Is DDR3 really twice the speed of DDR2?

[WyomingKnott]

From an ad: "DDR3 components are twice as fast as today's highest speed DDR2 memory products."

Is this true? I remember reviews comparing the two and finding small improvements, but as DDR2 development is dead DDR3 may have moved ahead since then.

Or is it just hype? 3 is twice as much as 2?

 

[vitornob]

Standard base clock it's really double, but this won't translate in double performance.
Others components will be struggling the performance, so it doesn't matter if u get faster, and faster, and faster memories. The gains are marginal for basic computing.

(If u going to use DDR3 1066 vs DDR3 1600 in a Llano plataform, u will truly have gains in the IGP though)

 

[we1shcake]

the ram itself is double the speed, however ram speed is rarely the limiting factor in normal workloads, therefor you get the double speed but only small improvements in benchmarks

 

[WyomingKnott]

Best answer selected by WyomingKnott.