Posted on Tuesday, May 06 2008 @ 2:35 CEST by Thomas De Maesschalck
The Inquirer
predicts demand for DDR3 memory will spike next month due to the arrival of Intel's Montevina notebook platform.
One important change, to go along with faster FSB, is bringing DDR3 memory to notebooks.
Micron, Samsung and the rest are already churning out DDR3-1066 SO-DIMMs at 1 and 2GB capacities, and the 4GB ones are about to sample. In fact, you might see some custom memory vendors doing faster SO-DIMM modules with heat spreaders for the discerning crowd: DDR3-1066 CL5 doesn't sound bad.
In a dual-channel configuration, this means you could have 4 (later 8) GB of RAM on a notebook, with plenty of extra bandwidth for that integrated GPU too. Why do you need that?
First reason, Windoze Vista: it is a RAM gobbler, and if the old XP really ends up gone with the wind, you will need to fit your systems with 4GB RAM to really feel comfortable when running multiple apps - unless, of course, you're on the healthy Linux Open Office diet.
Second, Vista's Aero GUI needs that GPU to always have plenty of extra memory bandwidth, if nothing than for the frame buffer refresh. Not to mention the vaunted DX10 game compatibility - again, extra bandwidth required, that means dual channels populated.
