The Most Common DDR DRAM Myths Debunked

[Sakkura]

"There are a number of companies that make memory chips"

That is just not true. The only significant manufacturers of DRAM chips are SK Hynix, Samsung, and Micron. Elpida was the 4th, but they are now part of Micron.

 

[Tradesman1]

"There are a number of companies that make memory chips"

That is just not true. The only significant manufacturers of DRAM chips are SK Hynix, Samsung, and Micron. Elpida was the 4th, but they are now part of Micron.

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Sorry but you say "'That is just not true", then contradict yourself with "The only significant manufacturers" , are we to exclude the rest? Fujitsu, Hitachi, LG, Sanyo, Renesas, TI, Qimonda, Mitsubishi and many, many more. Same with stick makers, it's amazed me some of the sticks of DRAM I've seen mentioned in the forums I've never heard of before; but then too it's a worldwide influence in the forums. So yes it is true, saying it's not is like saying Asus, GB, the Rock and MSI are the only mobo brands and excluding the likes of EVGA, BioStar, ECS, Foxconn and others that only offer minimal numbers of a selection

 

[mrmike_49]

on a related topic, is there any data on cache hit rates with new boards/cpus?

 

[Tradesman1]

on a related topic, is there any data on cache hit rates with new boards/cpus?

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Haven't seen anything recently, are you talking Intel's 5675C and 5775C?

 

[mrmike_49]

no, typical gaming cpus (4790K e.g.)

 

[Sakkura]

"There are a number of companies that make memory chips"

That is just not true. The only significant manufacturers of DRAM chips are SK Hynix, Samsung, and Micron. Elpida was the 4th, but they are now part of Micron.

___________________________

Sorry but you say "'That is just not true", then contradict yourself with "The only significant manufacturers" , are we to exclude the rest? Fujitsu, Hitachi, LG, Sanyo, Renesas, TI, Qimonda, Mitsubishi and many, many more. Same with stick makers, it's amazed me some of the sticks of DRAM I've seen mentioned in the forums I've never heard of before; but then too it's a worldwide influence in the forums. So yes it is true, saying it's not is like saying Asus, GB, the Rock and MSI are the only mobo brands and excluding the likes of EVGA, BioStar, ECS, Foxconn and others that only offer minimal numbers of a selection

Those companies do not make DRAM that goes into DIMMs. If you pull a stick of memory out of a desktop PC, the chips inside are from one of three companies.

 

[synphul]

I think the majority tends to be samsung, hynix or micron, but not all. Looking at just g.skill, they've also used nanya and psc/powerchip in some of their dimms. Hard to tell when one company takes over another, just because micron owns elpida or spectek doesn't mean that all the ram those plants are pushing out become exactly like micron's production. Could very well be that micron just owns them and acts as a parent company while they continue to produce the same 'brand' they have been. Some are using qimonda.

http://ramlist.i4memory.com/ddr3/

 

[Sakkura]

Qimonda closed down in 2009.

If you check the DDR4 page, which unlike the DDR3 page is up to date, all kits contain DRAM from one of the three manufacturers left.

 

[Tradesman1]

"There are a number of companies that make memory chips"

That is just not true. The only significant manufacturers of DRAM chips are SK Hynix, Samsung, and Micron. Elpida was the 4th, but they are now part of Micron.

___________________________

Sorry but you say "'That is just not true", then contradict yourself with "The only significant manufacturers" , are we to exclude the rest? Fujitsu, Hitachi, LG, Sanyo, Renesas, TI, Qimonda, Mitsubishi and many, many more. Same with stick makers, it's amazed me some of the sticks of DRAM I've seen mentioned in the forums I've never heard of before; but then too it's a worldwide influence in the forums. So yes it is true, saying it's not is like saying Asus, GB, the Rock and MSI are the only mobo brands and excluding the likes of EVGA, BioStar, ECS, Foxconn and others that only offer minimal numbers of a selection

Those companies do not make DRAM that goes into DIMMs. If you pull a stick of memory out of a desktop PC, the chips inside are from one of three companies.

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Some models of GSkill DDR3 use Nanya (have an Ares set), Kingston has Nanya in the some of their 2x8GB sets (Beast/Black that I know of), have a Corsair set using Spectek (they make chips for DDR4 but not sure of any sticks using them), GSkill has used Powerchip ICs in their Ripjaws X and Z sticks

 

[synphul]

I was just making mention of it since they did in fact make memory modules for ddr3 which are dimms. Dimms aren't exclusive to ddr4 so going by ddr4 manufacturers alone isn't really an accurate determination. The article revolved around ddr ram in general which encompasses ddr, ddr2, ddr3 and ddr4. For those users still using ddr or ddr2, or older ddr3, it would be very likely they may be dealing with a multitude of manufacturers, not just 3.

 

[Tradesman1]

I was just making mention of it since they did in fact make memory modules for ddr3 which are dimms. Dimms aren't exclusive to ddr4 so going by ddr4 manufacturers alone isn't really an accurate determination. The article revolved around ddr ram in general which encompasses ddr, ddr2, ddr3 and ddr4. For those users still using ddr or ddr2, or older ddr3, it would be very likely they may be dealing with a multitude of manufacturers, not just 3.

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Actually this article is about DDR3 - the title I gave it was "DDR3 - FAQs and Fiction" , guess you can call it editorial license, but TomsHardware has chosen to change the title of Part 1 to "DDR3 DRAM FAQs And Troubleshooting Guide" which I pointed out, it is in no way a troubleshooting guide that I would write (guides should be A) Identify a problem and B) step by step procedures to resolve the problem (still get razzed about that from folks I know 😉 )) and I wasn't happy with it, this Part 2, they chose to title " The Most Common DDR DRAM Myths Debunked", and again not pleased, have pointed out that 'DDR' can be taken to indicate the true, original DDR or to also encompass all DDR to include DDR, DDR2, DDR3 and DDR4.....as explained in responses to previous comments there were also changes made to how things were worded, which has changed the context/meaning here and there.

I'm what they call a Contributing Editor, basically a part time writer paid based on the pieces I write, based upon the above and other differences of opinions that go against my grain, I've offered my resignation. I hope to continue to help folks in the forum and moderate, and will look to do some shorter how-to and informative pieces that can go into the forums like my Bench-it thread.

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/faq/id-1753671/bench-troubleshooting.html

 

[mrface]

What if I am running 4 GB of RDRAM, am I ok?

 

[ubercake]

What if I am running 4 GB of RDRAM, am I ok?

Just make sure your CRIMMS are in place. lol.

 

[AJammy]

That's good read. Good things must be share.

 

[mrface]

😉


In all honesty, This is a really good article.

 

[Tradesman1]

What if I am running 4 GB of RDRAM, am I ok?

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If it meets your needs, and you are happy with the speed of the rig, then yes 😉

 

[Tradesman1]

That's good read. Good things must be share.

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Thanx, The more people know and learn is always good, and more often than not leads to additional questions, which can lead to even more informative articles, to increase and spread knowledge 😉

 

[WyomingKnott]

Thanks for this. As you wrote, now I can answer questions by just linking to this.

Five years ago, 2GB was thought to be enough, then 4GB and so on

In 1981, it was 640KB, although Bill Gates may not have actually said that.

 

[Tradesman1]

the 1MB, then 2MB, then 4MB..........128MB, 256MB.........nobody will ever use 1GB.........how the years have flown 😉

 

[damric]

Ugh, our first family PC when I was growing up only had 4MB RAM. It was also expensive to expand it to 8MB.

 

[Sakkura]

I was just making mention of it since they did in fact make memory modules for ddr3 which are dimms. Dimms aren't exclusive to ddr4 so going by ddr4 manufacturers alone isn't really an accurate determination. The article revolved around ddr ram in general which encompasses ddr, ddr2, ddr3 and ddr4. For those users still using ddr or ddr2, or older ddr3, it would be very likely they may be dealing with a multitude of manufacturers, not just 3.

The problem is that your source is outdated since it relies on all kinds of DDR3 that used to be available but isn't around anymore. The only reason I mentioned the DDR4 page is that DDR4 is so new that the info is automatically up to date.

 

[Tradesman1]

Ugh, our first family PC when I was growing up only had 4MB RAM. It was also expensive to expand it to 8MB.

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My first that was mine was a 64K Adam

 

[Tradesman1]

I was just making mention of it since they did in fact make memory modules for ddr3 which are dimms. Dimms aren't exclusive to ddr4 so going by ddr4 manufacturers alone isn't really an accurate determination. The article revolved around ddr ram in general which encompasses ddr, ddr2, ddr3 and ddr4. For those users still using ddr or ddr2, or older ddr3, it would be very likely they may be dealing with a multitude of manufacturers, not just 3.

The problem is that your source is outdated since it relies on all kinds of DDR3 that used to be available but isn't around anymore. The only reason I mentioned the DDR4 page is that DDR4 is so new that the info is automatically up to date.

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I have been told the reason for the DDR in the title is for search purposes now and into the future. While the thrust of the article itself revolves around DDR3, there are still plenty of sets of DDR, DDR2 and DDR3 available that use chips from other and often defunct manufacturers. While the big 3 concentrate on the higher density ICs (4Mb and larger) for current DDR3 and DDR4), as long as the market is healthy for older, lower density ICs (i.e. the Egg still lists availability for about 600 DDR2 offerings and 250 or so DDR offerings) we might even see small start up niche manufactures. If there's money to be made, someone will jump in

 

[littleleo]

Thanks Trademan it was a great read it confirmed much of what I've learned thru trial and error over the years. I remember the days of when you wanted more memory you had to to stack it and solder it on yourself or find a tech to do it. An article on RAM has been long over due great job. I have had numerous customers tell me the best way to increase performance was to just add RAM and I always cautioned them about the timing issues on the mixing RAM. Over the years there is on phrase you hear over and over "I'm never going to use that much". 1st it was hard drives, and now it's starting to pop up from people buying RAM.

 

[Tradesman1]

Thanks Trademan it was a great read it confirmed much of what I've learned thru trial and error over the years. I remember the days of when you wanted more memory you had to to stack it and solder it on yourself or find a tech to do it. An article on RAM has been long over due great job. I have had numerous customers tell me the best way to increase performance was to just add RAM and I always cautioned them about the timing issues on the mixing RAM. Over the years there is on phrase you hear over and over "I'm never going to use that much". 1st it was hard drives, and now it's starting to pop up from people buying RAM.

______________________

Thanks, many are items I see in the memory area of the forums on a daily basis -makes answering many things easier, just give a link to the item that answers their question, have seen others now doing the same 😉 sort of a win-win