Digital Reviews

Now that DDR3 has arrived a lot of people get stuck thinking what memory are they going to buy for their PC upgrade or new PC so we going to help you to see if it’s really worth the upgrade.

At the beginning DDR had vastly better latency than DDR2, and was not very far behind on bandwidth so it looked like DDR2 might lose the war to take over DDR. But with the time, processes were improved, DDR2 was able to reach greater heights in the all mighty MegaHertz ranks. DDR2-667′s were able to hold their own against DDR-400. DDR2-800 started to take the lead… and then DDR2 low latency memories started to appear. The once strong DDR began to falter. Eventually, the DDR reign had to admit defeat…

What we have now is DDR3 boasting higher Megahertz ratings than DDR2 – but at the expense of increased latency but memory manufacturers have started making DDR3 devices in order to far surpass the bandwidth they can easily get from DDR2 devices and reduce power consumption and heat generation at the same time.

The original DDR standard modules ran at a 2.5V level. A significant power reduction to 1.8V was created with the DDR2 standard. With the lower voltage levels, personal computers required less actual power to run the memory subsystem. DDR3 looks to further reduce the power usage by dropping the voltage levels to 1.5V. In order to increase the speeds of the memory modules with DDR3, it was also necessary to increase the latency of the modules

Yet today DDR2 is available up to 1200MHz (PC2-9600). Right off the bat JEDEC had released specifications for DDR3 that go up to 1600MHz and they expect DDR3 to scale to 2133MHz . It won’t take too long for manufactures to start making high speed DDR3 with lower latency numbers, like what happened previously with DDR2 when trying to outperform DDR, so it seems like the history will repeat itself.

Testing

The question, then, is whether DDR3 memory provides better performance for the computer enthusiast than current DDR2?

DDR3 memory modules are expensive right now, but that doesn’t stop gamers, enthusiasts and early adaptors from wanting to have the latest and greatest technology to tinker with it. So have a look at the following testing: Click Here

Conclusion

DDR3 is the next step for personal computers in expanding their memory bandwidth. It will take some time for it to really be widely implemented. AMD has only recently switched over their processors to use the DDR2 standard and will likely not move to the DDR3 standards for some time. In addition, the higher performance DDR3 modules will likely take some time compared to high performance DDR2 that is already readily available.

To use DDR3 requires a new motherboard and at the moment only premium motherboards support it right now, which makes the upgrade more expensive as DDR3 motherboards can cost from R 2,000 up to R 5,000 some of the chipset are (P35- X38- X48) from Intel and (780i- 790i) from Nvidia. And the memory modules 2GB (2x1GB) kit of DDR3 1333Mhz costs around R 3,500. But if your budget is not a problem and you want to be on top of the edge DDR3 is made for hardcore gamers and overclockers and they are the ones to take the best out of them.

DDR3 memory has arrived and it’s fast, but due to pricing DDR2 memory will still offer the best bang for the buck. DDR2 is winning more battles than it is losing… but the writing is on the wall. I believe that for the next six months or so, DDR2 will still dominate, but its reign is over. Look at your application mix, the benchmark results, and your budget, and make the choice that is right for you.

Watch the following video to make sure if DDR3 is for you right now!