Laptop Haswell uses 1.35 V DDR3L, if I'm not mistaken. Most of SO-DIMMs are for laptops, and most laptops are now Haswell. So, IMHO, this initiative with going much beyond JEDEC DDR3 1600 for DDR3 SO-DIMM's, which requires raised voltage for DRAM, won't really get a wide market adoption.
The modules used for this were 1.35V 2133 MHz. That means 2133 MHz at 1.35V. If you bin the ICs correctly, then eventually you it enough which have the speed/voltage characteristics you need.
OK, indeed, this DDR3 2133 SO-DIMM works at 1.35V, being actually DDR3L 2133, and does not cost like a jet plane - I overlooked that initially (because I haven't seen any desktop DDD3L 2133 1.35 V offerings). Thanks. Now, SO-DIMM systems vendors should support this speed in BIOS - then it can get some traction.
Enthusiast-oriented DRAM module manufacturers always tend to push premium higher frequency and/or lower timings modules, because these are more expensive than the regular ones. But these usually require higher voltage, as I said, so they usually remain niche offerings. The rest of the industry continues to use the standard JEDEC modules.
As pointed out in our Memory Scaling review, there is a law of diminishing returns with faster memory. But JEDEC standard 1600 CAS 11 is a hole of performance loss - up to 20% in some benchmarks over 2400 CAS 9, which by any stretch is becoming mid range vs. the 3000 MHz memory kits available.
That's right - I'm running two G.SKILL RipjawsX 2400 F3-2400C11D-16GXM kits on my Haswell Core i7 desktop myself (32 GB total), but at required 1.65 V though (bought these two kits last summer for $150 each, not for the current $200 price). For me, $150 made sense for 2X8 GB DDR 2400 kit (even CL11).
Technically, indeed, you can buy DDR3 up to 3100. However, price-wise, I would not really consider anything beyond 2400, because DDR3 prices skyrocket ridiculously fast after 2400 - this should be the result of the aforementioned binning. So, I would say, the reasonable ceiling for desktop DDR3 in terms of street price currently is 2400-2600, and not 3000-3100. For SO-DIMMs this ceiling is now 2133 (I'm counting without overclock - at MFG rated speeds).
As for how the g.skill does at 1.5V vs 1.35V... it doesn't help at all for some reason on my p150em with the 8GB dual rank version (I cannot get 2133 to run at any timings in dual channel).
It'd be fine if more laptops supported XMP. As far as I know only the m18x R2 fully supports XMP, with only a handful of other laptops even having partial support.
Indeed, while lots of "above average" desktop boards do support XMP, usual "above average" $1000-1500 laptops mostly do not. That's an issue preventing the distributio of fast SO-DIMMs.
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TiGr1982 - Friday, February 21, 2014 - link
Laptop Haswell uses 1.35 V DDR3L, if I'm not mistaken.Most of SO-DIMMs are for laptops, and most laptops are now Haswell.
So, IMHO, this initiative with going much beyond JEDEC DDR3 1600 for DDR3 SO-DIMM's, which requires raised voltage for DRAM, won't really get a wide market adoption.
Ian Cutress - Friday, February 21, 2014 - link
The modules used for this were 1.35V 2133 MHz. That means 2133 MHz at 1.35V. If you bin the ICs correctly, then eventually you it enough which have the speed/voltage characteristics you need.TiGr1982 - Friday, February 21, 2014 - link
OK, indeed, this DDR3 2133 SO-DIMM works at 1.35V, being actually DDR3L 2133, and does not cost like a jet plane - I overlooked that initially (because I haven't seen any desktop DDD3L 2133 1.35 V offerings). Thanks.Now, SO-DIMM systems vendors should support this speed in BIOS - then it can get some traction.
TiGr1982 - Friday, February 21, 2014 - link
Enthusiast-oriented DRAM module manufacturers always tend to push premium higher frequency and/or lower timings modules, because these are more expensive than the regular ones. But these usually require higher voltage, as I said, so they usually remain niche offerings. The rest of the industry continues to use the standard JEDEC modules.Ian Cutress - Friday, February 21, 2014 - link
As pointed out in our Memory Scaling review, there is a law of diminishing returns with faster memory. But JEDEC standard 1600 CAS 11 is a hole of performance loss - up to 20% in some benchmarks over 2400 CAS 9, which by any stretch is becoming mid range vs. the 3000 MHz memory kits available.TiGr1982 - Friday, February 21, 2014 - link
That's right - I'm running two G.SKILL RipjawsX 2400 F3-2400C11D-16GXM kits on my Haswell Core i7 desktop myself (32 GB total), but at required 1.65 V though (bought these two kits last summer for $150 each, not for the current $200 price). For me, $150 made sense for 2X8 GB DDR 2400 kit (even CL11).Technically, indeed, you can buy DDR3 up to 3100. However, price-wise, I would not really consider anything beyond 2400, because DDR3 prices skyrocket ridiculously fast after 2400 - this should be the result of the aforementioned binning.
So, I would say, the reasonable ceiling for desktop DDR3 in terms of street price currently is 2400-2600, and not 3000-3100. For SO-DIMMs this ceiling is now 2133 (I'm counting without overclock - at MFG rated speeds).
Khenglish - Friday, February 21, 2014 - link
This G.skill is only single rank, so it has bandwidth as if it were 2133.http://forum.techinferno.com/general-notebook-disc...
The fastest memory for laptops is still 3 year old samsung M471B5273DH0, which can do 2400 11-13-13, or 2133 9-10-10, and it's dual rank.
http://forum.techinferno.com/clevo/3319-p170hm-mem...
As for how the g.skill does at 1.5V vs 1.35V... it doesn't help at all for some reason on my p150em with the 8GB dual rank version (I cannot get 2133 to run at any timings in dual channel).
MikeMurphy - Friday, February 21, 2014 - link
In this day and age the motherboard can't pull appropriate memory timings from a table based on a set voltage?I hope JEDEC has come up with a better system for DDR4 timings, because this is inexcusable.
Khenglish - Friday, February 21, 2014 - link
It'd be fine if more laptops supported XMP. As far as I know only the m18x R2 fully supports XMP, with only a handful of other laptops even having partial support.TiGr1982 - Saturday, February 22, 2014 - link
Indeed, while lots of "above average" desktop boards do support XMP, usual "above average" $1000-1500 laptops mostly do not. That's an issue preventing the distributio of fast SO-DIMMs.