The market is going through an unprecedented component crisis. In 2020, a perfect storm caused there to be no chips, but it was known that the storm would pass sooner rather than later. The problem is that the storm of current NAND chip crisis It doesn’t look like it’s going to give us a break in the short term. All memory manufacturers have focused on creating chips for artificial intelligence platformsbut in the meantime, they continue developing DDR6 memories.
It will take a long time for consumers to be able to taste them.
In short. DDR5 memory has not had a normal life cycle in the consumer market. It was expensive and, when prices began to drop, AI hyperscalers arrived to take over everything available. This is how we have reached a situation in which just 32 GB exceeds the 400 euros: all production is focused on hyperscalers and there are no ‘pills’ for consumption. However, that doesn’t mean that DDR5 has done poorly, not at all.
Samsung or SK Hynix they are breaking records and, for them, things are working out great. That is why, together with Micron, they are starting to prepare the ground for the new technology: DDR6 memories. Last year JEDEC (the consortium that is responsible for standardizing DDR, LPDDR and NAND microelectronics) already detailed the standard LPDDR6 and it seems that the fringes are being polished for DDR6. Now, as we read in Wccftechthe big three of memory They are warming up for the near future with their new generation.
Performance leap. These new memories will not only be faster. It talks about speeds minimum of 8,800 MT/s according to that JEDEC standard, but can reach up to 17,600 MT/s as the technology develops. They would practically double the performance of DDR5 and the trident of the RAM it takes a few months working together with Intel, AMD and Nvidia in the prototype validation processes.
But it’s not just about pure speed, but about architecture. About 2×32-bit DDR5 RAM we would pass to a 4×24-bit subchannel architecture. It is something that brings challenges when it comes to managing temperatures and consumption, but also presents a clear advantage: improved parallelism and greater use of bandwidth.
Plate change. For players, that is going to be a little problem, since an architecture change usually entails a board change. And, if the rumors and leaks are true, that plate change will be assured. The reason is that there are sources that they point that CAMM2 is going to gain a lot of weight with DDR6, especially in laptops and compact computers, and could gradually displace the traditional DIMM in certain segments. If this doesn’t tell you anything, visualize how RAM is mounted on a current motherboard.
These are modules that are mounted perpendicular to the plate, something that has been around for years and that, although it has been functional for a long time, presents friction when you want to reach certain speeds. On the contrary, we have M.2 SSDs that are mounted in parallel, just like the LPDDR memory of laptops. Precisely, this is what these DDR6 tablets would be like, so manufacturers would have to redesign their boards to adapt either from the front or by adding the connectors to the back of the plate.
Context. You probably have two questions in mind: how much DDR6 memory will cost and why the rush. We cannot answer the first question, but for the second question we can guess where the shots are going. We have commented that DDR6 RAM will come hand in hand with a notable improvement in bandwidth, and that is something that the artificial intelligence industry is desperately looking for.
Until now, there were many powerful GPUs in data centers to train AI models, but in the era of Agentic AIwhat is needed is equipment more similar to a traditional PC. This is why Intel and AMD sand they are moving to mass-produce their professional processors again, and that is where DDR6 memory would make perfect sense thanks to that improvement in bandwidth. For inference, it’s great.
It is already being tested with an arrival on the market for 2028 or 2029, but it will be the hyperscalers who monopolize all DDR6 memory production. Only when the voracity of data centers calms down will the modules begin to reach the mass consumer market. The translation is that Micron, SK Hynix and Samsung are already working on it, but to be able to build a desktop PC with DDR6 there are several years ahead. In the meantime, I’d say we can settle for DDR5, but looking at the prices…
Image | Luan Gjokaj (edited)
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