I paid about $90 for 64 GB DDR4-3600 a couple months ago, probably the lowest it's going to be now that DRAM prices are rising. These prices are high but they not nearly as bad as they could be for getting it out of the gate. I hope we see some real adoption in laptops, mini PCs, and maybe even Mini-ITX boards.
Nice that you can get dual-channel in one module, although that is optional, and I recall JEDEC plans to allow stacking of two modules.
About the capacity, what are the largest chips that could fit on a CAMM? SK Hynix is making 24 GB LPDDR5X packages, so with four of those we could seemingly see a 96 GB module today. Back before the form factor was standardized, we saw different module sizes that could hold more RAM, so how about 192 GB on a single module with double the length?
While I'm not a huge fan of the fact that each channel doesn't go to an independent module, this is certainly a big step up from soldered RAM, and downgrading from 8533 MHz to 7500 MHz seems like a virtually obvious tradeoff to make to have modular RAM!
I will say, though, that just because LPDDR had to be soldered prior to compression-attached modules, I don't see how that was ever an excuse for device vendors to not publish service manuals with memory jumper settings so that those of us who can solder (or are capable of going to third-party service shops) could have upgradable LPDDR since forever.
Micron has talked about LPDDR5X-9600 for CAMM as the article notes, so I'm not sure there is a tradeoff yet. They are just starting out with modest speeds. Might be what the customers want, 8533 MT/s is not so common yet.
>Does that matter? It's going to result in more devices having dual-channel. Fair enough, I guess. I've been appreciating being able to upgrade those originally single-channel configurations without having to replace and waste the original DIMM, but yeah, I see where you're coming from for sure.
Unfortunately with the higher cost of the modules, integration into motherboards, and lower performance, I don't see these being adopted as widely as I hoped.
True, these only have a 30% price premium over SODIMMs, and that gap will close over time, but soldered memory is substantially cheaper than both. I suspect on sub-$1000 thin and light notebooks soldered memory is here to stay. CAMM will undoubtedly find its way into Elitebooks, zBooks, Precision, maybe Latitudes, obviously high end Lenovo's, etc. I'm afraid it will be reserved for workstation-class notebooks.
What are the chances that the strix point wave of mini pcs from the likes of beelink and minisforum will use the LPCAMM2@7500 MT/sec rather than normal and gpu bottlenecking ddr5?
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nandnandnand - Wednesday, May 8, 2024 - link
I paid about $90 for 64 GB DDR4-3600 a couple months ago, probably the lowest it's going to be now that DRAM prices are rising. These prices are high but they not nearly as bad as they could be for getting it out of the gate. I hope we see some real adoption in laptops, mini PCs, and maybe even Mini-ITX boards.Nice that you can get dual-channel in one module, although that is optional, and I recall JEDEC plans to allow stacking of two modules.
About the capacity, what are the largest chips that could fit on a CAMM? SK Hynix is making 24 GB LPDDR5X packages, so with four of those we could seemingly see a 96 GB module today. Back before the form factor was standardized, we saw different module sizes that could hold more RAM, so how about 192 GB on a single module with double the length?
Dolda2000 - Wednesday, May 8, 2024 - link
While I'm not a huge fan of the fact that each channel doesn't go to an independent module, this is certainly a big step up from soldered RAM, and downgrading from 8533 MHz to 7500 MHz seems like a virtually obvious tradeoff to make to have modular RAM!I will say, though, that just because LPDDR had to be soldered prior to compression-attached modules, I don't see how that was ever an excuse for device vendors to not publish service manuals with memory jumper settings so that those of us who can solder (or are capable of going to third-party service shops) could have upgradable LPDDR since forever.
nandnandnand - Wednesday, May 8, 2024 - link
"While I'm not a huge fan of the fact that each channel doesn't go to an independent module"Does that matter? It's going to result in more devices having dual-channel.
However there will also be single-channel modules, possibly even with high capacity:
https://forums.anandtech.com/threads/camm2-memory-...
"1-channel CAMMs expected to be used where high memory capacity per channel is required."
Micron has talked about LPDDR5X-9600 for CAMM as the article notes, so I'm not sure there is a tradeoff yet. They are just starting out with modest speeds. Might be what the customers want, 8533 MT/s is not so common yet.
Dolda2000 - Thursday, May 9, 2024 - link
>Does that matter? It's going to result in more devices having dual-channel.Fair enough, I guess. I've been appreciating being able to upgrade those originally single-channel configurations without having to replace and waste the original DIMM, but yeah, I see where you're coming from for sure.
meacupla - Thursday, May 9, 2024 - link
Doesn't Samsung have LPDDR5X 10700?nandnandnand - Thursday, May 9, 2024 - link
What product is using LPDDR5X-10700? Meteor Lake and Hawk Point memory controllers max out at 7467/7500.meacupla - Thursday, May 9, 2024 - link
It's announced, so it's probably in validation stage with various SoC and CPUs.Dante Verizon - Thursday, May 9, 2024 - link
The fastest available operates at 8533MhzSamus - Thursday, May 9, 2024 - link
Unfortunately with the higher cost of the modules, integration into motherboards, and lower performance, I don't see these being adopted as widely as I hoped.meacupla - Thursday, May 9, 2024 - link
for comparison, crucial ddr5 5600 sodimm is $110 for 2x16gb, and $230 for 2x 32gb.Samus - Saturday, May 11, 2024 - link
True, these only have a 30% price premium over SODIMMs, and that gap will close over time, but soldered memory is substantially cheaper than both. I suspect on sub-$1000 thin and light notebooks soldered memory is here to stay. CAMM will undoubtedly find its way into Elitebooks, zBooks, Precision, maybe Latitudes, obviously high end Lenovo's, etc. I'm afraid it will be reserved for workstation-class notebooks.Tyler_Durden_83 - Thursday, May 9, 2024 - link
What are the chances that the strix point wave of mini pcs from the likes of beelink and minisforum will use the LPCAMM2@7500 MT/sec rather than normal and gpu bottlenecking ddr5?Dante Verizon - Thursday, May 9, 2024 - link
Hm-hmm. Cheaper than I thought.