News CAMM2 and modules smile to the camera, but do not expect them on the market soon

[Admin]

Multiple makers of enthusiast-grade DRAM modules showcased CAMM2 memory at Computex 2025, but there are doubts about its adoption due to uncertain motherboard support and trade-offs compared to traditional DIMMs.

CAMM2 and modules smile to the camera, but do not expect them on the market soon : Read more

 

[Jame5]

Give me dual channel CAMM2 128GB modules at DDR5-10000 and I'll be happy.

Realistically though, it seems that CAMM2 gets it's 128-bit bus by just jamming both 64-bit busses from a dual channel memory controller into a single interface. Which means every solution we've seen is a single module solution. That means max capacity will continue to flounder at 128GB of RAM for any platform that adopts CAMM2.

I really hope I'm wrong, but so far I have not seen a dual-module motherboard prototype.

 

[usertests]

So that's what gamer CAMM would look like.

Which means every solution we've seen is a single module solution. That means max capacity will continue to flounder at 128GB of RAM for any platform that adopts CAMM2.

DDR5 DIMMs and SODIMMs are too established for CAMM to matter. CAMM will play a role in the DDR6 generation because there won't be DDR6 SODIMMs.

I'm not sure about desktop, but you can now get 128-256 GB from 64 GB DIMMs, and that will carry over to DDR6. Is the CAMM form factor helping with board space vs. DIMMs sticking out vertically?

 

[thestryker]

Realistically though, it seems that CAMM2 gets it's 128-bit bus by just jamming both 64-bit busses from a dual channel memory controller into a single interface. Which means every solution we've seen is a single module solution. That means max capacity will continue to flounder at 128GB of RAM for any platform that adopts CAMM2.

I really hope I'm wrong, but so far I have not seen a dual-module motherboard prototype.

There's a type D which is the same capacity as type B (the larger one from the article here) but is single channel (and slightly smaller at 57mm rather than 68mm) so 256GB is possible. The issue with CAMM2 in single channel mode is that the modules are stacked. This is unlikely to be a problem at JEDEC speeds, but very likely would be for OC speeds. I'm pretty sure this is why none of the examples have been single channel. I assume the only single channel CAMM2 that will exist would be workstation laptops/enterprise systems.

 

[thestryker]

Is the CAMM form factor helping with board space vs. DIMMs sticking out vertically?

Once you go past type A CAMM2 takes up a lot more board surface area than DIMMs. In single channel mode CAMM2 could have higher 1DPC capacity, but that's the only obvious advantage. At this point I wouldn't actually be surprised if 2DPC was dead with DDR6 though.

 

[-Fran-]

Once you go past type A CAMM2 takes up a lot more board surface area than DIMMs. In single channel mode CAMM2 could have higher 1DPC capacity, but that's the only obvious advantage. At this point I wouldn't actually be surprised if 2DPC was dead with DDR6 though.

You're not wrong, but I actually like the vertical space being "freed up" by the CAMM2 modules, so that CPU coolers can improve a tad more with more exotic heat pipe configurations. Who knows, maybe with the CAMM2 motherboards we can now have GPU-style CPU coolers? I do like the idea, at least from a concept perspective.

As for the other points. The only benefit they bring is better signaling without the need of the external clock generator like CUDIMMs, which can also help a potential "clocked" CAMM2 module (they'd still be CUDIMMs, lel).

Perhaps when new sockets roll out, that's when the "clean slate" could happen and just treat DDR5 as a test bed for the idea.

Personally, I do like the form factor. Specially because it may enable both laptop and PC to share the same memory types down the line? Perhaps?

Regards.

 

[thestryker]

As for the other points. The only benefit they bring is better signaling without the need of the external clock generator like CUDIMMs, which can also help a potential "clocked" CAMM2 module (they'd still be CUDIMMs, lel).

CAMM2 has the same clock driver support DIMMs do. JEDEC DDR5 spec sheet isn't free sadly so I don't know if CKD is mandatory for certain speeds across the board, but it is required for UDIMMs/SODIMMs on everything 6400 and above.

Personally, I do like the form factor. Specially because it may enable both laptop and PC to share the same memory types down the line? Perhaps?

CAMM2 has two separate interfaces one for DDR and one for LPDDR. Otherwise it's just a matter of there being enough space for the different PCB types. Even though that isn't perfect it's definitely an improvement over what we've got now. Now if we could just convince laptop makers to unlock memory tweaking!