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    DDR2 vs GDDR2

    Discussion in 'Gaming (Software and Graphics Cards)' started by Fairlyawesome, Mar 25, 2010.

  1. Fairlyawesome

    Fairlyawesome Notebook Guru

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    Sorry that this has been asked a lot before, though I can't quite seem to find an exact answer through searches.

    I'm considering buying a laptop with a Geforce 120m graphics card ( this one), but I'm not sure what type of memory the graphics card uses. Notebookcheck tells me that the 120m has either GDDR3 or GDDR2, and considering the price of the laptop, I'd assume it's GDDR2. This confuses me though, because apparently GDDR2 hasn't been used in graphics for many years, would the laptop just have regular DDR2?

    If the laptop did use GDDR2, though, would it be slower than regular DDR2?
     
    Fairlyawesome, Mar 25, 2010
    #1
  2. lozanogo

    lozanogo Notebook Deity

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    I don´t think so. If it exists it would be faster or similar.
     
    lozanogo, Mar 25, 2010
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  3. wackydude1234

    wackydude1234 Notebook Evangelist

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    I'm no expert on this but I believe GDDR stands for Graphics Double Data Rate memory, basically it's memory specifically for the graphics card, where as DDR ram is for the whole computer GDDR2/3 and DDR2/3 being the same...

    i think.
     
    wackydude1234, Mar 25, 2010
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  4. ARom

    ARom -

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    ARom, Mar 25, 2010
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  5. sgogeta4

    sgogeta4 Notebook Nobel Laureate

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    DDR3 (JEDEC standard) and GDDR3 are totally different. GDDR3 is based off of DDR2, but designed specifically for GPUs. GDDR3 is faster than DDR3, which is in turn faster than DDR2. GDDR2 doesn't exist anymore. Asus typically uses DDR2, since it is cheaper (at the expense of performance).
     
    sgogeta4, Mar 25, 2010
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  6. Fairlyawesome

    Fairlyawesome Notebook Guru

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    So you'd think they put DDR2 GRam into their Geforce 120M? No chance at all of GDRR2? :p

    If so, then that's fine for me!
     
    Fairlyawesome, Mar 25, 2010
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  7. Melody

    Melody How's It Made Addict

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    Most likely, GDDR2 was flushed off the market a year and a half ago.
     
    Melody, Mar 25, 2010
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  8. Trottel

    Trottel Notebook Virtuoso

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    sgogeta4 is right, there is a huge difference between the different memories. Graphics memory has much higher latencies but is made to clock a lot higher than desktop memory. This gives the best performance for graphics cards. The demands of system memory are quite different, so GDDR3 would be of no advantage and perhaps be quite a bit slower while costing a lot more money. Also as has been said, the naming sequences of graphics and system memory types have no relation to each other.
     
    Trottel, Mar 25, 2010
    #8