[SOLVED] DDR3 vs DDR4

Ibraimo

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Mar 8, 2016
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Does ddr even really matter when it comes to performance? i been seeing alot of benchmarks with being ddr3 vs ddr4 but both with the same fps? what is going on exacly?
 
Solution
Does ddr even really matter when it comes to performance? i been seeing alot of benchmarks with being ddr3 vs ddr4 but both with the same fps? what is going on exacly?
You don't compare both memory for FPS, all matters to the cpu architechture, and the ram timings. DDR4 setup would be more future proof compared to DDR3.

In performance, DDR4 will always win from DDR3 in bandwith even at loose Cas latency.

But DDR3 performance is not total obsolete when you're talking about small budget build. I still use DDR3 pc for my daily driver and it deliver enough performance and the price is pretty low in my country for 8gb sticks, compared to ddr4 in this pandemic.

As long as you have the money, aim for ddr4 since it's better both...
FPS is not the best way to compare memory. There are a lot of variables involved like the games played, its scaling vectors, processing orientation, other hardware's paired with RAM, so on and so forth. What you must have seen is a mix and match of all of these from the top of DDR3 spectrum to the bottom of DDR4 spectrum.
But the most important thing is limitations of each version. You cannot use DDR3 with modern platforms anymore and vice versa. At the end of the day RAM is pretty much as good as the CPU paired with it.
 
Does ddr even really matter when it comes to performance? i been seeing alot of benchmarks with being ddr3 vs ddr4 but both with the same fps? what is going on exacly?
You don't compare both memory for FPS, all matters to the cpu architechture, and the ram timings. DDR4 setup would be more future proof compared to DDR3.

In performance, DDR4 will always win from DDR3 in bandwith even at loose Cas latency.

But DDR3 performance is not total obsolete when you're talking about small budget build. I still use DDR3 pc for my daily driver and it deliver enough performance and the price is pretty low in my country for 8gb sticks, compared to ddr4 in this pandemic.

As long as you have the money, aim for ddr4 since it's better both bandwith and timing, indirectly improve the cpu work if you use it for memory intensive app.

even an i7 7700 on ddr3 still perform ok on games if your main purpose for reusing ddr3.

Everything depends on the total system setup, not just the ram.
 
Solution
Thats DDR3L which is dual-voltage chip and can be operated at varying voltages of a default 1.35V, all the way to 1.5V if required, unlike DDR3 and were only compatible on some of the boards on the Skylake platform and not Kabylake. Since 7700 is compatible with Skylake, only some Skylake boards could run it but was not officially supported or recommended AFAIK.
 

bignastyid

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Moderator
Thats DDR3L which is dual-voltage chip and can be operated at varying voltages of a default 1.35V, all the way to 1.5V if required, unlike DDR3 and were only compatible on some of the boards on the Skylake platform and not Kabylake. Since 7700 is compatible with Skylake, only some Skylake boards could run it but was not officially supported AFAIK.
DDR3L is still a type of DDR3.
Most of the DDR3 boards had support for regular DDR3(couple examples below).
https://www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard/GA-Z170-HD3-DDR3-rev-10/support#support-dl-driver
 
DDR3L is still a type of DDR3.
Most of the DDR3 boards had support for regular DDR3(couple examples below).
https://www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard/GA-Z170-HD3-DDR3-rev-10/support#support-dl-driver
Thats not officially supported by Intel. Check your own Intel link above. Those boards were frankensteined by board partners later on consumer demand.
 

bignastyid

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Moderator
Nope, you cannot replace DDR3L with DDR3 on those example you have given, so they cant be same. And as mentioned above, it was just for the Skylake gen. and only on Z170chipset, just for compatibility reason and not even officially supported.
It worked on Kabylake as well. Just because something is not officially supported does not mean it's incompatible/won't work.

The claims were that using regular 1.5v DDR3 would lead to premature failure of the MC, but it turned out to be a non issue.

Intel's memory compatibility/recommendations has always been a bit on the conservative side.
 
It worked on Kabylake as well. Just because something is not officially supported does not mean it's incompatible/won't work.

The claims were that using regular 1.5v DDR3 would lead to premature failure of the MC, but it turned out to be a non issue.

Intel's memory compatibility/recommendations has always been a bit on the conservative side.
Thats not officially supported by Intel. Check your own Intel link above. Those boards were frankensteined by board partners later on consumer demand. Not many people adopted it and those who did were plagued with issues and I remember seeing issues all over the internet regarding this at that time.
The question was whether it was supported and it was not supported officially. Unofficially, well you can Frankenstein anything.
Show me a Kabylake board that supports DDR3 officially.
 
7700 does not support DDR3. Thats incorrect.
Well actually... It does.

DDR3L and DDR3 is supported, depends on the motherboard. There is alot of 100 Series chipset motherboard with ddr3 compability, for example Asus B150M A D3. For 1.5v damaging the IMC? i dont think so, it depends on the vccsa and vccio iirc, just like Haswell also getting recommendation by intel to use 1.35v for both pc and mobile, yet everything's fine in 1.5v ddr3. Nehalem too, they were supposed to use ddr3 1.5v rated, but at that time people still use 1.65v ddr3 and use XMP, and it's just fine for years of use.
As per my understanding, the voltage being supplied to the DIMMs didn't affect the IMC, but the voltage on the memory controller (VCCSA, VCCIO) is the one that affect the IMC, CMIIW :D

My friend's pal used to do ddr3 on skylake because he bought the wrong mobo, and use it for a while until he get hands on a ddr4 b150m motherboard from gigabyte (i forgot which, it's still early at the time of skylake release).

You said they were not officially supported by intel? well there is alot of intel light notebook that still use DDR3L in skylake and kabylake, so ask them. Many skylake based processor (up to 8/9th gen) are able to use DDR3 on supported mobos. LTT have a video that use Onda D3 mobo(?) and tested it with coffee lake iirc using ddr3, and it worked, and performs ok.

https://forums.tomshardware.com/threads/i3-6100-with-ddr3.2898312/post-18317497
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qctAqMDL_vA
 
Well actually... It does.

DDR3L and DDR3 is supported, depends on the motherboard. There is alot of 100 Series chipset motherboard with ddr3 compability, for example Asus B150M A D3. For 1.5v damaging the IMC? i dont think so, it depends on the vccsa and vccio iirc, just like Haswell also getting recommendation by intel to use 1.35v for both pc and mobile, yet everything's fine in 1.5v ddr3. Nehalem too, they were supposed to use ddr3 1.5v rated, but at that time people still use 1.65v ddr3 and use XMP, and it's just fine for years of use.
As per my understanding, the voltage being supplied to the DIMMs didn't affect the IMC, but the voltage on the memory controller (VCCSA, VCCIO) is the one that affect the IMC, CMIIW :D

My friend's pal used to do ddr3 on skylake because he bought the wrong mobo, and use it for a while until he get hands on a ddr4 b150m motherboard from gigabyte (i forgot which, it's still early at the time of skylake release).

You said they were not officially supported by intel? well there is alot of intel light notebook that still use DDR3L in skylake and kabylake, so ask them. Many skylake based processor (up to 8/9th gen) are able to use DDR3 on supported mobos. LTT have a video that use Onda D3 mobo(?) and tested it with coffee lake iirc using ddr3, and it worked, and performs ok.

https://forums.tomshardware.com/threads/i3-6100-with-ddr3.2898312/post-18317497
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qctAqMDL_vA
DDR3L was officially supported, not DDR3. Check the official support page linked above by @bignastyid. Unofficially you can go to experimental territory with whatever you want, but thats not cup of tea of all users.
Anyways, I think we are way off topic by now so well...never mind.
 
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