Adata Introduces Next-Generation of DDR4 DRAM Modules

News
By Niels Broekhuijsen
published

Adata has announced the arrival of its DDR4 memory.

Slowly, but surely, manufacturers are starting to announce their DDR4 products. This time, Adata has announced its next generation of DDR4 DRAM modules, which it will be aimed at server and render farm uses.

The company's DDR4 SDRAM (double data rate 4th-gen synchronous dynamic random-access memory) modules feature higher clock speeds as well as improved power consumption. The units are said to feature data transfer rates of up to 3.2 Gb/s, with frequencies as high as 2133 MHz at stock specifications. The reduced power consumption comes from the fact that the modules are able to run on just 1.2 volts.

So far it is still somewhat unclear when DDR4 will become a mainstream standard, though many developments seem to be pointing towards sooner rather than later.

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Niels Broekhuijsen
Niels Broekhuijsen

Niels Broekhuijsen is a Contributing Writer for Tom's Hardware US. He reviews cases, water cooling and pc builds.

18 Comments Comment from the forums
  • BulkZerker
    Patiently waiting for this to hit desktops. iGPUs have been begging for it.
    Reply
  • laststop311
    11562899 said:
    Patiently waiting for this to hit desktops. iGPUs have been begging for it.

    It's really not about a speed boost, at least not initially, DDR3 has achieved 3000Mhz at 1.65V. So a DDR3 module at 3000Mhz and 1.65v will be faster than these 2133Mhz 1.2v DDR4 modules unless there are more channels for DDR4. DDR4 is about power savings not speed increases. Currently 1.5v is required for 2133Mhz DDR3 I've only seen 1866Mhz using the lower voltage 1.35v DDR3 So 2133Mhz at 1.2v should give some nice power savings and less heat radiated into the case but if you are expecting all this additional speed I wouldn't get your hopes up too high. I could be wrong though maybe DDR4 will quickly scale to beyond 3000Mhz or maybe the cas latencies have improved tremendously.
    Reply
  • anxiousinfusion
    I will jump on the first Intel or AMD platform that supports DDR4 memory. This is like watching an extremely slow race.
    Reply
  • chicofehr
    I'm hoping this brings 16GB sticks so I can get 64GB in 4 slots. My RAM disk is lacking a bit.
    Reply
  • rolli59
    As always when we change DDR standard it will take a few months for the new one to beat the previous generation on speed. It will be interesting to see how quickly it will be implemented.
    Reply
  • cypeq
    11563166 said:
    11562899 said:
    Patiently waiting for this to hit desktops. iGPUs have been begging for it.

    It's really not about a speed boost, at least not initially, DDR3 has achieved 3000Mhz at 1.65V. So a DDR3 module at 3000Mhz and 1.65v will be faster than these 2133Mhz 1.2v DDR4 modules unless there are more channels for DDR4. DDR4 is about power savings not speed increases. Currently 1.5v is required for 2133Mhz DDR3 I've only seen 1866Mhz using the lower voltage 1.35v DDR3 So 2133Mhz at 1.2v should give some nice power savings and less heat radiated into the case but if you are expecting all this additional speed I wouldn't get your hopes up too high. I could be wrong though maybe DDR4 will quickly scale to beyond 3000Mhz or maybe the cas latencies have improved tremendously.

    Every iteration of RAM was big performance leap. It's the same right now, doubling transfer rates yet again.
    This would be a very strange to adapt new memory standard just for marginal power efficiency benefit. If it's only power saving feature ddr4 is very long way from desktop.

    Reply
  • Ryrynz
    11563475 said:
    11563166 said:
    11562899 said:
    Patiently waiting for this to hit desktops. iGPUs have been begging for it.

    It's really not about a speed boost, at least not initially, DDR3 has achieved 3000Mhz at 1.65V. So a DDR3 module at 3000Mhz and 1.65v will be faster than these 2133Mhz 1.2v DDR4 modules unless there are more channels for DDR4. DDR4 is about power savings not speed increases. Currently 1.5v is required for 2133Mhz DDR3 I've only seen 1866Mhz using the lower voltage 1.35v DDR3 So 2133Mhz at 1.2v should give some nice power savings and less heat radiated into the case but if you are expecting all this additional speed I wouldn't get your hopes up too high. I could be wrong though maybe DDR4 will quickly scale to beyond 3000Mhz or maybe the cas latencies have improved tremendously.

    Every iteration of RAM was big performance leap. It's the same right now, doubling transfer rates yet again.
    This would be a very strange to adapt new memory standard just for marginal power efficiency benefit. If it's only power saving feature ddr4 is very long way from desktop.

    Are you kidding me? Have you followed any DDR technology at all? On release DDR2 Was SLOWER than DDR1, DDR3 was SLOWER than DDR2 (at the same frequency) the timings are always slower! and that kills the performance. It's the same with DDR4. It won't catch up to overclocked DDR3 performance for some time. So he's exactly right, it's about efficiency and future performance scaling, that's it.
    Big deal though, you can pick up 1.2V DDR3 modules anyway (not at 2133 though) but who cares a couple of watts saving.. big deal.
    Will be interesting at 1500MHz (3000) otherwise.. meh. Can't believe we've been waiting years for this. We need something better than DDR technology already.

    Here's an interesting read for ya.

    http://www.cadence.com/Community/blogs/ii/archive/2011/11/17/arm-techcon-paper-why-dram-latency-is-getting-worse.aspx
    Reply
  • wemakeourfuture
    Ryrynz
    Are you kidding me? Have you followed any DDR technology at all? On release DDR2 Was SLOWER than DDR1, DDR3 was SLOWER than DDR2 (at the same frequency) the timings are always slower! and that kills the performance. It's the same with DDR4. It won't catch up to overclocked DDR3 performance for some time. So he's exactly right, it's about efficiency and future performance scaling, that's it.
    Big deal though, you can pick up 1.2V DDR3 modules anyway (not at 2133 though) but who cares a couple of watts saving.. big deal.
    Will be interesting at 1500MHz (3000) otherwise.. meh. Can't believe we've been waiting years for this. We need something better than DDR technology already.


    Why compare overclocked DDR3 to DDR4? Most people don't overclock their DDR3 ram, so they don't care about overclocked DDR3 versus non-overclocked DDR4, aside from that, comparing over-clock versus non-overclock is not a fair comparison.
    Reply
  • TheViper
    Ninjawithagun, graphics cards use GDDR5 which is based on DDR3.
    Reply
  • Ryrynz
    11563891 said:
    Ryrynz
    Are you kidding me? Have you followed any DDR technology at all? On release DDR2 Was SLOWER than DDR1, DDR3 was SLOWER than DDR2 (at the same frequency) the timings are always slower! and that kills the performance. It's the same with DDR4. It won't catch up to overclocked DDR3 performance for some time. So he's exactly right, it's about efficiency and future performance scaling, that's it.
    Big deal though, you can pick up 1.2V DDR3 modules anyway (not at 2133 though) but who cares a couple of watts saving.. big deal.
    Will be interesting at 1500MHz (3000) otherwise.. meh. Can't believe we've been waiting years for this. We need something better than DDR technology already.


    Why compare overclocked DDR3 to DDR4? Most people don't overclock their DDR3 ram, so they don't care about overclocked DDR3 versus non-overclocked DDR4, aside from that, comparing over-clock versus non-overclock is not a fair comparison.

    Because it's at the same frequency? You are aware that high speed DDR3 RAM running at higher than 2133MHz is basically overlocked RAM right? Same went for 2133 and 1866 before they were released as a spec. By overclocked I mean everything above 2133Mhz.
    Reply