ASUS Demonstrates DDR5 to DDR4 converter card.

Pretty cool. Hopefully they can scale it down a bit if they release a retail version.
 
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Cool idea, but man, talk about having HSF clearance issues!

I wonder if there is any signal degradation, or any performance penalties over running DDR4 in a DDR4 native board.

It also isn't clear to me if this is a general purpose part, or requires special motherboard support. I'm guessing it is the latter.
 
dangerouseddy said:
i wonder if this would wobble and cause a crash if you bumped the desk with your pc on it containing this.
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If it goes into production they'll shrink it. Prototype PCBs usually only have one layer, sometimes two, so you can bodge wire them, and everything is laid out with lots of space, plus test traces, all kinds of stuff.
 
Isn't the big issue that DDR5 has the voltage regulation done onboard now? Probably part of the reason why the converter is so large.
 
FlawleZ said:
I'm surprised it wasn't ASRock. They're known for the odd hybrid solutions in the past. 4 Core/Dual VSTA anyone?
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I had an old 939 socket Asrock board that had both AGP and PCIe slots on it, it also had an optional daughter board that added an AM2 cpu socket and DDR2 memory slots.

The VIA chipset had some issues but it was actually a decent budget board and it was the only hybrid AGP/PCIe board that did both natively and without any drawbacks(which was the main reason I bought it).
 
MavericK said:
Isn't the big issue that DDR5 has the voltage regulation done onboard now? Probably part of the reason why the converter is so large.
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Exactly, that's why I don't understand how this product actually helps. It still needs the PMIC that is in short supply, doesn't it? If it does, then how would this card bypass those supply issues?

If you solve the PMIC shortage, you solve the DDR5 shortage... then you don't need one of these.
 
Axman said:
It's for people who want to reuse their existing DDR4.
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I think what he's saying is that the power regulation chip(s) are the supply bottleneck, not the RAM modules themselves. So if DDR5 is in low supply due to that, these converters probably would be as well.
 
Maybe they used different PMICs. Once you've chosen a particular one to use in your mass-produced product, it can be hard to change them. But there are 4400 different ones available on Digikey right now that Asus could've used. To some extent it's just a parametric search: I need to output x mA at y V. Some of them have half a million units available.
 
Dan_D said:
The ASUS DDR4 to DDR5 converter is obviously a prototype. The final retail product (if there ever is one) will likely look very different than that one.
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Yeah I doubt this will see the light of day outside their OC lab but it would be fun to have a set to play with though on the apex.
 
D-EJ915 said:
Yeah I doubt this will see the light of day outside their OC lab but it would be fun to have a set to play with though on the apex.
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If the DDR5 shortage lasts long enough, I bet ASUS will absolutely bring this to market. They'll sell the crap out of them. I'd have bought a set of these when I built my Alder Lake-S system rather than sort of settle for the first DDR5 modules that came along.
 
MavericK said:
I think what he's saying is that the power regulation chip(s) are the supply bottleneck, not the RAM modules themselves. So if DDR5 is in low supply due to that, these converters probably would be as well.
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Exactly -- and if PMICs are the supply bottleneck I'd be interested to learn how this converter gets around that PMIC shortage. If it's as simple as using a different PMIC then why aren't RAM vendors doing that already? I really don't think it's that simple, but would love to be wrong about this :D

This is a pretty neat technical achievement, but I can't name a single time where converters like this ever went mainstream (e.g. DDR3 to DDR4, PCI to AGP, AGP to PCIe, etc. etc.) -- so naturally I'm skeptical this will go anywhere, either. As a mobo maker, how would you even supply a QVL for something like this? Not to mention the serious issues with HSF clearance, etc. This type of thing is a troubleshooting and support nightmare from the perspective of mobo makers and RAM vendors alike.

Really, consider this -- if the DDR5 woes continue for 1-2 more quarters, and all signs indicate that they will, then isn't it more likely that mobo manufacturers will just release better DDR4 boards? Then people who want to upgrade won't have to deal with this nonsense in the first place. I know this hasn't been compelling so far, but that's because their DDR4 versions of the Z690 mobos have been weaksauce -- lacking in features, style, bells, and whistles. If there's enough market incentive for a janky DDR5-to-4 adapter module, there's certainly a market for more DDR4 versions of flagship boards. Honestly, I would have bought a DDR4 version of the AORUS Z690 Master if one existed. But it doesn't, and none of the DDR4 mobos looked any good at all, so I faced the shortages and found some DDR5 against incredible odds.

In short, love the idea, but since the PMICs are the real supply bottleneck, it's far more likely that major mobo manufacturers release one or more higher-end DDR4 versions of their premier boards, rather than deal with converter nonsense.
 
Thug Esquire said:
But it doesn't, and none of the DDR4 mobos looked any good at all
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What did you dislike about the Z690 I Ultra, other than form factor? They released DDR4 and DDR5 versions of that; I got the DDR4 version because I already had 32GB of DDR4 handy.
 
DDR4 still faster in some benchmarks (at the moment) and DDR5 is hideously overpriced. This makes sense, if the price is right.
 
No....

Just N.O....

If you don't (or can't) comprehend the meaning of N.O., then just google it, along with "FAP", schwriegerez, and bollywockers, hehehe :)
 
Ebernanut said:
I had an old 939 socket Asrock board that had both AGP and PCIe slots on it, it also had an optional daughter board that added an AM2 cpu socket and DDR2 memory slots.

The VIA chipset had some issues but it was actually a decent budget board and it was the only hybrid AGP/PCIe board that did both natively and without any drawbacks(which was the main reason I bought it).
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I think I had one of those running an Opty 144 and an old AGP Geforce something
 
I think it would be better if they put a extension cable like you have on GPU's rather than having it stack.
 
If you want to reuse your DDR4 on a new system, just get a motherboard with DDR4 slots instead of DDR5. I am going to upgrade from my 6700k when 32GB (2x16GB) DDR5 gets somewhere south of $200 and is at least as fast as DDR4 3600 (I have 2x8GB DDR4 2400 now). I bet I will have to wait at least until Q4 but I am in no hurry. I would prefer to go to an AMD system as I haven't had one since my Socket 939 Opteron 165 back in 2005 (I had that beast overclocked 50% on air).
 
1_rick said:
What did you dislike about the Z690 I Ultra, other than form factor? They released DDR4 and DDR5 versions of that; I got the DDR4 version because I already had 32GB of DDR4 handy.
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If you like high end motherboards, the DDR4 boards are all less than stellar. They generally lack the features of the higher end boards. Worse audio, less networking, no Thunderbolt support, no debug LED's, fewer M.2 slots, etc. That stuff doesn't matter to everyone, but the DDR4 option is no option at all for some people. They are simply not what buyers of high end products are looking for.
 
[21CW]killerofall said:
If you want to reuse your DDR4 on a new system, just get a motherboard with DDR4 slots instead of DDR5. I am going to upgrade from my 6700k when 32GB (2x16GB) DDR5 gets somewhere south of $200 and is at least as fast as DDR4 3600 (I have 2x8GB DDR4 2400 now). I bet I will have to wait at least until Q4 but I am in no hurry. I would prefer to go to an AMD system as I haven't had one since my Socket 939 Opteron 165 back in 2005 (I had that beast overclocked 50% on air).
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I just upgraded from a 6700K to a 12700K. Wasn't going to pay $500 dollars for DDR5 Memory. Its probably going to take a couple of years for DDR5 prices to stablize...we hope.
 
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