Computex 2006: 300W GPUs, Conroe, HDMI Video Cards and Lots of Motherboards
by Anand Lal Shimpi on June 5, 2006 10:24 PM EST- Posted in
- Trade Shows
The Memory Market
The memory manufacturers we’ve spoken to are ecstatic about AMD’s move to DDR2, as they can begin moving away from DDR.
While DDR shipments still outnumber DDR2 shipments, the shift is definitely taking place. Right now there is a price parity between DDR-400 devices and DDR2-667 devices; combined with AMD’s move to Socket-AM2 and the conditions are ripe for a serious transition over to DDR2 in the market. If Conroe ends up being as popular as everyone is expecting it to, the number of DDR2 platforms will continue to increase as will the demand for DDR2 memory.
The breakdown of DDR2 shipments is particularly interesting, with the majority of modules still being DDR2-533. Now that the price difference between DDR2-533 and DDR2-667 has gone down tremendously, we will see the balance shift more towards the latter.
Unfortunately DDR2-800 is still extremely expensive compared to DDR2-667, because of extremely poor yields. One source told us that DDR2-800 was yielding far below 50%, resulting in anywhere from a 30% to 100% premium over DDR2-667. Everyone expects the yields on DDR2-800 to increase tremendously later this year, which will help drive DDR2-800 prices down as well as increase the number of low latency or higher bandwidth DDR2-800 parts.
Samsung has been talking to its partners about the move to DDR3; by the end of this year Samsung is supposed to be sampling DDR3 modules, but the memory makers we spoke to believe that the schedule is too aggressive.
Currently on Samsung’s roadmaps we’ve got DDR3-800, 1066 and 1333, but things could very well change by the time DDR3 actually makes its introduction on the desktop. The memory makers we spoke to expect to see the beginning of a transition to DDR3 by the end of 2007 at the earliest, which seems plausible.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
61 Comments
View All Comments
mindless1 - Wednesday, June 7, 2006 - link
Nice coverage. These new toys leave me drooling. Now off I go to find a smallish nuclear reactor to power everything. LOL.sri2000 - Friday, June 9, 2006 - link
You just need to get yourself a "Mr. Fusion" and you'll be all set.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mr._Fusion">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mr._Fusion
bespoke - Tuesday, June 6, 2006 - link
Too bad the new DFI boards still have that hideous fan on the NF chipset - that little bugger runs at 4,000 to 5,000 and is terribly loud.I can't wait to upgrade to Conroe, ditch NF4 and get back to a quiet (yet nicely performing) PC.
Griswold - Wednesday, June 7, 2006 - link
Duh.. newsflash, there are also NF4 boards without fans - just not from DFI. What really sucks about the fan on the DFI board is, that it breaks after 3 months and you end up replacing it with a better fan.Stele - Wednesday, June 7, 2006 - link
Although that's not much of a use if you're aiming to get a DFI board - which I think is where he was coming from. :)
For one reason or another DFI does not seem to be interested, or at least eager, to implement more/more effective passive cooling solutions on their products. Besides the lack of noise, passive cooling's greatest advantage is the fact that it doesn't have moving parts that are prone to failure like fans... as you found out.
At least they did take a unique step in implementing a digital integrated VR design on their board... its remarkable compactness and 'clean' layout without large electrolytic capacitors makes it really worth looking at for motherboard power circuits. Can't wait till more details of their implementation and tests thereof surface.
R3MF - Tuesday, June 6, 2006 - link
was the ECS miniITX A64 motherboard with an nForce chipset.i would love to see a AM2 MCP61-S variant with two dimm slots and PCI-E 16x card!
bldckstark - Tuesday, June 6, 2006 - link
Dual redundant power supplies in the Asus 1U server would seem to indicate that there are three or four power supplies housed within, but I believe the actuality is that there are only two right? Redundant means secondary as I understand it. Dual redundant means two secondaries. Therefore dual redundant PS's include a backup power supply and then a backup of the backup power supply. Which is it? Are there 2 or 3 power supplies in that thing?hoppa - Tuesday, June 6, 2006 - link
God I am so sick of hearing about x new card that is "even better than" the already $500 dual x1950.9 XFIRE XLI+ v2.0 ZI miss the days when those cards, the best cards, maxed at $300, the awesome stuff was at $200, and you could do quite well for $150. Now $150 is a joke.
One43637 - Tuesday, June 6, 2006 - link
is it just me or does the GB motherboard offerings remind you of the Asus motherboards (A8N32 & P5N32) that were released last year...Griswold - Tuesday, June 6, 2006 - link
High time the dorks at Nvidia and ATI start working on the power saving front. At least they seemm to have that in mind for the follow-up generations... This only means that R600 and G80 wont make it into my computer until the following cards reduce the power envelope by quite a bit.*shakes fist*