RD-RAM vs. DDR-RAM

LuckyStrik · Dec 26, 2004

I was just wondering how much of a difference is there between the performance of RD- and DDR-RAM? My current PC has 512mb RD-RAM coupled to a 2.53Ghz P4 and GeForce4 Ti4600, and it seems to run virtually everything I throw at it just fine. Will 512mb DDR-RAM be faster, slower, or make no difference?

musawi · Dec 26, 2004

"Unfortunately for Rambus, dual channel DDR memory solutions have proved to be quite efficient at delivering about the same levels of performance as RDRAM at a much lower cost" - Drisler

RD RAM is expensive and DDR is cheaper.

RAMBUS had higher bandwidth than DDR but it also had much higher latency, which decreases the level of performance.

I think RDRAM is also capable of faster speeds, but DDR is quite close to matching RDRAM speeds.

I also saw a benchmark showing RD RAM was better in games then DDR.

Let some other member back me up on this. I might be wrong.

flapperhead · Dec 26, 2004

rambus was shoved down everyones throat about 3 yrs ago by intel. it proved to be absurdly expensive at first. it uses dual channel and was superior to sc ddr at first but now with dc ddr and dc ddr2 everone has abandoned the rambus position and rambus is resorting to suing everyone. they claim they own the intellectual properties to ddr. so far most ddr makers are sucessfully winning. they have left a bad taste in everyones mouth, and they deserve what they get.. nothing

beau_zo_brehm · Dec 29, 2004

musawi said:
"Unfortunately for Rambus, dual channel DDR memory solutions have proved to be quite efficient at delivering about the same levels of performance as RDRAM at a much lower cost" - Drisler

RD RAM is expensive and DDR is cheaper.

RAMBUS had higher bandwidth than DDR but it also had much higher latency, which decreases the level of performance.

I think RDRAM is also capable of faster speeds, but DDR is quite close to matching RDRAM speeds.

I also saw a benchmark showing RD RAM was better in games then DDR.

Let some other member back me up on this. I might be wrong.

Latencys don't make that big of a difference from a gaming standpoint....

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=48634

nicknomo · Dec 29, 2004

Rambus makes superior ram, and it currently is capable of the most bandwidth. I think they had plans to produce memory that achieved something like 9GB/s (single channel).. Of course, no one likes them because it is extremely expensive. They will probably never be used again, due to the fiasco that ensued with the lawsuits and RDRAM.

thegreek · Dec 29, 2004

I have 1 GB RDRAM in my computer which is a gateway I bought a while ago. It's pretty fast considering it's old.

capmuffin · Dec 29, 2004

thegreek said:
I have 1 GB RDRAM in my computer which is a gateway I bought a while ago. It's pretty fast considering it's old.

Ya my friend has a 2.4 ghz gateway with RDRAM i dont like it because its hard to find.you need to have RAM in ALL slots (his has cool 1337 msi ramthings though) they look like sticks of ram without chips....the mobo's are hard to find...and thier is no market

thegreek · Dec 30, 2004

capmuffin said:
Ya my friend has a 2.4 ghz gateway with RDRAM i dont like it because its hard to find.you need to have RAM in ALL slots (his has cool 1337 msi ramthings though) they look like sticks of ram without chips....the mobo's are hard to find...and thier is no market

Yeah tell me about it. I'm saving some money to get me a new system but this one is still going pretty good considering its old and it's still pretty fast. RDRAM is pretty fast.

batboy · Dec 30, 2004

All else equal, there is not much performance difference between RDRAM and the typical dual channel DDR system... except price. The DDR overclocks a little better and often has lower latencies and is cheaper. But, RDRAM still offers a lot of memory bandwidth. If your system is working good and does everything you want it to, then that's good enough. I gave my g/f one of my old RDRAM systems a year ago now and it still does everything she requires out of it. She'll probably have it for another year.

AzNaLaN15 · Dec 30, 2004

hm i have a dimension 8200 =[ and i hate it with the rdram... its just soo expensive

nicknomo · Dec 31, 2004

All else equal, there is not much performance difference between RDRAM and the typical dual channel DDR system... except price. The DDR overclocks a little better and often has lower latencies and is cheaper. But, RDRAM still offers a lot of memory bandwidth. If your system is working good and does everything you want it to, then that's good enough. I gave my g/f one of my old RDRAM systems a year ago now and it still does everything she requires out of it. She'll probably have it for another year.

At the time there was a considerable difference. DDR platforms didn't even come close to matching the performance from RDRAM setups. That faded eventually.. However Rambus developed much faster technologies when DRAM finally caught up... Due to the price though, the new innovations from Rambus never made it on the computer motherboard. There are two reasons for this...

1) The design of the current CPU's offered no benefit from increasing the memory bandwidth to these levels. Even the future 800mhz FSB Intel platforms could not eat up all the bandwidth of the new RAMBUS technologies.
2) They cost a hell of a lot of money.

So why pay more for something that DDR could supply at a cheaper price?

I hear now, Rambus has ram technology that could run synchronously with the processor. I hear they are going to use it (or something like it) in an upcoming console system.

man_utd · Dec 31, 2004

I assume you are talking about Yellowstone (or XDRam whatever they are calling it now) which is a great idea, and a beast of an architecture. However, it's sort of pointless when it's going to cost an arm and a leg in licensing

Note to all: RAMBUS does not make a single thing of their own. They only design new ideas, so it is logical for them to sue other companies if they feel that they are stealing their ideas. I haven't really followed the cases that much, but they have won some parts of the cases against the Dramurai, but this will be dragged on for the better part of the decade.

Nick: It's going to be used in the Playstation 3. I see the same situation as last generation though. Sacrificing quantity for speed ending up biting them in the rear.

nicknomo · Dec 31, 2004

Yeah, lower cost and almost as fast is usually the best way for technology to go.. Rambus is a very money hungry company.. They could have really made out well if they would've played their cards better.

FIZZ3 · Dec 31, 2004

The memory market remains hard to predict even today. Intel is now backing DDR2, but AMD will stick to DDR1 for some time to come. This time DDR2 has the Mhz advantage but also higher latency than DDR1. It does look like DDR2 will become faster soon enough and the industry will probably converge on this standard. It may take a while though, and this may render the purchase of a DDR1 system less attractive.

batboy · Dec 31, 2004

batboy said:
I gave my g/f one of my old RDRAM systems a year ago now and it still does everything she requires out of it. She'll probably have it for another year.

Apparently I cursed myself. The Abit TH7-II that was in my g/f's computer died last night. Slapped in an extra Abit IC7 mobo and got her up and running again today. Looks like I have extra RDRAM with no mobo that will use now.

RD-RAM vs. DDR-RAM

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