Probably how to prevent you from putting DDR3 into the same slot. To reduce cost, they might be retaining the same layout, the only thing you'd have to do in production of the slot would be a slight change to the plastic to raise the edges up and then a slight change in production of the memory to no longer be square. You try and put DDR3 in, it wouldn't be able to seat down due to the raised edges.
The notch being misaligned would result in the dimm being much farther out of socket than the tiny curve would; and there're strait edge ddr4 dimms so just the shape can't be the reason.
I haven't seen anything about AMD's plans; but with their APUs being ram bottlenecked, I'd expect them to jump on board as soon as it's not prohibitively more expensive.
One of the reasons that DDR3 was so expensive at release, was because back then in the Core 2 days, was when PC parts were helluva expensive (you can get the same real-world application performance for much less. For the FPS you'd get a game today, for a game back then you'd pay much more to get as much FPS.) (Anybody remember Nvidia's 4000USD Nforce boards?) DDR3 came out right then, when prices just started to drop. Prices for DDR3 dropped in about a month or two to something affordable.
DDR4 is coming out at a time when prices are starting to stabilize, and slowly drop.
And it's a nice thing. My previous "forced upgrade" to DDR3 when I went i7-920 still serves me well till today. In 2-3 years you'll look as pathetic with DDR3 as you are with DDR2 today.
Tons of companies produce RAM without heatsinks, Crucial included. The addition of heatsinks is just another way for companies to differentiate and make their products stand out to consumers.
Same situation on 920. Waiting on Skylake personally as that's being commonly hailed as a true CPU successor. The change in architecture will hopefully be interesting.
Good luck with Skylake – I bet it'll be as handicapped as desktop Haswell: you can get unlocked multiplier OR L4 cache OR TSX/VT-d. Great choice, isn't it? And no one knows how many cores will be there – might end up with the same 4 max, lol.
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Homeles - Wednesday, June 4, 2014 - link
The uneven pin length Crucial was talking about is much more visible in this photo.yrral - Wednesday, June 4, 2014 - link
Can you explain the rationale behind the uneven pin lengths?NXTwoThou - Wednesday, June 4, 2014 - link
Probably how to prevent you from putting DDR3 into the same slot. To reduce cost, they might be retaining the same layout, the only thing you'd have to do in production of the slot would be a slight change to the plastic to raise the edges up and then a slight change in production of the memory to no longer be square. You try and put DDR3 in, it wouldn't be able to seat down due to the raised edges.DanNeely - Wednesday, June 4, 2014 - link
The notch being misaligned would result in the dimm being much farther out of socket than the tiny curve would; and there're strait edge ddr4 dimms so just the shape can't be the reason.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DDR4_SDRAM
DanNeely - Wednesday, June 4, 2014 - link
Probably to make inserting it easier in a tight slot since you're only forcing the initial insert on a part of the dimm at a time.extide - Wednesday, June 4, 2014 - link
Bingo ^^ This is why.Scabies - Wednesday, June 4, 2014 - link
So it begins (finally!)hughlle - Wednesday, June 4, 2014 - link
Speak for yourself. Doesn't interest me in the slightest. Still havn't been given a reason to upgrade beyond core2quad and ddr2.dylan522p - Wednesday, June 4, 2014 - link
That's cause you don't need the performance. You CPU is actually weaker than an i3 in multithreaded and gets bent in single threaded.designerfx - Wednesday, June 4, 2014 - link
I'm genuinely happy to see it myself, but I would expect that it is definitely going to be a while before it's affordable and commonplace.DanNeely - Wednesday, June 4, 2014 - link
On the Intel side, the rumor mill says it'll launch with Haswell-E later this year and with the new SkyLake architecture/socket in 2015.DanNeely - Wednesday, June 4, 2014 - link
I haven't seen anything about AMD's plans; but with their APUs being ram bottlenecked, I'd expect them to jump on board as soon as it's not prohibitively more expensive.Antronman - Monday, June 9, 2014 - link
AMD is changing their architecture design completely.Their architectures have been CMT so far.
Now they're going for SMT with excavator. Same stuff that intel uses, and that makes H-threading possible.
Antronman - Monday, June 9, 2014 - link
Actually not true.One of the reasons that DDR3 was so expensive at release, was because back then in the Core 2 days, was when PC parts were helluva expensive (you can get the same real-world application performance for much less. For the FPS you'd get a game today, for a game back then you'd pay much more to get as much FPS.) (Anybody remember Nvidia's 4000USD Nforce boards?) DDR3 came out right then, when prices just started to drop. Prices for DDR3 dropped in about a month or two to something affordable.
DDR4 is coming out at a time when prices are starting to stabilize, and slowly drop.
A5 - Wednesday, June 4, 2014 - link
Then do more with your computer?HisDivineOrder - Sunday, June 8, 2014 - link
Anyone going Haswell-E is FORCED into a DDR4 "upgrade."Senti - Sunday, June 8, 2014 - link
And it's a nice thing. My previous "forced upgrade" to DDR3 when I went i7-920 still serves me well till today.In 2-3 years you'll look as pathetic with DDR3 as you are with DDR2 today.
UltraWide - Wednesday, June 4, 2014 - link
When will they stop with the heatsinks?WithoutWeakness - Wednesday, June 4, 2014 - link
Tons of companies produce RAM without heatsinks, Crucial included. The addition of heatsinks is just another way for companies to differentiate and make their products stand out to consumers.Peanutsrevenge - Wednesday, June 4, 2014 - link
Dangit, I only JUST upgraded to DDR3 (My income doesn't even come close to matching my love of hardware).ExarKun333 - Wednesday, June 4, 2014 - link
Can't wait! Haswell/Broadwell-E here we come. :)RaistlinZ - Wednesday, June 4, 2014 - link
Good stuff. I won't be among the early adopter s though. My I7 4770k rig will last until at least the end of 2016.Welsh_Jester - Wednesday, June 4, 2014 - link
Looks like x99 is a worthy upgrade from my i7 920, 3000mhz and 3200mhz nice speeds to start off on and a fair bit higher than ddr3.ballast - Wednesday, June 4, 2014 - link
Same situation on 920. Waiting on Skylake personally as that's being commonly hailed as a true CPU successor. The change in architecture will hopefully be interesting.Senti - Sunday, June 8, 2014 - link
Good luck with Skylake – I bet it'll be as handicapped as desktop Haswell: you can get unlocked multiplier OR L4 cache OR TSX/VT-d. Great choice, isn't it? And no one knows how many cores will be there – might end up with the same 4 max, lol.