Micron and Samsung sampling DDR400, chipsets soon?

[Crashman]

OK, so Micron and Samsung are sampling DDR400. That would be a perfect match for a stock P4. But there aren't any chipsets available. And by the time there are, Intel will be on the 133 bus, aka QDR533. And DDR400 won't overclock to DDR533 speeds. So the latest memory will be perfect for outdated processors by then, whippee.

Which only begs the question, when will we see Dual Channel DDR chipsets for the P4, so we can run a matched pair of PC2100 modules at the same bandwidth as the Northwood "B"?

What's the frequency, Kenneth?

 

[FatBurger]

There's a dual-channel PC2700 SiS chipset slated for release this summer.

<font color=blue>If you don't buy Windows, then the terrorists have already won!</font color=blue> - Microsoft

 

[Crashman]

Cool, but all we really need is dual channel PC1600 for stock current P4's and dual channel PC2100 for future P4's. All we need is matching bandwidth. Even a dual channel PC1600 chipset would be fine with PC2100 for an overclock to 133 bus, it would even work with PC2700 for an overclock to 166 bus, as long as the board is made properly.

What is needed to match CPU bandwidth (QDR400@64 bits) is only DDR200@128 bits. The clock ratio is then 1:1 (100MHz to 100MHz) and the doubled buswidth makes up for the difference between DDR and QDR. Overclocking therefor still only requires that 1:1 ratio, at 133 (QDR533) using DDR133 (DDR266, ie PC2100) and 128-bits, and further overclocks maintaining that 1:1 ratio.

The current DDR333 boards maintain an inferior 3:5/2 bandwidth ratio. Many people fail to understand that it needs to be divided by 2 because it's DDR, while the processor bus is QDR. The fact that it can evenly compete with RDRAM that has 20% more bandwidth is most likely do to the lower latency of SDRAM. Such performance would imply that a true 1:1 ratio concerning bandwidth would put DDR SDRAM in the lead by a relatively large margin, perhaps enough to bring back the 20% performance lag of the P4 Northwood as compared to AMD and PIII processors!

Put in that perspective reminds us how truely poor the Willy was, lagging 30% behind earlier processors, clock for clock.

What's the frequency, Kenneth?