RDRAM upgrade question.

[calmius]

I want to finally upgrade my existing ram. I currently use 2 sticks of 128 RDRAM and want to add 2 more sticks of it.
I have a question however. Does the new ram have to be the same speed as the ram that's already there or can I mix/match them?

My specs are in signature.

[bailey]

they must be of the same type and speed

[babylon5guy]

Is RDRAM still faster than DDR? Is Intel going to keep it, or are they phasing it out? I wonder why it never got very popular?

[bailey]

intell stopped useing it, forgot why, maybe because ddr took over

[babylon5guy]

Thanks bailey,
I still noticed they have some mobo's that take it, but it sure is overwhelmingly DDR. I always thought Rambus was quite a bit faster?

[pillainp]

Intel is generally moving away from RDRAM for the desktop market, in favour of DDR SDRAM. However the 850x series of desktop boards is still carried. Intel now mainly uses RDRAM in the Workstation/Server market.

[babylon5guy]

Thanks pillainp, but why if it's faster?, because it's more expensive?

[pillainp]

mainly cost. 'coz DDR is so much cheaper. RDRAM is not cost-effective on desktop boards. Also, it has a very high bandwidth and pretty good speeds, more suited to server and workstation applications. the newer variants of DDR provide better implementations for user desktops.

[Cricket]

4 channel PC-1200 and PC-1333 RDRAM coming

Cricket

[babylon5guy]

Thanks pillainp, I thought it was faster, I guess that was the main question. Memory has a tough time keeping up now, it's too bad it didn't take off. I don't think memory technology is keeping up with the processors. If they were selling more Rambus, the price would probably come down.

[babylon5guy]

Hey Cricket we replied at the same time. Thanks for the info, you just answered my question!

[glc]

Rdram is a proprietary technology, and very few memory manufacturers want to pay the stiff licensing fees to Rambus, Inc. They would rather find better ways to make sdram. The only reason Intel kept rdram as long as they did was a lousy (from a business standpoint) agreement they made with Rambus, Inc. that's now expired. When rdram first appeared, it totally blew away the best sdram out there at the time - which was PC133 and ddr was not out yet.

[babylon5guy]

Thanks glc, that is the best answer I've got yet. I didn't know about the agreement. If you go to the Dell site they claim Rambus is the best way to go. But everyone does seem to be getting away from it. You read so many things saying Rambus is faster then something else saying DDR is just a fast. I certainly wouldn't pay all the extra money for Rambus for a small performance gain.