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.
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Missing Ghost - Monday, June 5, 2006 - link
wow, all I can say is wow. I am quite impressed with Gigabyte desktop motherboards. From the pictures it looks like a better design than even what DFI would do. Also the ASUS socket F board looks excellent. Quite impressive since I am used to think that ASUS' server boards are inferior to like supermicro/iwill/tyan.krwilsonn - Monday, June 5, 2006 - link
Page 18 of the article seems to be mixed up since the Albatron boards are showing up instead of the Asrock.Regs - Monday, June 5, 2006 - link
Actually consider what AMD is doing at all. Boy times have changed! ;)I'm a life long AMD fan too. Short life, but life long.
bob661 - Monday, June 5, 2006 - link
Where have you been? It's been like that for quite a few years now. Remember when DDR2 was actually on the market? Who wasn't using DDR2 then?bob661 - Monday, June 5, 2006 - link
Figures.bob661 - Monday, June 5, 2006 - link
Interesting. Looks like Conroe's may come at a premium until Intel can increase production.shabby - Monday, June 5, 2006 - link
I dont get it, what is the point of sending audio to the monitor?
Furen - Monday, June 5, 2006 - link
It's meant to be sent to an HD TV. Monitors can just use DVI for digital signaling.shabby - Tuesday, June 6, 2006 - link
And whats the point of that too? Its supposed to go to the reciever not the tv.OrSin - Tuesday, June 6, 2006 - link
Do you even know why hdmi exist. Most HDTV that have HDMI connects also has audio out.YOu connect everything to your tv and send out only singles you need. My guess is you don't have a HDTV.