DDR3 to DDR5?

Hello There,
I was thinking of purchasing the Sager NP9150 but I noticed that it was slowed down by a DDR3 memory. (By the way, why wouldn't they include a DDR5 with a machine like that?)
My question is can I replace the DDR3 in the laptop with a DDR5 memory, or am I stuck with the original?

thanks

 

I think you're confusing DDR3 and GDDR5, The latest type of system RAM available is DDR3, the latest for video cards is GDDR5 which is based on DDR3. GDDR3 is based on DDR2

 

Ah. Is there still no DDR5 out yet?

And how would I be able to get GDDR5 into the system?

 

There is no DDR5, DDR4 isn't even out yet...

The memory on the all the video cards available forthe NP9150 is GDDR5.

Here's an example of a configuration for the NP9150 (RAM and video card)
8GB DDR3 1600MHz -> System RAM
GTX670m 1.5GB GDDR5 -> Video Card, the GDDR5 is on the video card.

 

Does the stock NP 9150 contain DDR3 RAM and GDDR5 video card?

 

The post you quoted is the stock configuration of a 9150.

 

I see. Well thanks for the help folks.

Any idea when DDR4 or DDR5 is out?

And is it a good idea to pull the trigger on this laptop soon?

 

DDR4 should be out late 2012 early 2013. DDR5 no idea, but there isn't going to be a huge performance increase from DDR3 to DDR4.

If you're going to buy it soon make sure you upgrade the GPU to the 7970M and you can downgrade the RAM to 1333mhz instead of 1600mhz (no real world difference, 5% in benchmarks) to save $50.

 

Is the 675 worse than the 7970?

 

Yes.

Preliminary benchmarks have the 7970M as 80-100% performance increase over the 675M.

 

And why is it worth sacrificing the 1600mhz for it?

 

Because 1600mhz will not provide any real world performance increase. By all means if you have the money to spend, get 1600mhz. But if you want to save a little bit of money, 1333mhz is perfectly fine.

edit: http://forum.notebookreview.com/har...upgrades/661485-ram-speed-1333-vs-1600-a.html here.

 

OK thanks for that.
One more question: If/when DDR4 gets shipped, how do I go about replacing the DDR3 in my system with it? Is that even possible?

 

Like others have said, you will hardly lose any performance going from 1600 to 1333 RAM, but have a huge gain in gaming performance going from the 675m to 7970m.

For gaming, the bottleneck is almost always on the video card so get the best you can afford.

 

Not going to be possible. DDR4 will be lower power consumption and is going to be clocked faster than existing RAM. For gaming it's 90% GPU and 10% CPU unless you're playing RTS games with thousands of units on screen then it's almost the opposite.

Successor to DDR3 Memory Reaching Devices Next Year, Micron Says | PCWorld here is an article somewhat explaining it.

 

The DDR4 RAM will not be backward compatible so it won't be possible. I wouldn't worry, though, because DDR3 is already plenty fast.

Edit: s2odin beat me to it.

 

So it wouldn't be a good idea to buy anything right now...?

 

If you want to wait for DDR4 you might as well wait for DDR5 then DDR6.

There's no reason to wait if you need something now. The 7970M just got released (literally this month) and as multiple people have stated, RAM speed isn't going to affect anything.

Plus Ivy Bridge just got released so you're looking at all new technology (minus the RAM but RAM =/= gaming performance).

 

I thought RAM had a huge impact on gaming performance?

 

No....

Gaming is 90% GPU (7970M) and 10% processor unless you're running an RTS with thousands of units on screen.

RAM has maybe a 1-2 fps difference in games, and with the 7970M you'll run all games at 60+ fps so 1-2 fps makes absolutely no difference whatsoever.

 

It would only have a large impact if there wasn't enough, but 8GB is plenty so the GPU has the biggest impact.