Why is DDR4 becoming a thing right now?

[Cokeman]

So Corsair recently announced their DDR4 ram and other companies have been doing this. But as far as I know you need a different motherboard and CPU that supports DDR4. And I haven't seen any MBs or CPUs that are currently support DDR4. So why is DDR4 coming out when nobody can use it?

[BonBon Scott]

For shits and giggles?

 

It might not be able to be used, but it's nice to have ready.

[alpenwasser]

Because when Intel bring out their new X99 lineup which will

require DDR4 AFAIK, people are going to be pissed if memory

manufacturers are not ready with their RAM modules, thus

rendering the platform useless until then.

Also, memory manufacturers and Intel don't necessarily have

their schedules flawlessly synced, so you get your RAM a bit

before your new motherboard/CPU platform.

[Faa]

Because when Intel bring out their new X99 lineup which will

require DDR4 AFAIK, people are going to be pissed if memory

manufacturers are not ready with their RAM modules, thus

rendering the platform useless until then.

Also, memory manufacturers and Intel don't necessarily have

their schedules flawlessly synced, so you get your RAM a bit

before your new motherboard/CPU platform.

I don't really think Intel would release HW-e if DDR4 is delayed to halfway 2015..

By the way was DDR3 a lot more expensive than DDR2 when it came out? I havent been following hardware back then

[Najuno]

I don't really think Intel would release HW-e if DDR4 is delayed to halfway 2015..

By the way was DDR3 a lot more expensive than DDR2 when it came out? I havent been following hardware back then

That's very true in fact.

 

And DDR3 was more expensive than DDR2 in the beginning but dropped relatively soon because of the great acceptance of the RAM at that time. The thing with DDR4 will be different since most of the people will have to wait for a compatible consumer grade hardware (chances are this will happening earliest with Skylake since Broadwell will be using Z97 chipset as well)

 

I just sold my i7 4770K including RAM and mainboard (still have it for now but it is gone as soon as I get the new stuff) these days for the X99 Wellsburg and Haswell E 8 core CPU 5960X with DDR4 memory. Prices do not matter much to me and I am happy to go back to a workstation grade chipset and CPU.

[alpenwasser]

I don't really think Intel would release HW-e if DDR4 is delayed to halfway 2015..

Ah yeah, by "not flawlessly synced" I meant more down to the

day or week or so, I didn't mean that there is no relation

between when DDR4 and X99 comes to market. And yeah, agreed,

no point in getting X99 out if you can't buy memory for it

for another six months or so.

Don't remember DDR3 prices I'm afraid.

[harrynowl]

I think DDR3 was 2-3x more expensive than DDR2 at the time, not to mention AMD didn't support it (their IMC still doesn't really need it) and Intel basically left it to motherboard manufacturers as to whether they implemented it or not as long as it supported FSB speeds of 1333 and was used with a 1333 cpu I believe.