Radeon Branded Ram!? What!?

[Arkadrel]

http://www.techpowerup.com/150289/AMD-Starts-Selling-Radeon-branded-DDR3-Memory-Modules.html

http://www.fudzilla.com/memory/item/23650-amd-starts-flogging-radeon-branded-memory

Why would AMD start makeing Ram? Im abit flabbergasted.



From some of the comments:

Just wondering if AMD is entering the memory market as part of their long term APU strategy.

Evidently the clock speeds are more important than latency for APUs. They are trying to keep it value-priced instead of getting on the marketing specs bandwagon.

I do wonder if they are implementing something which will require high bandwidth but not low latencies, and they are designing memory with that in mind.

So maybe we ll be seeing fast DDR3, with really bad latencies, for cheap prices.
But if that is their goal, why do DDR3-1333/1600 ect, and not go for something insane? like
DDR3-2666 or something (with horribly slow latencies)?


From a bussiness point of view does it make sense to start makeing ram, when prices are at a all time low? (erhmm.... >_<!?).

Maybe their starting with Ram and hopeing to make SSD as well? seems to be good profits to be made in those SSDs atleast.

 

[soccerballtux]

hey why not? If you have an AMD CPU + AMD GPU + AMD RAM your computer will be faster right??? That's the power of fusion!

 

[viivo]

hey why not? If you have an AMD CPU + AMD GPU + AMD RAM your computer will be faster right??? That's the power of fusion!

That only gives you a bonus for 3/5 of the set items though. You'd also need the AMD mouse and AMD case badge to get the full set bonus of +50Mhz and +4Mb bandwidth.

 

[zebrax2]

Maybe Global Foundry doesn't have enough customers to saturate their capacity that they chosen to produce ram?

 

[jvroig]

We have a thread for this over at Memory and Storage, but I'm fine with this staying here as long as it is vaguely about "Radeon" or "AMD" or wanting to discuss why a graphics maker would use their graphics branding to create and sell RAM. For discussions that are completely about the RAM itself (value, speed, usefulness), I would prefer you take that to the thread in Memory and Storage about Radeon RAM.

That's it, carry on, cheers

 

[Madcatatlas]

I Want Some Quality Radeon Ram Please!

 

[Arkadrel]

That only gives you a bonus for 3/5 of the set items though. You'd also need the AMD mouse and AMD case badge to get the full set bonus of +50Mhz and +4Mb bandwidth.

Looking forwards to Diablo III ? I take it
Wish they would get it out already.... or guildwars 2.

 

[ieatdonuts]

Not very exciting....I'd rather see DDR4

 

[-Slacker-]

I guess ... I can see the marketing incentive of calling their ram after their most prestigious products but ... knowing that there's a reason behind it doesn't make it any less lame. The radeons, along with the geforces, fire pros and quadros represent the hight of human technology right now. To call some 1 mm thick pieces of plastic "radeons" is like releasing an automated dish washer and calling it "Apollo 13". Weak.

(well, it's not exactly the perfect analogy, but I think I made my point.)

 

[skipsneeky2]

Wonder if the chips could be third party made and have a amd sticker slapped on this?

Sorta like insignia branded televisions made for best buy by lg.

I like the idea of new competition and new brands.

 

[bryanW1995]

That only gives you a bonus for 3/5 of the set items though. You'd also need the AMD mouse and AMD case badge to get the full set bonus of +50Mhz and +4Mb bandwidth.

That's the problem with set bonuses, you can get that +50Mhz OC yourself and I already have too much bandwidth, anyway. I'd rather have +2 Charisma and -50% cost at dominos.

 

[jvroig]

(well, it's not exactly the perfect analogy, but I think I made my point.)

Yes, brand dilution.

It can certainly end up like that, where the brand loses "meaning". However, it can also serve to boost brand awareness.

I don't really have a solid opinion about it, other than agreeing it can end up diluting the brand, but also recognizing that it may boost awareness of "Radeon branding" to those who are otherwise not informed.

I'm just as eager as the next guy to hear something from AMD about this.

Wonder if the chips could be third party made and have a amd sticker slapped on this?

That is certainly the case. AMD does not fab anything anymore, and it is not like they would jump at entering the low-margin RAM business.

 

[darkswordsman17]

They're probably just paying one of the companies that is already making RAM some money to brand it.

There was something about AMD was trying to do something to make 1866 cheap and readily available for Bulldozer's launch since its supposed to perform best with it (and Llano sees improvement with faster RAM). I'm kinda baffled about 1333, as that's already one of the cheapest most readily available speeds.

I gotta say this seems like a poor use of money/marketing.

 

[waffleironhead]

They're probably just paying one of the companies that is already making RAM some money to brand it.

There was something about AMD was trying to do something to make 1866 cheap and readily available for Bulldozer's launch since its supposed to perform best with it (and Llano sees improvement with faster RAM). I'm kinda baffled about 1333, as that's already one of the cheapest most readily available speeds.

I gotta say this seems like a poor use of money/marketing.

Why would they be paying to brand it? Wouldnt the ram maker be paying AMD for the ability to use the Radeon branding?

 

[jvroig]

Wouldnt the ram maker be paying AMD for the ability to use the Radeon branding?

That's my theory in the other Radeon RAM thread at Memory&Storage:

Most likely reason is a partnership with the manufacturer that gets them (AMD) a little cut of the profits (very little, considering how low-margin the memory business already is) for practically no work except for producing stickers and sending them to that manufacturer partner.

In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if it was the idea of the manufacturer in the first place, and AMD accepted because any amount of money for practically free is good enough to ink.

 

[darkswordsman17]

Why would they be paying to brand it? Wouldnt the ram maker be paying AMD for the ability to use the Radeon branding?

Possible, although I don't think AMD's brand would be worth it for them to pay for. Intel, yeah, but not AMD right now. AMD might be buying the RAM and then putting their own stickers on it. Who knows, they might have even worked a deal where there's essentially no money exchanged, but AMD helps them with compatibility and in return they mark some with the AMD brand.

 

[OCGuy]

AMD isnt making RAM. I thought all chips were made from the same couple companies...


And god what a terrible business to be in when RAM prices have crashed so much. They should look more into SSDs like Intel.

 

[s44]

CL11 is truly horrific. Who would buy this?

 

[Phynaz]

CL11 is truly horrific. Who would buy this?

The 99.99998% of people that don't give a flying fart about memory timings.

 

[Idontcare]

Product page on amd.com

Couple thoughts - its 1.5V, not the more common 1.65V stuff you find for low latency DDR3. And its only CL11 at DDR3-1600, which isn't the end of the world as I'm sure if you did bump up the voltage a notch to 1.6 or 1.65V then you could dial the latency down if desired.

I don't see the downside here.

 

[s44]

Product page on amd.com

Couple thoughts - its 1.5V, not the more common 1.65V stuff you find for low latency DDR3. And its only CL11 at DDR3-1600, which isn't the end of the world as I'm sure if you did bump up the voltage a notch to 1.6 or 1.65V then you could dial the latency down if desired.

I don't see the downside here.

Problem is, CL9 *isn't* "low latency" even at 1600. And every big RAM maker is selling 1.5v DDR3 1600 CL9 at the standard (low) price now. It's not like the early days of Nehalem.

 

[Spikesoldier]

Product page on amd.com

Couple thoughts - its 1.5V, not the more common 1.65V stuff you find for low latency DDR3. And its only CL11 at DDR3-1600, which isn't the end of the world as I'm sure if you did bump up the voltage a notch to 1.6 or 1.65V then you could dial the latency down if desired.

I don't see the downside here.

sounds to me like 1.5v 1333 c9 jacked up to 1600 with loosened timings.

OCGUY: are those AMD dram chips on the DIMM? sounds like GF is pumping out dram now. agree that NAND would be a more lucrative venture though.

 

[Idontcare]

sounds to me like 1.5v 1333 c9 jacked up to 1600 with loosened timings.

OCGUY: are those AMD dram chips on the DIMM? sounds like GF is pumping out dram now. agree that NAND would be a more lucrative venture though.

The process technology that goes into DRAM production is entirely different compared to the process tech that goes into logic production.

There is a reason why you don't see Micron making ARM chips, or TSMC making dram.

While it is not impossible for one company to do both, see Samsung, it is not common for a reason. Very little of the economics that goes into dram development and production can be leveraged for logic development and production, and vice versa.

Given that GloFo has zero experience making dram, I would be highly doubtful that they'd elect to jump into that market now and more so than Intel would. (and no, Intel is not about to)

 

[jvroig]

I would be highly doubtful that they'd elect to jump into that market now and more so than Intel would. (and no, Intel is not about to)

Yeah, it's already a cut-throat, low-margin business, and wasn't it just a week or two ago when a major RAM manufacturer (Elpida? can't be sure) talked about decreasing production by 20&#37; due to lack of demand? I remember because it got me thinking I should by my DDR3 sticks ahead of time before prices start going up on who-knows-when due to lower production.

So yeah, not likely that AMD will jump at entering the RAM business. I know they can make lots of incredibly... "d'oh!" types of decisions, but this certainly seems way beyond them.

 

[notty22]

AMD has to start finding more places to generate revenue, if this plan stays on track :

AMD considers dropping low-end discrete graphics


TH, just picked up on the story from the above link.

edited: more