DDR2 Vs. DDR3?

Hey guys
I noticed that in the new upcoming clevo/sager
They will be offering DDR3
I could probably search on google and find the answer
But I enjoy these forums and talking to people
So I am wondering
How much of a performance difference is there?
Will it be standard in upcoming years?
Why is it so damn expensive?!
Thanks for the time!

 

Performance difference? - Not much right now. For a while DDR2 performed no better than DDR, and similarly DDR3 won't perform much better than DDR2 until clock speeds get a little higher.

Standard in a few years? - Yes, just like DDR2 became the standard most commonly used. The same standards group that made the DDR2 spec made the DDR3 spec.

Expensive? - Not many make it, and not many buy it. When volume is low, prices go higher. They'll fall over time.

 

Well if you take into account graphics card performance, 8600GT DDR2 performs worse than 8600GT DDR3. I don't know if its graphics specific, but clearly there is a noticable difference between the two.

 

If you search this up in the forum, you'll find lots of questions regarding the difference of DDR2 vs DDR3.

Simply GDDR3 is always faster than GDDR2 when used in the same card.

EX:

8600M GT GDDR3 256mb > 8600M GT GDDR2 512mb

 

GDDR and DDR aren't quite the same. Plus, GDDR2 is much more inefficient and runs much hotter which leads to lower performance.

 

Yeah i meant RAM for the computer not for the videocard hence why the G wasnt added =]
but thanks alot for the quick answers
looks like ill be ok with DDR2 for now and upgrade to a newer machine when the technology catches up

 

Wanted to comment on this as I have an understanding of. That might be incorrect. It is my understanding that GDDR3 is not DDR3 JEDEC standard, it is not any JEDEC standard and was developed by ATI? GDDR2? Well maybe in application you can add the "G" but I understand it to in fact be DDR2 JEDEC standard like we use as system RAM (maybe not form factor?) and therefore very cheap. And yes faster RAM as long as CL does not offset performs better I would also say lower voltage offsets power draw and heat issues that has design benefits. But with GDDR3 not being or relating to DDR3 JEDEC standards I can not comment on specifics as I don't know GDDR3's. Further points on diff discussed below.

To OP Greg's first post said it all. But I have seen a notebook you can pre order that will use DDR3 (Clevo). From what I have read the 800Mhz PC6400 has the same CL5 as most 667Mhz PC5300. So you should get almost the full speed increase as CL is the same. In addition this notebook has a 1066Mhz FSB so will definitely see much improvement. The variables to consider for RAM bandwidth are Mhz, CL and FSB. An example is 533Mhz PC4200 vs 677Mhz PC5300, the speed increase was largely offset by the standard CL. With the PC4200 CL4 and 5300 CL5. Now on my AMD with 1600Mhz FSB I have greater bandwidth running PC4200 than Intel's running PC5300 (CL5) w/667Mhz FSB and almost the same as PC5300 w/800Mhz FSB.

So as said the three things that must be considered are speed, CL and FSB. And DDR3 has lower voltage so has power and heat advantages.

 

Huh? Where did you get that? Sounds like someone fed you something from a slightly biased side of the equation.

It is a JEDEC standard, but it is different than DDR3, it's pre-dates it and it's also focused on point-to-point communication and also is designed for x32 architecture while desktop DDRx is x4/8.

ATi proposed the standards for GDDR3/4/5 too, JEDEC approved them just like what became GDDR2 which ended up being a combination of ATi, nVidia and Samsung's specs.

And technically it's DDR-2/DDR-2M (ATi) or GDDRII (nV) not originally GDDR2, GDDR2 came afterwards on memory that resembled neither and the best of both really, and primarily as a backwards compatible name when there was GDDR3 to give it that direction and finally DDRII on the desktop to give it competition for the title. However while DDR-2/GDDRII had it's JEDEC issues, GDDRIII was adopted almost instead of what ended up being GDDR2, almost everyone was already looking ahead toward's ATi's spec'd GDDRIII instead of the troublesome, expensive and hot GDDR2

 

Thanks Ape, I miss spoke, even with what I think I know. As you said, GDDR3 is JEDEC, DDR2 used in video cards is neither that is the one stuck in the middle? Or am I still confused? And to all I apologize for my miss post. Little bit of knowledge can be dangerous!

 

No worries, you probably read it from someone pimping their side.

DDR2 used in video cards was a very messed up standard, as you can kinda tell with their Being an ATi, nV and Samsung competing spec.

It actually more closely resembled the standard DDR format than later GDDR iterations that truly broke off to become graphic-centric. So yeah that 'gddr2' would've been the one stuck in the middle funny thing at that time an ATi guy was actually chair of Jedec. Funny that even they were talking about just moving straight to GDDR3 because it was becoming apparent how messed up DDR-2 and DDR-2M was and that nV's GDDRII wasn't going to help either. Really dissapointing time if you remember the issue, with the the GF5800U launch failure and R9800Pro 256 DDR-2 adding to the disappointment.

Funny thinig is ATi's application came before nV's but nV had the hardware to market first, but since both really sucked it's pretty much Samsung's refinements that brought the technology forward to what we currently use.

 

Its pretty simple to choose when it comes to system memory DDR2 is the best, its hard to find any scenarios where DDR3 performs better. Plus DDR2 is dirt cheap, cheaper than DDR and much cheaper than DDR3. For what you pay for the DDR3 its not even a valid option honestly.

As DDR3 matures it will eventully gain popularity when the performance lead is large enough that the ritch guys buy it for there uber systems, once it his market and gains popularity like that the price will start to fall, then at some point it will probably become an unspoken standard and become as cheap and as common as DDR2 is now. Then it will start all over probably with DDR4 or what ever the next new thing is.


GDDR3 is not the same as DDR3 thats why there is the "G" there ;P graphics memory is for graphics cards and your not going to be able to use it as system memory so dont even worry about the video card world for now.

Just know that GDDR3 is better than the (G)DDR2 stuff but also video cards use ram in a much different manner than your system does too so what works well for one wont work the same for the other.

 

The real diference (for now) is here

http://www.breakitdownblog.com/ddr2-800-vs-ddr3-1333-does-speed-matter/