DDR5 incoming: SK Hynix beats rivals to the punch

[LemmingOverlrd]

Why it matters: SK Hynix is the first company to announce JEDEC-compliant DDR5 DRAM. With the current climate of declining DRAM pricing due to overproduction and low demand, it's a welcome announcement that promises to deliver higher-performing memory for all market segments in 2020, just in time for the release of new CPU architectures from Intel and AMD.

SK Hynix, the world's #2 memory manufacturer according to research firm Trendforce, has taken the wraps off its upcoming DDR5 memory modules, beating rivals Samsung and Micron to the punch.

DDR5 is the next generation of DDR memory and is expected to deliver higher bandwidth, speed and lower power consumption (or a combination thereof) than its predecessor, DDR4.

At the base of SK Hynix’s announcement is its recently-developed 1ynm process technology, allowing the company to beat archrival Samsung to the release of the world's first JEDEC-compliant DDR5 DIMMs. The ‘y’ in 1ynm stands for the second iteration (I.e. after 1xnm) below 20nm, and generally accepted as being 14nm/16nm.

So, what’s SK Hynix showing off? DIMMS (both Registered and Unbuffered DIMMs) sporting 8x16Gb (gigabit) modules of DDR5 rated at PC5-5200 (I.e. 5200Mbps). That’s quite a jump (60%) over the top “standard” JEDEC DDR4 speed rating of 3200Mbps. The operating voltage on these modules is now 1.1V with power savings as high as 30%, when compared to DDR4, claimed the memory maker.

In its announcement, SK Hynix also stated that the JEDEC validation process involved testing out the DRAM with a major chipset manufacturer, with testing carried out on both Server and Desktop boards. The announcement is purposely fudgy about who that is, but you can take the 2020 timeline as a sure bet as both Intel and AMD have announced major CPU overhauls for that year (Intel's infamous 10nm CPUs and AMD's Zen 3).

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https://www.techspot.com/news/77439-ddr5-incoming-sk-hynix-beats-rivals-punch.html

 

[stewi0001]

Should I wait for 2020 to overhaul my PC then?

 

[Peter Farkas]

Should I wait for 2020 to overhaul my PC then?

no, do it whenever you feel like

 

[Vulcanproject]

Should I wait for 2020 to overhaul my PC then?

2 years time before DDR5 hits the market early on?

3 years before it's mainstream priced?

I think you're safe to do it sooner rather than later lol

 

[ShagnWagn]

Should I wait for 2020 to overhaul my PC then?

no, do it whenever you feel like

Depends on what you currently run on, and what your requirements are now or in the immediate future. When DDR5 comes out, then a newer version of M.2 could be announced then you will wait for that. lol. Upgrade when you need it. I can understand waiting a few months for a component that makes a significant difference to your requirement (such as new video card release for a gamer).

 

[stewi0001]

Depends on what you currently run on, and what your requirements are now or in the immediate future. When DDR5 comes out, then a newer version of M.2 could be announced then you will wait for that. lol. Upgrade when you need it. I can understand waiting a few months for a component that makes a significant difference to your requirement (such as new video card release for a gamer).

If you look at my profile you can see my current specs. It still works but it also restricts me to what games to play. That is if I have time to play lol!

 

[orondf]

Correction: Memory frequency is measured in MT/s, not Mbps. Very different as the effective transfer rate can be over 20GB/s.

 

[ShagnWagn]

If you look at my profile you can see my current specs. It still works but it also restricts me to what games to play. That is if I have time to play lol!

It took some digging to see. Your system looks fine other than the video card. I have an older CPU than yours but bought a 980 at the time. I would say all you need is a newer video card. I don't know what resolution you run, but I still run at 1080p and haven't had any issues. Time is an issue for me, too. I would say just pick up a cheap 1080 card and you would be surprised in how much faster games are.

 

[stewi0001]

It took some digging to see. Your system looks fine other than the video card. I have an older CPU than yours but bought a 980 at the time. I would say all you need is a newer video card. I don't know what resolution you run, but I still run at 1080p and haven't had any issues. Time is an issue for me, too. I would say just pick up a cheap 1080 card and you would be surprised in how much faster games are.

When I was looking it overhauling, which was a while ago, I think one my concerns was would a newer video card work efficiently my motherboard and that led me to overhauling the whole thing, except my case and maybe the power supply.

 

[ShagnWagn]

When I was looking it overhauling, which was a while ago, I think one my concerns was would a newer video card work efficiently my motherboard and that led me to overhauling the whole thing, except my case and maybe the power supply.

Gotcha. Since you would have to buy a video card anyway, I would suggest to just buy it now and see. If not enough then go for it. Make sure you read some benchmarks on video cards with different (older?) hardware. Most games are GPU limited and not CPU. Adding a $1000 CPU versus a $250 one doesn't make much difference in most games (last I read anyway). A faster CPU doesn't necessarily make a GPU any faster.

 

[TheBigFatClown]

Correction: Memory frequency is measured in MT/s, not Mbps. Very different as the effective transfer rate can be over 20GB/s.

Almost all memory kits have 2 different numbers in the JEDEC specifications. The MT/s and the peak transfer rate in MB/s. 3200MHz DDR4 transfers approximately 25.6 GB/s. That's if your running in single-channel mode. In dual-channel mode, running 3200MHz would transfer about 51.2 GB/s. If you wanted to use the PC naming scheme for the memory speeds talked about in the article it would probably be something like DDR5 5200/PC5-41600.

And the 5200 number is the MT/s. Not the bits per second.5200MT/s x 8 = 41,600MB/s or 41.6GB/s. Running in dual-channel mode double the bandwidth up to 83.2GB/s.

This would be very nice memory speeds for my new (kinda old now I guess) AMD Ryzen 2200G. But by that time I'm sure I'll be buying a newer and faster APU from AMD.

But honestly, I'm seeing on newegg that DDR4 has reached top speeds of 4700MHz for Beezlebub's Sake!!! Who needs DDR5? Okay, I'll take it when it's ready anyway.

AMD FTW!

 

[xxLCxx]

The most important information is missing: These modules will finally come with ECC (Error Correction Code). The ECC will use 16 bits (currently 8 bits are standard).
THIS is the big step in the right direction!