Tuesday, May 29, 2012

From The Memory PM - 8GB vs. 4GB DDR3 1333 & 1600

JJ, our memory PM (AND YOURS!), writes:

You've probably noticed that G.Skill 1333MHz and 1600MHz 8GB single modules are now the same price or slight cheaper than 4GB based dual channel packs.

Examples:

GS-F3-10666CL9D-8GBXL vs. GS-F3-10666CL9S-8GBXL
GS-F3-10666CL9Q-16GBXL vs. GS-F3-10666CL9D-16GBXL
GS-F3-12800CL9D-8GBXL vs. GS-F3-12800CL10S-8GBXL
GS-F3-1600C9Q-16GAO vs. GS-F3-1600C10D-16GAO
GS-F3-12800CL9Q-16GBXL(RL) vs. GS-F3-12800CL10D-16GBXL

Whilst this situation may change over the next few weeks with the current and ongoing memory pricing fluctuations, we have a clear indication that 8GB modules will dominate sales into the future.

Another factor driving this sea change in the memory market is the mainboards themselves, with 2 DIMM slot boards being far cheaper to produce than 4 & 8 DIMM boards. Considering consumers are opting for 16GB as the standard memory configuration for Windows 7 64-bit versions, we see both a desire to reduce mainboard costs while increasing RAM it the same time!

Jilei - jilei@mittoni.com.au