DDR4: Technology explained and what is to come.....

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Hi there


Well to all the avid readers of OcUK I can give you some very top secret information of what to expect from DDR4 and where it will go, you heard this from me Gibbo of Overclockers UK before anyone else. :)

DDR4 will be available from as a low as 1600MHz, but it is doubtful it will be available commercially, on the shelf product will start at 2133MHz which is the official launch speed of DDR4.

To those thinking there is faster DDR3 available, you have to think back to DDR2 where there was PC2-8500C5 1066MHz available and the first DDR3 to come out was also 1066MHz but offered more bandwidth at the expense of latency timing. The differences with DDR4 is more profound and its typically offers more bandwidth clock for clock than DDR3 at equal clock speeds, not to mention the X99 platform that DDR4 is designed for is also QUAD channel, again which boost memory performance considerably.

So some technical highlights of DDR4 and what is to come:-


Voltage

Voltage will start at 1.20v, I suspect we might see overclocked modules available which need 1.25-1.30v but time will tell. But as the technology matures we shall see 1.10v low voltage parts and even 1.05v ultra low voltage parts. So the power savings are considerable over DDR3, longer lifespan and less heat output.

Densities

As with DDR3 there shall be 4GB and 8GB modules. But the desktop consumer shall also see 16GB modules as well soon, something DDR3 only have available for server market. So on an X99 motherboard with 8 slots that means 128GB of memory if the motherboards BIOS can support that.

Speed/Bandwidth

This is the interesting one and potentially the most interesting for us keen overclockers, the speeds will come officially in 1600MHz, 1866MHz, 2133MHz, 2400MHz, 2666MHz, 3200MHz, 4000MHz and even maybe 4266MHz. These are official JEDEC speeds. Of course memory partners can release other speeds such as Corsair who are overclocking their parts upto 2800MHz, these are no doubt 2666MHz simply overclocked to this higher speed by Corsair themselves.

Connector

288-pin DIMM for desktop and 256-pin SODIMM for notebook.

Form factors

Unbuffered ECC or none ECC, registered and load reduced, so DDR4 shall be available for all desktop, server and mobile type applications.




The performance of DDR4 beyond 2666MHz is pretty damn impressive, we've already experimented and achieving 3000-3200MHz overclocks is possible and the performance is exceptional. If in a further years time these memory speeds increase to 4000MHz+ then simply wow.



I hope this has being informative for a lot of your guys who don't quite understand DDR4. :)
 
Here's a naive question from someone who still doesn't quite understand it. Will DDR4 make any difference to gaming over 1800 MHz DDR3 or will the main use be for benching and encoding?

The biggest effect on gaming is the GPU, any effect from the RAM is hardly noticeable once your running 1866MHz C9 or faster on DDR3.

X99/DDR4 will improve FPS, but marginal, what it will offer is far more performance for encoding and benching or any programme that can utilise the additional cores and bandwidth. :)

If you want the best and fastest, you want X99 platform.
 
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