tops the chart despite its DDR5-5600 SODIMMs running at 4800 MT/s. That result reflects the efficiency of the platform’s copy behaviour rather than a simple raw memory speed advantage. The memset test is even more Intel-favourable, with the Core Ultra 7 255H and Core Ultra 9 285H leading the field and the MS-02 Ultra close behind.
The Ryzen systems that performed strongly in RAMspeed fall back here, showing that tinymembench is testing a different aspect of memory performance: practical copy and fill throughput rather than pure multi-threaded memory bandwidth.
Next page: Page 4 – Disk and Summary
Pages in this article:
Page 1 – Introduction / Processor
Page 2 – Graphics
Page 3 – Memory
Page 4 – Disk and Summary
Complete list of articles in this series:
| Minisforum MS-02 Ultra 285HX | |
|---|---|
| Introduction | Introduction to the series and interrogation of the machine |
| Benchmarks | Benchmarking the Minisforum MS-02 Ultra 285HX Mini Workstation |
| Power | Testing and comparing the power consumption |
| Dual channel memory | Assessing the impact of adding a second SO-DIMM |
| Cores | Benchmarking cores under Linux |
| BIOS | In the world of computing, BIOS, which stands for Basic Input/Output System, plays a crucial role |
| Btrfs | Advanced, modern copy-on-write (CoW) file system for Linux |
| More articles will be published next week | |
All those cores really help, but how many are being used for normal desktop use?
It’s a workstation not a desktop.