GDDR3 for PC memory??? Why Not?!?

[RichPLS]

With ATI releasing the X1800XT at 1,500 mhz GDDR3 throughput near 50mb/s, a thought passed...what is holding us back from using this as system memory? Seems as if it would kick but, yet I know I have forgotten why it is not considered, and know it is not just its high price, since enthusiasts pay for technological edges...

 

[pickxx]

They haven't put it ona a dimm yet for commercial use.....some company about 6 months ago put the first GDDR3 on a dimm.....so thats where everything is going eventually....but it will take time for that process to be perfected.

 

[Wolf42]

To quote an article on DRAM here: http://www.edn.com/article/CA292200.html

What's so different about PC main memory and PC graphics, leading to the performance disparity?

Graphics chips connect to their frame buffers over 2.5-in. or shorter, point-to-point, single-load buses, versus the much longer, multidrop buses that main memory uses. Graphics chips also don't have to contend with module-connector impedance. And perhaps most important, the standardization process is much simpler with graphics chips. Most graphics-card vendors, who specialize in distribution and marketing, not engineering, directly take chip vendor's reference designs to production without alterations. With each product generation, the graphics vendor secures a supply deal with one or a few memory vendors for a custom-tested product variant that might have altered impedances, operating temperatures, and voltages, along with narrower tolerances for these parameters than its PC-main-memory counterpart.