AT News Update: Grantsdale's Memory Strategies
by Kristopher Kubicki on February 27, 2004 1:10 AM EST- Posted in
- CPUs
With all of the recent roadmaps and news concerning 925X (Alderwood), subtle 915P (Grantsdale) details have been overlooked. As mentioned in the Intel roadmaps, i925X shall remain DDR2 exclusive. Unfortunately, initial performance on DDR2 will probably be just par with our DDR1 today, and upgrading directly to the premium chipset will not produce big performance gains.
Several weeks ago we hinted that even though 915P supports both JEDEC DDR1 and DDR2, vendors would probably implement DDR1 on most of their solutions. Not only would this allow some differentiation between 925X and 915P, but it would also allow a slightly milder upgrade track for system builders.
However, in the past week we began to get different data from vendors concerning the Grantsdale platform. Here is what we will probably see as Grantsdale evolves:
This means 915P could prove to become a very prudent upgrade path. If, for some reason, PCI-Express solutions from ATI or NVIDIA become more viable options over their AGP counterparts, you will need to purchase a new motherboard. Keeping the existing memory and CPU on a 915P motherboard would allow more users to upgrade at time of release. Then, several months later these same users could upgrade the CPU and memory to DDR2 on the same motherboard platform. Upgrading incrementally give us the best of both worlds.
Lest we forget VIA and SIS core logics also pronounce dual compatibility (although that does not translate to dual implementation). With VIA's stronger focus being cost rather than performance, we may actually see more 2+2 designs for PT890 than SiS's 656 or Intel's P15P.
Will a 2+2 implementation of DDR1 and DDR2 be more beneficial to end users? Undoubtedly yes. Easier upgrade paths allow users to buy on their own budget and time. Serious memory users that need the full four banks of memory will probably not benefit as much from the 915P chipset anyway. Feel free to discuss your thoughts in our comments section.
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BlackHawk2k4 - Friday, February 27, 2004 - link
#1, "Why are you, so interested in DDR2 memory, when samsung already is avertising for DDR3 memory, with up to 51G Bandwith ..... !!!!!Let us hear about that !!!!!!!"
That is GDDR3, graphics memory, not system memory.
#3, "Just make sure you get the new LGA 775 socket with that, because this socket will take the best performing CPU's for years to come, including 4 Ghz 64 bit HT SSE3 CPU's, before any competing 64 bitters will be even close to only 3 Ghz."
You have been brainwashed by the "MHz is King" strategy of Intel. AMD and Intel processors do not work the same way and cannot be compared like that. An A64 2.2Ghz CPU is equal to a P4 3.4Ghz CPU, and in most cases surpasses it.
Do some reasearch and have an open mind to other solutions.
tfranzese - Friday, February 27, 2004 - link
"they are sexing up last years CPU's with P ratings to make them look new, without the matching performance"What the hell are you talking about T8000? Opterons I assume - but if you don't think the A64 has earned it's rating then you need new glasses. The processor clearly ousts Intel's best in the tasks that are most common. Not to mention you have 64-bit promise with more registers as well.
Icewind - Friday, February 27, 2004 - link
I'll believe it when I see it, but either way im still going for a Athlon 64 939 pin as Im not impressed with Intels future offersT8000 - Friday, February 27, 2004 - link
Due to the new interfaces, like DDR2 and PCI-E, I do not think i915 and i925 are going to be very populair in the upgrade market, but for new (OEM) systems, they are the way to go.Just make sure you get the new LGA 775 socket with that, because this socket will take the best performing CPU's for years to come, including 4 Ghz 64 bit HT SSE3 CPU's, before any competing 64 bitters will be even close to only 3 Ghz.
My reason for not buying AMD is that they are sexing up last years CPU's with P ratings to make them look new, without the matching performance. Whats yours?
sipc660 - Friday, February 27, 2004 - link
i think it is great that boardmakers are finaly taking peoples budgets into account. especially when initial performance of both standards is 'on par'. i think 2+2 is not going to hurt anyone. And whosoever has the money to upgrade to DDR2 and all banks probably wouldn't go for grantsdale anyhow.i'd still go amd anytime so it doesn't really concern me in the least what intel is going to do.
hey people forget what you've been brought up with. have your own opinion. the opinion is clearly amd.
so,
go amd
Town - Friday, February 27, 2004 - link
Why are you, so interested in DDR2 memory, when samsung already is avertising for DDR3 memory, with up to 51G Bandwith ..... !!!!!Let us hear about that !!!!!!!