Skylake + DDR3

Hardware Motherboards
#1

I skimmed through this article the other day and found it quite interesting.

http://www.tomshardware.com/news/skylake-memory-support,30185.html

Skylake's IMC officially supports only DDR3L with a voltage of 1.35, and it officially supports DDR4 at 1.2 V ... but these voltages are likely used to avoid damaging the IMC.

Thoughts? I guess it refers to boards like the Asus Z170P D3, which even support DDR3 up to 3100mhz. That's often above 1.5v - usually 1.65v.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813132572

#2

Are there any boards with DDR3 and DDR4 slots?

Because DDR4 prices are low enough that anyone building a new system might as well go DDR4 for skylake.

#3

Either or; the mobo manufacturer has to decide what they wire

#4

Weren't there like some boards with DDR and DDR2 on them? or DDR2 and DDR3 slots?

#5

I think there were.. but I doubt that will happen this time. That was back when DDR moved to DDR2 as far as I recall correctly

#6

Yeah I have seen some motherboards that were ddr2 to ddr3 hybrid motherboards don't know much about them but all i knew is that for ddr3 your ram has to be at 1333mhz and lower something since the cpu were not made to handle the higher speed ram cause of ddr2 limitations.

#7

I really wouldn't mind seeing a review of this board, with a good Skylake CPU installed, with both an equal size and performance comparison against DDR3 and DDR4 installed. I bet the result would favor DDR3 if price was involved, but its possible DDR4 could destroy DDR3 if everything was left equal. Just depends on how well Skylake responds to the DIMMs installed...

cc @Logan @wendell

#8

my x99 asus has ddr3 support

#9

I'd be surprised if these wasn't a 'crossover' mobo out there somewhere that had ddr3 and ddr4 slots on it like the old AMD mobos for amd phenom 2's that had ddr2 and ddr3 slots on it lol

#10

Which one is that?

#11

Asus x99 s deluxe

has a page in ther manual showing compatible DDR3

#12

Did not know that the sockets are even compatible ^^

#13

lol skylake and X99 arnt ;) im just sayin ^^

#14

The RAM sockets.. I have not compared the lockingslots on DDR3 to DDR4 so far

#15

Ah i see, I believe they are the same?

#16

I would have been surprised if they were:

Top: DDR4 Bottom: DDR3

#17

I don't think it's possible. DDR4 is 288 pin where as DDR3 is 240

#18

All I can find in the manual for the X99-S

8 x DIMM, max. 64 GB, DDR4 3200 (O.C.) / 3000 (O.C.)* /2800 (O.C.)*
/ 2666 (O.C.)* / 2400 (O.C.)* 2133 MHz, non-ECC, un-buffered memory
Quad channel memory architecture
Supports Intel ® Extreme Memory Profile (XMP)

I see though wat you mean... they have DDR3 xxxx MHz capability tables. its wired but physically impossible:

A DDR4 module is notched differently from a DDR, DDR2, or DDR3 module. DO NOT
install a DDR, DDR2, or DDR3 memory module to the DDR4 slot.

1 Like
#19

Ah, thats strange, my motherboard definely has a page on ddr3 support... although I didnt really look into it much

#20

AH i see, I didn't really look into the page much, just noticed the table,