Tom actually did a really good article about this. Well OK he did a few, and has been accused of bashing Rambus...but when you see the benchmark results, well they are prety scary...the RDRAM with some of the eariler mobos didnt perform any better, and soemtimes worse~! then a 440BX chipset with either PC100, or PC133 (oc) RAM
If you want the whole story, read this: <A HREF="http://www4.tomshardware.com/mainboard/00q1/000308/index.html" target="_new">http://www4.tomshardware.com/mainboard/00q1/000308/index.html</A>
Granted some of the info is now dated, and if you want the whole story on the newest CPUs and how they make use of RDRAM and SDRAM...Toms has about 5 articles all about the P4, and they cover everything about it. In these area,s Toms site has done just a phenomonal job, hell how can ya beat the guy who got the P4 recalled~!
Im one of those who was real quick to jump on the bash RDRAM badnwagon, only in the last few days have i softened just a BIT after reading more info about the new P4.
All of that was putting price aside. If you take price into consideration...RDRAM is at least twice the price or SDRAM, or what DDR SDRAM will be, and AMD just dropped prices again..the P4 right now seems to be about 3 times as much hehehe. SO i sorta agree with some peoples feeling, even if the P4 has some bennies or benchmakrs over the AMD..considering the cost difference..hell find a mobo that you can dual procc with AMD..at the same speed as the best P4 youd plan on getting, and from all appearences itll still be CHEAPER. If you were thinking of a P4 say 1 gig...what would you think about saving 300 dollars or whatever and buying an AMD 1.2 gig..or better...
Nowadays, RAM and CPU shopping go hand in hand. The one spot AMD/DDR SDRAM seems to be lacking in is bus width. the P4 has quad 100meg (no its not a 400 FSB), but AMD JUST released a 133 FSB...dual piped i beleive..in that sense they are way behind, and consequently, the P4 supposedly will be better for gaming as well as all bandwidth hogging software.
Hope all this helps, theres just a boatload of info and rumor out there now, and new stuff pops up almost daily.
Rama
" He who (BLEEPS) nuns, will later join the church " Joe Strummer, The Clash - "Death or Glory"