Friday, December 31st 2021
ASUS is Working on a DDR4 RAM Adapter for DDR5 Motherboards
With the current short supply and maybe more importantly, the rather insane pricing for DDR5 memory, ASUS is working on what could be called a quick fix for the problem, an adapter that would allow DDR5 motherboard owners to put DDR4 memory in their motherboards. It's not what we'd call an elegant solution at this point, but it's said it'll be refined before it's ready for retail—if it ever enters the market—since apparently the engineer that developed the adapter doesn't always get to see his projects hit retail, as from our understanding he's responsible for a lot of the more unusual products from ASUS' ROG brand.
That said, considering that a lot of high-end Z690 motherboards only support DDR5, this might be an interim solution that makes sense for a lot of people until availability of DDR5 improves. There's some complexity in making the adapter work though, as not only does it need its own power regulation, since DDR4 memory doesn't have onboard power conversion components unlike DDR5, but there's also the 2x 32-bit vs 64-bit bus to take into consideration as well. On top of this, the DRAM traces are obviously extended, which could lead to instabilities, which is why it's apparently only tested with one type of memory right now, which appears to be G-Skill's Tridentz Royal. A further limitation of the adapter is that it requires a special UEFI version to be installed that allows DDR4 memory to be used, but this might be the smallest issue in this "skunk works" project from ASUS' ROG team.
Sources:
Bing on YouTube, via Anandtech
That said, considering that a lot of high-end Z690 motherboards only support DDR5, this might be an interim solution that makes sense for a lot of people until availability of DDR5 improves. There's some complexity in making the adapter work though, as not only does it need its own power regulation, since DDR4 memory doesn't have onboard power conversion components unlike DDR5, but there's also the 2x 32-bit vs 64-bit bus to take into consideration as well. On top of this, the DRAM traces are obviously extended, which could lead to instabilities, which is why it's apparently only tested with one type of memory right now, which appears to be G-Skill's Tridentz Royal. A further limitation of the adapter is that it requires a special UEFI version to be installed that allows DDR4 memory to be used, but this might be the smallest issue in this "skunk works" project from ASUS' ROG team.
108 Comments on ASUS is Working on a DDR4 RAM Adapter for DDR5 Motherboards
Back in a day had quite a few with DDR&DDR2 slots on the same board as well.
Almost every gen we had at least a few "transitional" boards that had both old and new gen of memory slots.
I'm wondering why not now? Adapters are cool and all, but it's going to be unnecessarily convoluted.
C'mon, BIOSTAR and Eltegroup - it's your chance for comeback :peace:
I mean have you ever seen the Gigabyte Superclock VRM Board? It's a thing that you solder directly onto your GPU as a full replacement for the VRM:
Now these "power" traces are'nt small either, and big as possible using copper to minimize any resistance as much as possible. And they work pretty well.
If anything, it would be a better idea just to make a board that supports both DDR4 & DDR5 instead of only making half of the slots work for one or the other.
The only reason I had 4x8G, is because it was the bargain deal on OEM B-Die stick, and I already had plans of parting it out between 2 rigs.
By the time DDR5 becomes mainstream(e.g. few years down the road at least), it will make more sense to simply move on to 2x16GB DDR5 kit.
I think you are overestimating how much is "a lot more expensive" would be, since you still have to do data lanes for both kinds of RAM, and the DDR4 VRM costs pennies in BOM and by now is ironed out to the crisp. I still have hope that we'll see those on lower-end boards w/ H610/B660/Q670 hubs.
It would acutally be cheaper have one product line than two separate ones. The point you making about upgrading from 2 sticks to 4 is not relevant in this case at all. And there are board that have only two ram slots to begin with.
That's just one of those artificial barriers that's not really enforceable. If you can make a board with DDR4 and you can make a board with DDR5 - you can definitely make a board with DDR4 and DDR5. There may be some firmware limitations (like old HP/DELL prebuilts and laptops that did SPD check in order to phase-out non-QVL memory), but it's not hardware, not permanent, and it's still controlled by board makers.
P.S. I'm sure there's still an argument to be made about traces and tolerances, but remember what happened to PCIe 4.0 on 400-series... I'm still pissed about that.
If i was ASUS i will tell Pat whatever his name is to stop blowing hot air out his @$$ and start producing some DDR5 modules. :laugh:
Then again, I'm just saying that there appears to be a reason why we're not seeing boards with two memory types, as I don't know if this is a fact or not.
Intel is very good at punishing bad parters, they simply don't give them any MDF next time, which is what the board makers makes most of their income from, although that does apparently not apply to Asus.Intel doesn't make RAM...
How much more do you need to spend to just buy a purpose-built DDR4 board instead of these?
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IM_Flash_TechnologiesThey're most likely going to cost more than PCIe 4.0 riser cables and they cost $50+ so...
www.micron.com/solutions/micron-ecosystem-partner-programs/chipset-partner/intel
That's why this horrendous adapter came into existence! Unless intel can produce DDR5 RAM they should take their policy and stick it ...
DDR4 for the next 2 years baby!
I wonder if an entry-level $180 DDR4 Z690 is more stable and overclocks better than a flagship DDR5 board hampered by these kludgy adapters! :laugh: