RAM - Page 41

Big news from AMD today with word (and evidence) coming out that they are branching out their "Radeon" branding from VGA into the DDR3 memory market as well, not just to OEMs, but directly into consumers hands.

Website PC Watch was the first to get the scoop (including images) that AMD is in fact entering the DDR3 memory market with "Radeon memory". Even AMD's website now backs it up with a dedicated page on their website detailing "AMD Radeon™ Memory for Systems" - with three series under the lineup thus far in the Entertainment, ULTRA PRO Gaming and Enterprise series'.

It's not surprising that AMD is targetting the modules directly for use in their own platforms. The first batch of modules entering the series are 2GB in density a piece, with the Entertainent series module operating at 1333MHz w/ timings of 9-9-9, the ULTRA PRO Gaming running 1600MHz (11-11-11 timings) and the Enterprise series memory of which specific info is yet to be disclosed.

iSuppli have come out and said that DDR3 modules will remain the dominant DRAM tech throughout 2011 and flowing right into 2012, 2013 and even into 2014 before DDR 4 arrives in its next-generation glory. DDR3 RAM currently represents 85 to 90-percent of today's DRAM market and that will swell to 94-percent by 2013. But in 2014, iSuppli is predicting that DDR4 will emerge out of the flames of the DRAM market with a 12-percent share, within a year they expect this number to expand to 56-percent leading DDR3 with just 42-percent of the market.

As you can see from the above chart, DDR3 really is the current champion and with 4GB DIMMs available so cheaply these days, it'll be a very hard switch to DDR4 for most people. Keepign in mind that DDR3 launched in 2007, that makes it a seven year life span for DDR3 until it gets some proper competition. Also keep in mind that whilst DDR3 launched in 2007, it was just too expensive for most users to change over to, but we know this has changed considerably over the years. DDR4 will most likely debut at huge prices and eventually fall just like all tech.

G.Skill has today announced that we'll be seeing a PC3-18400 RipJaws-X kit that carries a whopping default clock speed of 2300MHz DDR. This is achieved with a 9-11-9-28-2T @ 1.65v setup. Below, though, we can see in the screen shot G.Skill have actually managed to achieve 2303MHz DDR at 9-11-9-28-1T using the same voltage.

OCZ has said hasta la vista to the memory market. After starting out in the memory market, they have expanded into other markets which has seen exponential growth.

Here's an announcement that hardware fans have been looking forward to for some time. Samsung, one of the leaders in memory manufacturing, has announced today the development of a DDR4 DRAM stick that performs reads and writes with up to 40 percent more power efficiency than DDR3.

I like to see what's on the inside of my gadgets and hardware as much as the next geek as long as that doesn't mean I have to kill my gear. If you like gaming RAM for the speed and performance you probably know that each time a new set of RAM comes out it has increasingly garish and complex looking heat sinks to help keep it cool. Most of the heat sinks are for looks as much as cooling through. If you prefer your hardware to look like hardware with no aluminum or flashing lights Kingmax has your memory.