AMD Begins Producing DDR3 Memory

[Rob Williams]

As soon as DDR3 hit the mainstream market in 2008, the appeal of fast RAM kits seemed to disappear almost instantly, and it was this point that I stopped reviewing individual kits due to the apparent lack of need or interest. When DDR3 kits are as fast as they are, the fastest kits out there become a niche product, and given the current pricing, non-overclockers don't need reviews to figure out what kind of kit to pick up.

Read the rest of our post and then discuss it here!

 

[marfig]

Interesting bit of news. Thanks.

Wasn't AMD already selling DDR3 chips to its hardware partners for their cheaper cards? I seem to remember AMD actually manufactures these chips for some time. They weren't part of their consumer line though... until now.

These models aren't exciting at all. Assuming the above paragraph is correct, I'd go as far as saying they are simply already produced AMD chips repackaged into a DIMM. There's nothing truly interesting in there. But may be their way of having a feel for the market and build a production line from there.

But it makes sort of sense. AMD produces memory already. In great quantities. Why not adding that into their consumer line? AMD enthusiasts could benefit the most too, since now they could build their AMD-only system. A little surprised though to see the Radeon brand there.

 

[Kayden]

I had no idea they were going in this direction and even though it is surprising, they aren't really adding any benefit to have their over what is all ready established. Though if your a fan I guess saying you have Radeon ram will make you happier but honestly I doubt many will think that way.

 

[On_Wisconsin]

On an unrelated not, I can't believe it's been 3 years since DDR3 has been available!

 

[Optix]

OEMs are already knuckle deep in the nose of DDR4 so it shouldn't be too long before the first motherboard/CPU support is found.

 

[Kougar]

I think it's ridiculous, really. Who makes the chips? Last time I checked some Taiwanese firms were producing DRAM chips and selling them at prices below the cost of manufacture. The memory market is tight and that is why OCZ was so quick to accelerate its plans to get out of the business... most market forecasts predict only more of the same for the next two years as well. AMD has enough to worry about without branching its business out into unrelated, thin-margin, oversupplied commodity markets.

The kit in the photo isn't even an enthusiast kit, it's basic DDR3-1333 CAS 9, the most common type of memory out there with the lowest margins. I'm wondering if it's just select kits of if AMD really thinks they can sell an entire "AMD" computer to people... motherboard + cpu + gpu + ram, what's next, AMD SSDs or cases? Actually, they already have AMD cases, so scratch that...