ID:182441
 Jun 29 2008, 4:41 pm
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Why do DDR RAM cards cost more than DDR2 RAM cards when DDR2 is supposedly better? Shouldn't it be the other way around?
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That's an interesting approach to it. Another could be is that since DDR is so outdated, they should definitely sell it for less, so they get rid of that stock. Before it's really obsolete. So I don't really know why it'd be more expensive.
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That's what I would think...
But a 512MG DDR RAM card is $64 at Best Buy as opposed to the DDR2 512MB RAM card at around $30-40 at the same store... | |
Beats me. You'd figure if the demand went up, it'd be more expensive. Maybe the demand in your area didn't go up or something. But hey, no complaining if you get something for cheaper than you should, even if it doesn't seem to make sense. =P
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That's the thing, my computer uses the latter DDR RAM cards xD I compared a DDR2 RAM card's notch to mine, and it seems like I would be able to use DDR2 RAM cards in place of my DDR RAM cards. But I fear there's a whole technical story as to why that would never work ;p
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Flame Sage wrote:
Apparently I saw a graphics card using DDR5 RAM? Was it some kind of joke? You have been mistaken with GDDR5, which is a memory standard in video card memory. Currently, only AMD's ATI Radeon 4870 supports it, which is probably where you heard it from since it was released only a few days ago. | |
(G) DDR3/DDR4/DDR5 that you see on graphics cards is usually actually "Graphics Double Data Rate" or GDDR RAM
There is actually DDR3 for computers as well, but usually the type of RAM on newer graphics cards is GDDR since it has been specifically designed for the needs of modern graphics cards. DDR2 was derived from DDR DDR3 was derived from DDR2 ------------------- GDDR3 was derived from DDR2 GDDR4 was derived from GDDR3 GDDR5 was derived from GDDR4 </paraphraseofwikipedia> =P This is all to my basic understanding any ways; if I'm wrong and you can show me I am, then please post corrected info :D ~Kujila | |
ShadowPrince2008 wrote:
Off topic... But I believe I saw something about DDR3 RAM on wiki DDR3 is beginning to turn popular now, but the motherboards and CPUs that support it are quite expensive, and its speeds and timings haven't matured enough to justify its bloated cost, which is why not many (if any) companies are building PCs with DDR3 RAM. DDR3 will become mainstream when Intel's new architecture, Nehalem, becomes mainstream. | |
DDR is still manufactured, just as I'm sure there's some places still pumping out old PC100 SDRAM as well, just not very much of it is manufactured compared to DDR2.
The more obscure RAM you try to find, the more expensive it gets. ~Kujila | |
Let's see, from what I've learned in Economics class, if the supply is lower, then the price is higher, because that's the best way to make more money. It's called, "the Price Effect of Supply." And not just that, it probably costs less to make DDR2 as well.
Et cetera, etc. | |
The price difference is because people will be willing to pay more for the RAM or they will replace their PC. In that case Best Buy is in a win-win. Same with most companies. One example of that is if say one of the computers at my work was to die from RAM failure, we would be forced to either pay an extra price for the RAM or buy a new computer. It would be that simple. Granted, we wouldn't buy it from Best Buy, but the idea still works, because someone would get some extra money, one way or another.
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Kaioken wrote:
Beats me. You'd figure if the demand went up, it'd be more expensive. Maybe the demand in your area didn't go up or something. But hey, no complaining if you get something for cheaper than you should, even if it doesn't seem to make sense. =P Its because as was already explained, DDR ram is a niche good now. Its not used in mainstream computers and anytime you have a product that sells very infrequently on the shelf, what happens is that the fixed costs of keeping the shelf space and the manufacturing process for them still exists, but there are less sales to smooth the fix cost over, so to be able to keep selling them you have to sell them for more. Say it costs 100,000 a year for all fixed costs of stocking ram. You sell 4,000 DDR and 7,000 DDR2 in a year fixed cost per DDR is 25 each and for DDR2 its 14 each. Then you have variable cost each of say materials and shipping that maybe add up to 20 dollars each and you end up with a valid explanation. 45 for DDR and 34 for DDR2, even though per stick they cost the exact same to manufacture, the costs of capital and shelfspace etc remain standard. Thats why when people want to order really obscure things it costs them an arm and a leg. | |
Oh gosh RDRAM sucks. You can upgrade the mobo, processor, and get new memory for the cost of a worthwhile RDRAM upgrade.
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Kaioken wrote:
That's an interesting approach to it. Another could be is that since DDR is so outdated, they should definitely sell it for less, so they get rid of that stock. Before it's really obsolete. So I don't really know why it'd be more expensive. The problem is, it will never be "really obsolete". There is still a demand DDR RAM, because it's still cheaper than upgrading your entire computer. However, because of the small (but present) demand, they do not manufacture the DDR RAM in huge quantities. Low supply + demand = high price. It's the same reason old pc100/133 RAM is still expensive and manufactured. Just because it's not the best doesn't mean people don't need to upgrade their computer. | |
Quit smoking crack.
"What", you say? Well, you must be on crack if you're shopping at BestBuy. yay inexpensive | |
I know people worry about buying ram off Ebay, but I bought ram for one of my pc's from this Ebay seller a year ago and it still works great. I think there so cheap because they use a smaller manufacturing process, because the individual memory chips are really small on the memory board. Make sure you check the speed of ram you need first.
Ebay link | |
That would be my hypothesis, any ways.
You can still probably find cheap DDR via online retailers, but big-box stores like Best Buy, Circuit City, Fry's, etc etc, will likely have DDR2 for less. Big-box retailers often also have special sales on DDR2 more often than DDR because they can use that as a selling point to upgrade computers they sell at the store. They can then charge very profitable service charges for installation, which offsets the low-profit margin in today's Desktops, and especially, today's Notebook computers.
~Kujila