Is DDR3 really worth it?

[peterhuang913]

No...

Tom's Hardware has done a test to prove this. The largest different is a gain of 7-8% over Divx and WinRAR. This does not justify DDR3's pricepoint, up to 5x the price of DDR'2. So for all those who say that DDR3 is the future, it is not. DDR2-800 and DDR2-1066 is still the best "bang-for-the-buck" with 2 or 4GB ram-kits with sub-$100 prices.

The results must look disappointing for the memory vendors, as the largest performance differences we found amount to 7-8% with DivX and WinRAR, while almost all other benchmarks and applications perform alike: a 1-3% performance delta cannot be noticed at all. Some games showed several per cent performance difference between low-latency high-speed memory and conventional high-latency average speed DIMMs. The synthetic benchmarks on the memory revealed even more differences, but these clearly aren't very relevant in everyday life.

Our conclusion is very simple: you get the best bang for the buck if you stick to the mainstream of the memory market, which currently is still DDR2-800 or 1066, preferably at low latencies. DDR3-1066 and -1333 memory do not yet result in better performance, and so should only be considered by hardcore enthusiasts, who aim for maximum overclocking performance knowing that they will get little benefit for spending a fortune.

Source: Tom's Ultimate RAM Speed Tests - Tom's Hardware

 

[ShaolinDreams]

sounds about right to me

 

[Baez]

Well I don't believe it is worth it right now but once CPU's and motherboards are up to par with say an 1800MHz FSB I think it will give a nice boost. Not to mention the price will obviously come down as time goes on.

 

[veedubfreak]

Ive been preaching this for the last 6 months. DDR3 will be worth using when nehalem comes out.

 

[Ste]

<Same as everyone else.

Wait for prices to drop, alot.

 

[aaronkupen]

No...
So for all those who say that DDR3 is the future, it is not.

Wrong. It is not the current; it will be the future.

 

[peterhuang913]

Wrong. It is not the current; it will be the future.

I meant that it is the future for now...

 

[solidsteve]

Ive been preaching this for the last 6 months. DDR3 will be worth using when nehalem comes out.

i got to agree on that exact point it will be worth getting when the oct-core nehalem arrives

 

[aspire]

Honestly though, the price of DDR3 is not that high. I remember paying $280 for my 2Gb OCZ Titanium Kit less than 2 years ago...

We've just been spoiled by the low cost of ddr2, and I have a feeling the market is going to crash soon and we're going to some some big price hikes.

 

[TheOtis]

You can't really ask if DDR3 in general is worth it, more so the speeds.

They put up DDR3-1333 with high latency against lower latency DDR2-1066, which is clearly faster.

DDR3 IS worth it when you're running DDR3-1600 and higher, especially DDR3-2000. For the price? No. Both those speeds are leaps and bounds faster then DDR2 we use today.

I don't think how the RAM performs as as much to do with say, Nehalem, as that one guy says. It mostly has to do with what DDR3 speed you're running.

If you're running identical systems, but the difference is DDR2-1066 @ C4 and the other has DDR3-2000, the DDR3 rig would outperform the DDR2 rig. But ONLY using DDR3-1600 and higher. Anything less you're not going to see any difference, especially in DDR3-1333 which doesnt perform well at all.