DDR/DDR Motherboards - "Mature" yet? When?

[MichaelD]

I read every single DDR mobo review that I can get my hands on. One recurring theme/statement I've noticed in most of the reviews is the statement or inferring that "DDR has not really matured yet" or "When DDR is fine-tuned a little better" or words to that effect. This makes me curious.

I know many of you are running DDR **turns green w/envy** and it's stable and you're happy with it. My potential (most prolly) next mobo is hitting the shelves soon (ABIT KG7) and I'm wondering if it's a good time to upgrade (isn't it ALWAYS a good time? ) or if DDR really isn't ready for Primetime yet.

No doubt, the AMD 761 is the best DDR chipset out there...this influences my leaning towards the ABIT, but I'm still left wondering if there's better DDR chipsets/mobos to come. Thanks for all your thoughts, opinions and other comments.

 

[Shmorq]

A lot of people seem to be waiting for the nForce chipset. It offers dual channel DDR SDRAM along with the quality people expect from nvidia. Also, when it arrives, it should have full support for the Palamino processors which some current motherboards don't. (I believe a BIOS update can correct this for the AMD761 chipsets.)

Personally, your system is already pretty fast so I would wait patiently for nvidia to finally release their new chipset.

 

[MCS]

Personally, I don't think the whole DDR thing has gone "boom" yet. It's there, it exists, people have it and it shows its worth as a platform for the Athlon, but I don't think its QUITE there yet. Not in the same way as the KT133A. When KT133 came out, did we have much choice really what to go for? No, not really, it was the best thing going. I feel that a DDR board is not necessarily the best thing going, and the performance gain is NOT that great despite what people might say.

My predicition is that toward the end of the year beginning of next year DDR will "boom" and some company will bring out a DDR board which you JUST HAVE TO GET. Pretty much like the IWill KK266 was for me

I stopped myself going for a DDR board because I can't shake the feeling that as soon as I do something much, much better and mature, ready (how every you like to put it) will arrive.

This is just my opinion though

 

[NelsonMuntz]

Hey Michael, I think the reason they are saying DDR has not really matured yet is because it is not showing the performance advantage that is theoretically possible with dual pumped memory. The theoretical bandwidth is twice that of SDR RAM, and yet the performance advantage is only 10% or less. I think there is still alot of performance that can be gained from DDR, but the current chipsets are unable to take full advantage of it. The SiS 735 chipset is just becoming available, and it shows some performance gains over the AMD 760, but the dual channel DDR setup for the nForce should make a huge performance difference. The proof is in the pudding however and we will all have to wait and see. I would be interested to see someone make a dual channel SDR RAM solution so that we could have head to head comparisons between SDR and DDR both on dual channels. I guess the money just isn't there or something... As for advice, I would say wait until there is a better performance advantage in DDR before taking the plunge since the system you have now is still good. Yeah, listen to me, I have a PIII 850 MHz at home still and I am typing this on a PII laptop at work. I am so at the cutting edge.

 

[MichaelD]

Hey MCS and NelsonMuntz, two of my favorite buds! (Shmorq, you're cool too! ) How are you guys doing? Another day in the Salt Mines for me too.

I appreciate your detailed replies; your observations match mine. I've also noted that while theoretically, DDR should have twice the bandwith of SDR, currently, it's only providing a 15% boost. Hardly worth the cost of a new mobo, CPU and memory for me.

I'm anxiously awaiting the NForce mobo as well. I want to see a detailed analysis of it's performance with all the onboard stuff TURNED OFF. I've read that the onboard video, etc, sucks resources and hurts performance. The Dual-channel DDR may be worth the price of admission, though. Thanks guys. Have a good day.

 

[MCS]

Hey Michael, everything's cool here, hope things are well with you.

There is ALWAYS that constant itch to upgrade something isn't there? You sit there reading all these reviews and it's so easy to give in a upgrade for the hell of it (happens to me more than it should). I admire your staying power because despite all these threads covering motherboards, CPUs, Geforce 3 you haven't touched anything yet have you?

Well done Why don't you upgrade to celebrate LOL.

 

[Noriaki]

I think the Palimino will show DDR's advantage.
With hardware prefetch enabled, it will be able to use the bandwidth provided.

For now DDR is a good choice if you are building a whole new rig becuase it's cheap and a little better. But there's no compelling reason to leap from KT133A to a DDR platform.

I think the palimino and possibly the newer chipsets will help show off what DDR can do.

 

[MichaelD]

Heheh, MCS, thanks for the compliment...however...funny you should mention the GF3. I think I've finally been bitten but good by the GF3 bug. The recent AT GF3 review put the Gainward GF3 Powerpack at the top of the list, scoring very well in every category including having the best 2D out of the bunch. Not that I do CAD/CAM or anything like that, but I do spend "just a bit of time" surfing!

This will be the card I'll be buying (must_resist_keep_card_in_wallet....) I was going w/the Absolute MORPHEUS due to it's gaming bundle, but, I've recently acquired DroneZ (I think it sucks....eye-candy like I've never seen before, but the game itself is sorely lacking for interest on my part) and for the same price as the Morpheus, the Gainward offers full VIVO, which I wouldn't use at this moment but: a)plan to in the future and b) adds resale value. The loaded VIVO card is only $30 more than the "plain Jane" card. Quite a bit of functionality gained for $30.

But, the $360 shipped pricetag is what's holding me back. We all know this card will be $300 or less come this fall. I may wait.....but I always say that!

DDR is not in my immediate future. I wanted to see what you guys thought. Being that your thoughts do mirror mine, I know I'm not alone. Since going to W2K, I've discovered new-found speed and functionality in my KT133-based rig. It's still plenty fast for me. Just the video part is lacking.

Doesn't make sense (to me, anyway) to spend $250 on a GF2 Ultra (awesome card) when the GF3 is considerably more future-proof. We shall see. I'll be working the second job this weekend. Depending on how much $$$ I make, I may or may not order that GF3 next week. Damn this expensive hobby! I love it so, though. Later.

 

[NelsonMuntz]

Yep, here I mine away in the salt mines today...
Noriaki made a good point. The Palomino might make better use of the DDR solutions. It will be interesting to see the reviews when that desktop Athlon gets here at 1.6 GHz+ to see how the performance differs between AMD 760, KT266, SiS 735, KT133A and eventually nForce. The rest of this year promises to be great for hardware. I just hope it all lives up to the promise.

 

[MichaelD]

Yep, it's gonna be a really great 2nd half, 2001. Hardware-Heaven!

 

[majewski9]

I think that every chipmakers next DDR chipset will be a vast improvement over their first. There are some good DDR chipset! AMD 761, VIA Kt266, and SIS 735 are all very good! I don't see how any of them blow away my KK266! Via I heard was refining the KT266 and the next VIA AMD DDR chipset should be out in a couple months. Ithink the Nvidia solution will be pick when move to DDR, but I don't plan that moved until Thouroughbred or Barton is out.

 

[MCS]

Yep, the next gen of DDR platforms/boards plus the newer faster Athlons should get things moving a bit more.

Michael - on the video card side of things I am holding out until the GF3 "Ultra", but then I currently have a GF2 Ultra already. Paired with a 150Mhz FSB on my KK266 I don't think DDR will do much for me at this time. If you get the GF3 you will be sure to see a big boost!