- Hey you, using that DDR3 or DDR4,
or maybe even DDR2 if you're if your into a bit of LGA 775.
It's all system memory and nowadays
it's actually quite expensive,
but there is DDR5 on the horizon,
and should you need to upgrade to it?
Let's do a little bit of analysis and focus on the topic.
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♪ So then maybe I would-- ♪
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So, before looking at the future of computer memory,
we have to evaluate what we have right now.
If you're buying a computer in 2018,
or even a new smartphone, it's most likely running DDR4.
You may stop me and say,
"That's because DDR4 is the fastest."
Look, I can pick up a stick of DDR4
with 3200 megahertz XMP's,
but there's more to the story than just memory clock speeds.
The biggest resistance to clock speed is latency,
though we need to start with latency.
We mainly need latency because the CPU
and memory don't run at the same frequency.
So there's an element there where the system is waiting
for the memory because the CPU is faster most of the time.
But what about when it isn't?
What if we happen to have, for example,
3200 megahertz DDR4 memory on a 3200 megahertz CPU.
Zero latency, you might ask?
Nope, because the motherboard is now your bottle neck.
So, true low ultra-low latency memory, is it even possible?
Well, no, they even did it on really old Intel CPU's,
such as the original 8086, which runs at eight megahertz
on a three micrometer architecture.
That's 3,000 nanometers.
That was the last time the memory, processor, and BIOS
ran at the same frequencies.
But, even the 8086 needed latency so that
the data could physically move between two components.
Otherwise, by the time the electric current reached the CPU,
it would have started a new cycle,
resulting in, essentially, a short circuit.
Lots of talky-talk.
What does that mean for you?
DDR5 was initially rumored to be released in 2020,
but news of the standard being finalized in 2018,
and released in 2019, have come to fruition.
Here are some things you can do now
to get the most out of your system, however.
Well, as long as you have dual-channel,
and some systems even have quad-channel memory,
you are using the most bandwidth possible for your CPU.
You could also try overclocking your B-clock
instead of your CPU ratio.
But with DDR5, hopefully we'll be able
to sync up those clocks once again,
then it's just a matter of waiting for motherboard chipsets
to improve enough to reach an equilibrium
before CPU's get higher clocks once again.
Ideally, games will start utilizing more cores,
so we don't need to hit such high frequencies,
so we can focus on trying to cut down on latency.
Because the DDR5 spec proposed is aiming
for 4400 megahertz to 6400 megahertz,
with latencies of CL42
to 48.
To put that into perspective,
most DDR4 runs at CL15 out of the box, 2133 megahertz,
and DDR3 runs at CL11,
1600 megahertz.
Well, at least most of it does now.
So comparing latency across different DDR architectures
is factually inaccurate since memory goes by cycles,
and the lower, the better.
However, the higher the polling rate,
the better from the speed itself.
Means we're looking at DDR4 having a comparable latency,
of which tend to keep speed differences
between the two marginal.
For example, with comparing DDR3 to DDR4,
we have 0.006875 latency
per poll for DDR3.
With DDR4, we have 0.0070334
for DDR4.
And for DDR4 we have calculated roughly 0.00703234.
And the guesstimate for DDR5 would be
somewhere around 0.009545.
So as bandwidth improves, the latency increases.
Some may say this is a bad thing.
I would say it's both a good and bad thing.
A necessary evil, rather.
DDR5, of course, will have its other benefits
and it will run at lower voltages.
1.1 volt is the predicted spec.
This will mean lower power consumption
and less heat output,
a great bonus for large corporations
with server farms, like Google, for example,
running x-amount of servers in their headquarters.
Though when it all draws back to
the single-end desktop user,
which is me and most likely a lot of you guys out there,
the differences are negligible for the end-user.
Only an extra few watts extra power consumption,
and is shown by many different benchmarks in games,
DDR4 already doesn't make that much of a difference
compared to DDR3.
And in fact, some games generally appreciate
lower latencies, if anything.
Though Ryzen is an exception to this,
preferring both higher transfer speeds,
and also lower latencies.
Call it a unique CPU design, to say the least,
much because of its infinity fabric.
Though, truth be told, DDR5 isn't delayed at all,
and it actually is ahead of schedule.
I think with worldwide increased consumer demand
for smartphones, tablets, computers, laptops,
and all things electronics,
brings an ever-so-over-amplified demand
for this memory.
And when DDR3 was released back in 2007,
DDR4 came seven years later,
in 2014,
way back when Intel's 5th Generation
high-end desktop CPU's and X99 was first released.
So, for a 2019-slated release,
it is actually beating the previous generational gap
between DDR3 and DDR4,
though, admittedly, it's losing out to that of
the shift from DDR2 to DDR3,
which was a four year gap,
when DDR2 was initially released in 2003.
So, in conclusion, memory is a funny thing,
all pun intended,
just like our own memory,
the system memory is volatile.
It will forget things.
Though let's not forget the DDR5 will just be
another release in the pipeline,
and that will, of course, come with the new release
of CPU's, motherboards, and, of course,
fancy RGB heat spreaders.
The technology itself is predicted to use
a seven nanometer node process,
which is a 2.2 times shrink compared to that
of DDR4's 16 nanometer when that was first released.
It will have the same 288 pins as DDR4,
and provide overall transfer speeds faster
than its predecessor,
though predicted to still lose out slightly
when it comes to latency.
The first prototypes are already in the testing phase,
and everything looks to be going as smoothly as planned.
Though, one thing for sure is the insatiable demand
for things like smartphones has, in my opinion,
sure increased the demand for speeding up
the before-estimated 2020 release
to the now-predicted 2019 progression
of transitioning from DDR4 to DDR5.
With the following graph showing some crazy stats,
where in 2012, the total demand for DDR memory
was around 20% in smartphones.
Fast-forward to 2018, that is now up to 45%
and predicted to top 50% in the next few years.
Quite scary when you think of it,
or quite pleasant since you guys might be watching
this video on a smartphone.
Though, speaking of this video,
thank you guys greatly for watching it.
If you enjoyed it, then be sure to hit that like button,
and let us know in the comments section below,
are you looking forward to DDR5?
Me, personally, yes, because then we have hopefully
more fabs that can produce more system memory,
and hopefully, in turn, that can have some kind
of economies or scale that can kick in
and bring the price down of DDR3 or DDR4, perhaps,
so we can start getting gaming PC's for cheaper.
Let me know your thoughts and opinions
in the comments section below.
Love reading those comments, as always.
And I'll catch you in another tech video very soon.
Peace out for now.
Bye.
(upbeat music)