Hardware for computers have advanced in so many ways. In an effort to increase the data transfer rate and efficiency of random access memory (RAM), DDR3 (double data rate) was introduced. DDR3 has data transfer rates of up to 1280MB/s and consumes 30% less energy than DDR2. According to Wikipedia:
The primary benefit of DDR3 is the ability to transfer I/O data at eight times the data rate of the memory cells it contains, thus enabling higher bus rates and higher peak rates than earlier memory technologies. However, there is no corresponding reduction in latency, which is therefore proportionally higher. In addition, the DDR3 standard allows for chip capacities of 512 megabits to 8 gigabits, effectively enabling a maximum memory module size of 16 gigabytes.
Manufacturer’s of motherboards have even come out with boards that support DDR3 such as Gigabyte GA-EP35C-DS3R – motherboard. Despite all these advancements in technology,do we really need DDR3? In my opinion I think we are not ready yet for DDR3. As compared to its DDR2 equivalent, DDR3 is relatively expensive. 2GB DDR2 PC2-6400 can be purchased for any $21 to $37 while 2GB of DDR3-6400 is about $109. Both modules have the same bus speed of 800MHZ and there is no need to get DDR3 while you can get the same speed from the DDR2 module. In addition, majority of applications run just fine on the current hardware configuratons we have.Most computers running Windows XP will run just fine with 512MB or more even 3GB will be sufficient for the hard core gamer.If not for Windows Vista, there will be no need to get systems that have 8GB of RAM. Hope Windows 7 comes to rescue us from extravagant need of RAM.
