What to do with all this RAM when DDR4 rolls out?

[XLNC]

With RAM prices at record lows, I'm seeing people snatch up 8-16GB of RAM. With socket 2011, 24-48 GB may become the norm among enthusiasts.

When DDR4 comes out in 2013-2015 time frame, what will you guys be doing with all that RAM? Would be a shame to relegate it to the "wife's machine." You could sell it, but I wonder if demand will be low since even budget systems today already contain ample RAM.

I'm hoping for more physical RAM drive solutions where we can throw in surplus DDR3 DIMMs. On a side note, it would suck to go back to 4-8GB when DDR4 rolls out, since price may become an issue again.

 

[Blain]

People will still be able to use DDR3 in machines to check email and play online Pogo games.

 

[Burner27]

You're worried about something like this that won't happen for another 2 - 4 years? Why even dwell on something like this? You can't control it nor predict what the future will bring. Prices indeed may suck then or they might be better then--who knows. Stay in the here and now and enjoy the low prices!!!

 

[XLNC]

Right, we knew even DDR1 can check email and play Pong. My question is, us enthusiasts will have to upgrade to DDR4 once sockets and CPUs require it. What will then happen to all the DDR3 DIMMS lying around?

Not to dwell on it, but I think when DDR4 rolls out, we'll have a situation that we haven't faced before. Never before have we had considerable quantities of RAM on hand that we may not be able to use. It's not just 1-4 GBs of RAM lying around, it'll be 8-48GB. I hope companies can see this coming and put out more solutions to this "problem."

Yeah, I can stay in the now and not think about the future. But where's the fun in that??

 

[Rhezuss]

You're worried about something like this that won't happen for another 2 - 4 years? Why even dwell on something like this? You can't control it nor predict what the future will bring. Prices indeed my suck then or they might be better then--who knows. Stay in the here and now and enjoy the low prices!!!

Agreeing like there's no tomorrow

 

[Rifter]

I will upgrade my home server to a old 1366 server board(or my current 1366 board) and load it up with 16-24GB.

 

[ArizonaSteve]

Wouldn't it be DDR5 - I seem to recall that the Japanese have an aversion to the number 4.

 

[watzup_ken]

If you think about it, there are still quite a number of users on DDR2 despite the fact that DDR3 have been around for quite sometime. In fact, stores still sell cheap desktops running on DDR2. I am sure the transition won't be so fast though. :biggrin:

 

[Texashiker]

When DDR4 comes out in 2013-2015 time frame, what will you guys be doing with all that RAM? Would be a shame to relegate it to the "wife's machine." You could sell it, but I wonder if demand will be low since even budget systems today already contain ample RAM.

My "wifes machine" stays comparable to my own machine, and so do my son and daughters' systems. I end up handing the parts do to friends and soon the grand kids will need systems.

There is always someone that needs a computer rebuilt. Whether its a friend of the family, grand kids, step kids,,,,,,. The other day, a friend of the family called and said she moved her computer and now the keyboard will not work. Come to find out she bent the keyboard port and broke something. So I grabbed an old motherboard / cpu + memory out of my stock and fixed her computer for her.

Even though I try to keep my kids and wife with a decent system, the grandkids can always use a spare parts system to do homework on.

 

[Voo]

Why would anyone in their right mind want 24-48gb in a client machine? I can think of maybe a handful cases where that much RAM would be considered useful in a client machine, so I think you're a bit overestimating the amount of RAM around here, even in enthusiast systems. If we assume 2gb sticks still stay a good bit cheaper than 4gb, we'd get 8 or 16gb with lots of people going for the 8gb variant.

And well it'll got the same way as with DDR2 - inherit your older machine to someone else, cannibalize it and sell the parts for a few bucks or use the machine as a file server/HTPC/whatever.

@ArizonaSteve: You're saying that because we skipped GDDR4? Well that was only because some manufacterers skipped v4 and jumped straight to 5, but GDDR4 was indeed specified and even manufactered (and afaik available in a few ati cards), just not widely adapted (also because there were some problems that were resolved in v5)
Hard to imagine that something similar is happening for RAM though since the adaption phase is much longer and more complicated than for graphics ram and they should've learned from the problems with GDDR.

 

[XLNC]

Voo, I thought 8-16GB was insane until it became so affordable. Maybe you're right that 48 GB is bit of an overestimation.

I understand the question "Why do you need all that RAM?" but I think the better question should be "what can we do with all this RAM?" I think a software RAM disk, or a physical RAM drive would be an excellent solution. Or is there something better?

I guess a lot more of you do hand me downs than I expected. My current rig (DDR2, waiting for SB) will be given to my parents. After that, I don't see any other friends or family wanting my old rigs, since THEY ALL WANT LAPTOPS! No one has come to me asking for desktop purchasing advice since 2003.

 

[maniacalpha1-1]

Do any gaming applications even get bottlenecked by DDR3 1333?

 

[Zap]

What will then happen to all the DDR3 DIMMS lying around?

Sell it to people at a profit since it won't be manufactured anymore? :hmm:

 

[Sinanju]

Why would anyone in their right mind want 24-48gb in a client machine?

Some people want the MAX out of their machines. Its how i've always done it. my board can handle 48 gigs so i said "fuck it" bought the ram and went on about my business, once you get into a habit to using the max you wont look back.

GPU's are the only thing i don't do this with because of how frequent new top end cards are constantly coming out. i.e right now im on the 500 series i wont change them out till the '700' series cards come out.

 

[eric.kjellen]

People will still be able to use DDR3 in machines to check email and play online Pogo games.

Are they using DDR2 for that now? I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of those people are almost as quick to upgrade from DDR3 to DDR4 as the enthusiast crowd.

 

[Krynj]

Some people want the MAX out of their machines. Its how i've always done it. my board can handle 48 gigs so i said "fuck it" bought the ram and went on about my business, once you get into a habit to using the max you wont look back.

GPU's are the only thing i don't do this with because of how frequent new top end cards are constantly coming out. i.e right now im on the 500 series i wont change them out till the '700' series cards come out.

Might I ask what you do with the system in your sig? Or do you really just buy top of the line everything because you simply have too much money?

 

[Burner27]

Might I ask what you do with the system in your sig? Or do you really just buy top of the line everything because you simply have too much money?

While I think your first question is a valid one, your second question is something that can be taken to PM.

 

[Voo]

Voo, I thought 8-16GB was insane until it became so affordable. Maybe you're right that 48 GB is bit of an overestimation.

I understand the question "Why do you need all that RAM?" but I think the better question should be "what can we do with all this RAM?" I think a software RAM disk, or a physical RAM drive would be an excellent solution. Or is there something better?

Ah RAM disks surely are a possibility but personally they're way too much effort for your ROI, especially if you have a SSD, but Windows can use the extra RAM for prefetching so it won't go totally to waste, that's true.

I think it'll also depend on the price of 4gb vs. 2gb sticks - if the price difference is small even if you don't need the complete RAM there's no sense to get half the RAM for a few $ saved. And since 2011 is still quite some time away I assume it's possible, so we'd be talking about 16gb - 32gb in that case.. sounds ridiculous, but then it's a new platform and 16gb are still imagineable for a desktop

 

[Sinanju]

Might I ask what you do with the system in your sig? Or do you really just buy top of the line everything because you simply have too much money?

Gaming, movies (if i don't feel like watching something on the big screen), and rendering for fun...

But i get alot of enjoyment from just building monster machines and bringing them to life.

 

[jjmIII]

Sell it to people at a profit since it won't be manufactured anymore? :hmm:

Hells ya! Old memory is always worth more than I paid for it.

 

[Krynj]

Gaming, movies (if i don't feel like watching something on the big screen), and rendering for fun...

But i get alot of enjoyment from just building monster machines and bringing them to life.

Understood.

 

[XLNC]

Sell it to people at a profit since it won't be manufactured anymore? :hmm:

Hells ya! Old memory is always worth more than I paid for it.

Well, I can see 5 year old machines with 512MB RAM needing an upgrade, but most DDR3 equipped machines came with 2 GB minimum. How many joe users with 2-4GB RAM will want to or need to? Also, DDR3 will have had a 7 year life span if it's replaced in 2014. Market should be saturated and demand should be low. Just speculating, but it makes sense in my head.

Again, I think the focus should be on what we can do with all this cheap RAM, rather than saying "you don't need it." PCs are not instantaneous yet, and I think RAM put to proper use can get us closer. W7's superfetch is a step in the right direction, but not nearly aggressive enough. Who knows what path Windows 8 will take?

Somebody should get on this, right after solving world hunger.

 

[jjmIII]

How many joe users with 2-4GB RAM will want to or need to?

...just because your not a salesman, doesn't mean I'm not!

The big upgrade would be from 2 to 4gb and also building cheap DDR3 machines for sale.

 

[Blain]

What will then happen to all the DDR3 DIMMS lying around?

Don't worry... Mother Nature will reclaim them over time.

 

[Ben90]

An even bigger problem is what will happen to our DDR4 DIMMs when DDR5 comes out? THE FUTURE IS BLEAK!!!