Centrino 2 and DDR2 vs DDR3

Hey All,

I noticed that most (if not all) Centrino 2 announced systems come with DDR2 Ram... and it's most probably due to the current DDR3 high cost. However, Centrino 2 is capable of supporting DDR3 Ram. Now, my question is this... if I get a Centrino 2 system with DDR2 Ram now, will I be able to swap the memory to DDR3 later?

thanks...

 

You should be able to, but there's really no point since DDR3 isn't really any faster than DDR2 right now. The only good point I can think of is the 1.8->1.5V drop going from DDR2 to 3, however I wouldn't get DDR3 just for this.

 

Read about DDR3 here....The introduction and overview should help you clear your doubts....

 

Thanks for the link Angad, a lot of stuff to digest, very informative, however poorly explained (with my currently limited background knowledge of this stuff I would have to snoop very deep to get the hang of it). Also, I never totally rely on Wiki for my knowledge base, it is a good tool to get the overall impression (as it was now), but I just don't seem to trust it totally, people can erase stuff and reedit the next day, there's no body monitoring that the info is actually accurate, and that sort of stuff...thanks.

Notyou, why do you say that currently the DDR3 is not faster than DDR2. It was may impression that one of the most important components for rapid data access is the communication between the CPU and the RAM, meaning the FSB. Now, if you increase the FSB from 800MHz (currently the fastest for DDR2) to 1,066-MHz (DDR3), wouldn't you see a performance increase?

thanks

 

Take a look at this and the other reference links in the DDR3 wiki article....

 

NICE, thanks

 

A DDR3 module wont fit in a slot designed for DDR2 memory. So, a motherboard with DDR2 slots wont be capable of using DDR3 memory & vice versa; which means you cannot get a DDR2 based system now and then upgrade to DDR3 memory without changing the motherboard.

If you want to use DDR3 then buy a laptop which ships with DDR3 memory.

 

Oh, I'm planning on getting a laptop, in which case motherboard changing is kinda out of the question... do you know if there were any announced with a DDR3 RAM?
If not, in that case, what's the point of paying the premium for a Centrino2 now if you can't even benefit from its most valuable asset, the new FSB speed?

 

You still get the lower TDP processors along with better power optimizations. Also the chipset has received another refresh and X4500 although still performs poorly is better than the X3100. Its more of an evolutionary change rather than a revolution. If you want a revolution, then you would have to wait until the mobile version of Nehalem is released.

Also, DDR3 SODIMM's are still way too expensive for the mainstream market. Currently you can get for ~$75 4GB DDR2 800 modules while you will probably get only 1GB DDR3 1066 modules at that price. So, you wont see these in consumer laptops for a while. if you want DDR3 then take a look at the Thinkpad T/R 400/500's(should be available next month) which should ship with DDR3 memory.

In any case this is not too big of a deal (atleast for the majority of the laptop users)...current Santa Rosa platform didnt support DDR2 800 memory eventhough they sold cpu's with 800MHz FSB.

 

Hi Miner,

Q: what do you mean X4500 performs poorly? For what applications? Can I still watch Movie and multitask? And may be play some desktop games?

Q: Will the Montevina platform with DDR2 800 RAM show a reasonable increase in performance over Santa Rosa with DDR2 800?
Also Will Video processing time ... you know like Nero Recode transcoding program be improved due to Montevina's higher FSB?

BTW, +rep you for your above "Clarification" on DDR2 and DDR3 slots are different ... saved someone a headache.

Thanks,
G!

 

Santa Rosa cannot run PC6400 at speed. I am not up to speed yet but with increased latency with faster RAM 1066 might not be a great boost. Miner has already spelled much out. I will say buy what you need when you need as waiting will always provide better but at the extreme will result in never buying and I can guarantee having no notebook is slower than a P4.

The X4500 not performing well as miner said. That is a relative comment and I agree. It will not have trouble doing non 3D stuff, and is better than X3100. But well it still is an integrated card. Prior to AMD's release of Puma not much expected. But AMD is now getting performance as good or better than a 8400m GS discrete card with an integrated graphics card. Kind of raised the standard and makes Intel's a disappointment.

 

Games in particular. You should be fine with older games and running newer games with details/res turned down. I would wait for benchmarks before passing judgement on it but looking at the hardware it doesnt seem to be much of an improvement in graphics performance. SD movies shouldnt be a problem, even HD and Bluray should work fine, the X4500 does have hardware video decoder but initial tests by anandtech didnt do well( Link). Driver updates should probably fix that.

I havent used montevina yet but processor performance wont change much. Penryn under Santa Rosa is pretty much the same Penryn in Montevina. The increase in FSB wont affect performance to make any noticable difference.

 

Too bad Intel is terrible with driver updates.

 

Ha Ha! What do you mean with updates? They just released? They suck at writing code. I mean the day it is released talk of updates improving performance? I, my only point is you give them too much credit when you insult them for being slow to provide updates? They release bad drivers from the start they know they are bad, what do you mean updates?


I mean MS pre-release updates? Come on! I watched with X3100 and you guys are still waiting? Some day with good drivers that card is going to be great? Yea when? New platform same song and dance!

 

The 7.15 driver update (x3100) taxes my CPU toooOo much even when not using dreamscenes and even when idle.. so i reverted to 7.14 .. talking about driver update crap

 

There are slight performance advantages over the DDR2667. I had a Sager NP5793 and upgraded to the Sager NP5796 with the DDR3.

Look at my review over here:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=299023

I have a comparison for PCMark in there.

 

Mike nice link. I liked. I respect you did your best to get identical "test beds". I would like to see "memory bandwidth" vs system performance, unless I missed?

OK on to DDR2 vs DDR3. Well yes higher CL does hurt DDR3. But remember that hit is the first bit of data in a request. After the first hit the rest goes at frequency so DDR3 higher frequency comes into play.

The benches I have seen with DDR2 800Mhz vs DDR3 1066Mhz? I have seen three. One compared and desktop but used 1066Mhz FSB with same test bed. They were the same bandwidth. I have seen 800Mhz and 1066Mhz with 45 chipset. Once again the same. Less than 1% is the same in my opinion.

That said 1066Mhz is a JEDEC DDR2 standard. What this means? I think it means unless I was worried about small increase in power consumption and small increase in heat? Not an issue DDR2 vs DDR3. They will likely get the CL down in the 1066Mhz (DDR2 and DDR3) so frequency will matter in the future.

Bandwidth Santa Rosa 667Mhz about 4.2GB's/s Montevina both 800Mhz (DDR2) and 1066Mhz (DDR3) about 5.5GB/s.

John Ratsey has more info than I on this DDR2/3 thing.

Mike if you are going to dig in the past for threads? Please do not pull up the ones where I said Vista would project 3D holographic images and Santa Rosa would allow you to connect directly to the power grid and get free electricity?

I might of been wrong on a couple of little details.

 

The answer is No! The chip and memory slot do not support each other (DDR2 and DDR3). They are totally different.