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[NFS4]

Some people on these forums are of the opinion that DDR SDRAM is not enough for the Pentium 4. We know that PC133 SDRAM is not enough. But Tom Pabst seems to think that DDR SDRAM has what it takes to at least match up to RDRAM on the Pentium 4. VIA claims that their DDR chipset is matching or exceeding RDRAM scores.

Dual channel DDR SDRAM (similar to the nForce's layout) would give the P4 4.2GB of bandwidth to play with, or 1GB more than RDRAM and it would give it lower latencies as well. And add to the way cheap prices of DDR SDRAM now, and hopefully lower prices with 478 Pentium 4's, this could be a nice platform.

Please, no flame wars...and let's keep this on Intel.

 

[Dean]

Tom is taking this topic on right to the outer edge of sanity. You can read about it here link to toms

Seems as though Intel wants no part of DDR for the p4 though

 

[UT4EVER]

I hope so!

 

[NFS4]

<< Tom is taking this topic on right to the outer edge of sanity. You can read about it here link to toms

Seems as though Intel wants no part of DDR for the p4 though >>


Is this what you are talking about:


<< You'll hear a lot about that one here at Tom's Hardware very soon. Do I like it? Yes, you know I do. However, I would have liked an nForce-version for Pentium 4 as well. With its dual-channel DDR-SDRAM architecture it could have kicked RDRAM's butt right to Pluto. I guess that's why Intel's management doesn't like it and so NVIDIA wasn't blessed with a P4-front side bus license. Many of my colleague hardware reviewers would have had to eat humble pie too. A Pentium 4 with nForce would have proven that Intel's blue and orange flagship processor does NOT perform best with RDRAM. Now we might never know. I think that is very sad. Another independence lost. >>

 

[Dean]

Yeah basically. He seems really frustrated by the way Intel is trying to force the market on what it wants, instead of the market forcing Intel. I think a dual channel DDR solution would be great for the P4.

I also wonder why Intel would even release a P4 with sdr ram? Could they be getting ready to totally phase out the P3 by offering a low cost solution on the P4?

 

[NFS4]

<< Yeah basically. He seems really frustrated by the way Intel is trying to force the market on what it wants, instead of the market forcing Intel. I think a dual channel DDR solution would be great for the P4.

I also wonder why Intel would even release a P4 with sdr ram? Could they be getting ready to totally phase out the P3 by offering a low cost solution on the P4? >>


I'm thinking that SDRAM for the P4 is to help push the lagging P4 sales. SDRAM is dirt cheap compared to RDRAM, and Gateway or Dell customers don't give a crap what kind of memory is in their systems.

And I don't think that the Tualatin PIII's are for the consumer/desktop market -- just for servers and notebooks.