DDR4 to become dominant in desktop market in Q3 2017

Speaking at the Intel Developer Forum, the chip giant touted the fast adoption rate of DDR4 memory. At present, it's primarily the server platform driving the change but more widespread support for DDR4 after the launch of the mainstream Skylake lineup will change the market pretty quickly and the chip giant expects memory makers will be shipping more DDR4 than DDR3 already next year.

Market research data from IHS estimates that on a bit basis, around 15 percent of DRAM manufactured in Q4 2014 will be of the DDR4 variant. Most of this memory will go to the server market, in the final quarter of this year DDR4 memory is anticipated to make up 60 percent of server DRAM demand.

In the desktop market the evolution will be slower as Intel has yet to roll out its mainstream Skylake processors with DDR4 support. The adoption rate is expected to pick up this quarter and on a bit basis, it should account for over 50 percent of DRAM shipped in Q3 2017.

The notebook market will adopt DDR4 memory faster than the desktop market, but slower than the server market. As a result, the total PC market is expected to use more DDR4 memory bits than DDR3 already in the second half of 2016.



The report also make note of the transition to 8Gb memory chips, which is largely tied to the transition to DDR4. In 2016 the new 8Gb chips are expected to account for 49 percent of DRAM bits shipped and in 2019 this number is expected to climb to 87 percent. This quarter 82 percent of the DRAM market consists of 4Gb chips.