Items tagged with RAM
Has there ever been a more difficult time to build or upgrade a PC, in terms of parts availability and cost? Not in recent, that is for sure. Certain parts are difficult to find in stock at MSRP, especially graphics cards, but GPUs are not the only core components that care commanding higher prices these days. DRAM pricing is on the rise too, and is expected to keep going up. Fortunately, if all you need is a kit of DDR4 memory, you can find one easy enough—places like Amazon and Newegg are littered with kits of different capacities and speeds from major players and smaller brands alike. And memory makers continue to crank out new kits. For example, HyperX just recently launched high-speed...
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Do you think memory makers are antsy for next-gen platforms from AMD and Intel to arrive? There is no doubt about it, as evidenced by the suddenly steady stream of DDR5 announcements we are seeing. Geil is the latest the beat its chest over its DDR5 efforts, with the company touting fast kits that exceed JEDEC specifications, in capacities up to 128GB. Let's talk about JEDEC for a moment. Last July, JEDEC released the final specifications for DDR5, noting at the time that initial kits are expected to 4,800MHz. And indeed, we have seen a few announcements hitting those specs already, such as TeamGroup's 16GB DDR5-4800 memory kit. However, JEDEC also left it a bit open-ended, saying DDR5 will deliver...
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Since the launch of Intel's Rocket Lake CPUs, we have seen memory makers pump out increasingly faster RAM kits, with speeds topping 5,000MHz. So it goes with Kingston's gaming division, HyperX, which today announced three new high-speed Predator DDR4 memory kits, with speeds cranked up to a blistering-fast 5,333MHz at the top end. The new high-octane modules sport optimized XMP profiles for Intel's latest chipsets, so you may see the best results when pairing them with a Rocket Lake platform (Z590). However, they are also "compatible with many of AMD's latest chipsets," which typically respond well to higher frequency RAM (up to a certain point, anyway). These new kits include 5,000MHz, 5,133MHz,...
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The era of DDR5 memory has not begun in earnest, but it will later this year when next-gen platforms arrive. In the lead-up to that day, memory makers are hustling their tails off manufacturing and validating DDR5 memory modules. As part of that process, Kingston has sent overclockable DDR5 modules to its motherboard partners so they can begin testing and qualifying the memory on next-gen setups. One of the main benefits of DDR5 compared to DDR4 is more bandwidth. However, it remains to be seen what the DDR5 landscape will look like in the early going. The official specifications laid out by JEDEC, of which Kingston occupies a seat on its board, allow for frequencies of up to 6,400 MT/s. There...
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Memory makers are busy manufacturing DDR5 modules in anticipation of Intel's upcoming Alder Lake launch and AMD's Zen 4 processors. Even though it is still relatively early (Alder Lake is likely releasing towards the end of the year, and Zen 4 in early 2022), the DDR5 announcements are piling up. The latest comes from Asgard, which is owned by Jiahe Jinwei. If the latter sounds familiar, perhaps it is because you visited us here at HotHardware yesterday—we wrote about two Chinese firms announcing DDR5 memory kits, one of which was Jiahe Jinwei (and the other Netac). It's working on both single-sided 16GB and double-sided 32GB DDR5 modules that operate at 4,800MHz and 1.1V. Likewise, the...
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There is not a single consumer platform that supports DDR5 memory at the moment, but that will change by the end of the year, when Intel launches Alder Lake. At that point the DDR5 era will have officially begun. While we wait, however, memory makers are readying DDR5 modules. To that end, two Chinese outfits have both begun mass producing DDR5 memory. One of them is Jiahe Jinwei, which shared some photos of its DDR5 modules (one of which you can see above). The company made quick work of the Micron DDR5 memory chips it received last month, plopping them onto single-sided 16GB and double-sided 32GB modules running at 1.1V. The first DDR5 products from Jiahe Jinwei operate at 4,800MHz. Some extreme...
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It is currently a horrible time to build a new gaming PC. From COVID-19 demand to chip shortages, droughts, and a cryptocurrency boom, many factors make obtaining critical components like high-end processors and graphics cards hard to find at MSRP. Over the weekend, we even heard about the potential for a shortage of SSDs and HDDs due to rising Chinese crypto coin. Today, more bad news is coming in for those looking to build a new rig or upgrade an existing one. Research firm TrendForce projects that DRAM prices will surge between 18 to 23 percent for Q2 2021 versus Q1 2021. The 18 to 23 percent range is for the overall DRAM market, but higher increases are expected for consumer PC DRAM versus...
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The era of DDR5 memory will begin in earnest later this year when Intel releases its Alder Lake-S processors, followed by AMD launching its Zen 4 lineup—both will offer support for the next-generation memory standard. As that day approaches, memory makers are getting their ducks in a row. We've already seen several DDR5 announcements, and Netac is apparently hyping the development of upcoming RAM that can run at a blazing fast 10,000MHz. That's almost twice as fast as the speediest DDR4 kit on the planet, which is TeamGroup's recently announced T-Force Xtreem DDR4-5600MHz memory. Most existing DDR4 kits fall withing the 3000-4000MHz range, with higher speeds typically being reserved for...
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We should count our lucky stars that PC memory pricing is not through the roof, like it was at one point—these days you can find name-brand 16GB DDR4-3200 kits selling for less than $80. That said, general pricing could be going up, right as Intel's new Rocket Lake-S lineup lifts off. Exactly how much remains to be seen. According to a TrendForce report, DRAM pricing crawled upwards by 3-8 percent in the first quarter of 2021. As we head into the second quarter, the market research firm anticipates prices going up a bit more significantly, by another 13-18 percent. To use the example above of an $80 memory kit, a price hike on the higher side could mean paying around $94 for the same RAM...
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Almost all of the chatter centered on DDR5 memory so far has been in reference to full-size modules for future motherboard applications. That is all fine and dandy, especially with Intel set to release its Alder Lake-S lineup later this year, and AMD on track to deliver Zen 4 around the same time. But what about laptops? Those will be getting DDR5 upgrades as well, and Teamgroup is on top of it with a newly developed DDR5 SO-DIMM. "Paying attention to the needs of not only desktop but also notebook and mini PC users, Teamgroup has successfully created a DDR5 SO-DIMM and is expected to be the first to take Intel and AMD's new platform validation tests," the company says. Granted, there are no...
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When the power goes out at home, we tend to freak out, because heaven forbid we can't watch TV or play video games, and have to *gulp* read a book or something to pass the time. How barbaric! But when a semiconductor factory loses power, well, the repercussions are a bit more severe. Just ask Micron, which warned investors that a power outage has affected its DRAM supply in the short term. This happened at the company's Taoyuan facility (Fab 11) on December 3, the last day of its fiscal first quarter, the company said. And if that was not enough, there was a 6.7-magnitude earthquake a week later off the northeast coast of Taiwan, which affected the same factory, as well as Micron's Taichung facility...
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It has been a nice, long run for the DDR4 standard, and while it is not exactly coming to a complete end, DDR5 is poised to replace it in the not-too-distant future. On next-gen platforms, anyway. Incidentally, Adata has been collaborating with MSI and Gigabyte on its upcoming DDR5 memory modules, which will feature much faster speeds than DDR4. Next-gen DDR5 RAM is among the hardware lineup that Adata plans to showcase at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) next week. It will also have on tap some PC cases, SSDs, an all-in-one liquid cooler, and another PCIe 4.0 SSD, among other things (including gaming gum, of all things). "The future of DRAM is here in the form of the Adata DDR5 DRAM module....
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The clock is ticking on DDR4, and TeamGroup is eager to adopt the next-gen DDR5 memory standard as quickly as possible. As such, the memory announced today that it will be releasing its first "Elite" branded DDR5 memory product in the second half of next year. In the process, TeamGroup may have also tipped what AMD and Intel have planned for next year, because it is working with both semiconductor companies on this release. "TeamGroup has made ample preparations in 2020 to take the lead in the DDR5 market and will coordinate its releases with the DDR5 platforms of the top two CPU manufacturers, Intel and AMD. The company’s DDR5 memory is expected to be available as early as Q3 2021," TeamGroup...
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PCs need faster RAM to keep up with the leaps in processing power, and as such, G.SKILL is releasing a new lineup of RAM. The new, low-latency Samsung B-die DDR4 RAM clocking in at 4000MHz comes in Ripjaws V, Trident Z RGB, and Trident Z Royal variants to provide performance and style in computers. According to G.SKILL, the DDR4-4000 CL16-19-19-39 memory is “an ideal performance upgrade for PC builds intended for gaming and content creation.” It has been optimized for the 10th generation Intel processor lineup on the Intel Z490 Chipset, but it can be used on other platforms with varying degrees of success. In their provided screenshots, G.SKILL tested the RAM with “ASUS ROG...
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We all know that bigger is better, right? At least in generalities, it's often true. More CPU cores help performance in multi-threaded workloads, while high frequencies boost performance in lightly-threaded tasks. With graphics, it's all about more as well; more shading resources, more ROPs, more VRAM, and a wider bus means more frames per second. About the only way more doesn't help is when it's the wrong kind of more, as in latency. If a monitor has a long response time, it can hurt your game play. Similarly, if system memory has higher latency on data requests from the CPU, to help it complete its task at hand, the process stalls when every nanosecond counts. It was in this vein that ADATA's...
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Good news folks, the era of DDR5 memory is upon us, let's all celebrate! Well, sort of—you may want to buy the cheap champagne instead of the good stuff. Micron announced it is mass producing the world's first low power DDR5 DRAM (LPDDR5), which will find its way into high-end smartphones starting with Xiaomi's Mi 10. Apologies if we got you excited about DDR5 infiltrating the PC landscape—that will have to wait for another day (though it's coming). For now, LPDDR5 is bound for the mobile segment, and with comes "superior power efficiency" and faster speeds to keep pace with gains in artificial intelligence and 5G connectivity technologies. "Micron’s leadership in delivering...
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For the average user, 32GB of RAM is a lot (the sweet spot is generally considered to be half as much). Be that as it may, G.Skill is introducing a handful of new high capacity, high performance DDR4 memory kits consisting of multiple 32GB modules, offering a total capacity of up to a whopping 256GB. That might even be enough to satiate Chrome! It's certainly brag-worthy, though whether or not 256GB of system memory makes sense depends entirely on what kinds of things you are doing. For gaming, 256GB is excessive and not worth the cost (those dollars could be better spent on a high end GPU). But for heavy content creation or certain workstation chores, like running multiple virtual machines,...
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G.Skill announced new hexa-channel DDR4 memory kits that will fall into its Trident Z Royal product line. These new memory kits are geared towards Intel's new high-end Xeon W-3175X processor -- which we reviewed here -- and support high memory capacities and fast data transfer speeds. G.Skill first launched its Trident Z Royal memory kits towards the end of 2018. These DDR4 DIMMs are some of the more decorative memory modules available, as they come with either gold or silver heat spreaders that are highly polished. The RAM is also capped in artificial jewels that have RGB LED lights underneath. Prior to now, the Trident Z Royal product line was composed of dual- and quad-channel memory kits....
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Memory prices are falling, folks, and just in time for the holiday shopping season. That's the good news. The even better news is that this might be the start of a longer term price drop, or price correction, if you prefer, after the cost of memory chips skyrocketed over the past year. We're not talking about nominal price drops either, but significant ones. According to DRAMeXchange, a division of TrendForce, major DRAM suppliers are coming off of contract negotiations that saw the contract prices of PC DRAM products "turn downward sharply" in October. Compared to the previous quarter, the average contract price of a 4GB DRAM module dropped 10.14 percent. Similarly, the contract price for an...
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Oppo's Find X smartphone launched during the summer, and it had a very attractive design that eschewed the notch design that the iPhone X popularized (and was quickly followed by many others). Instead, the Find X got around the need for a notch by using a motorized, pop-up camera that hid away when not needed. A new version of that smartphone has been tipped by a TENNA (the Chinese equivalent of the FCC) listing, and it will have a feature that is a world first. The TENNA listing that surfaced shows that a new Find X version will have 10GB of RAM inside along with 256GB of storage space. Ice Universe discovered the listing and shared via Twitter. Many smartphone users will automatically wonder,...
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Gigabyte is pulling the covers off some new gaming peripherals and other PC component hardware at Computex 2018. One of the products is the company's new AORUS RGB gaming RAM. The memory is a 16GB kit using a pair of DDR4 8GB DIMMs. It operates up to clock speeds of 3200 MHz with has timings of 16-18-18-38. Voltage is 1.2V standard and when XMP is enabled 1.35V is consumed. The DDR4 DRAM chips employed are Samsung B die parts and the sticks are fitted with a fancy looking symmetric high-efficiency heat spreader. The RGB LED lights on the RAM supports 5 DDR light effects. Gigabyte says that the RAM is 100% binned and tested with a limited lifetime warranty. For gamers and enthusiasts who...
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Samsung has announced that mass production has kicked off for its new 32GB DDR4 SoDIMM for laptop computers. The RAM is based on 10nm-class production technology and is aimed directly at delivering PC-grade desktop performance for on-the-go gamers. Samsung says that the new RAM has significantly more capacity, supports higher speeds, and has lower energy consumption than its previous offerings (or its competitors). Compared to the previous Samsung 16GB SoDIMM RAM based on 20nm-class 8Gb DDR4, the new 32GB modules have twice the capacity and promise to be 11% faster and 39% more energy efficient (contributing to longer battery life). Samsung uses 16 of its new 16Gb DDR4 DRAM chips with eight chips...
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