- ASRock has revealed a new trick to beat high RAM prices
- HUDIMM DDR5 RAM modules are significantly more affordable
- They do cut down on performance, though, so that’s a trade-off here
There’s a new type of DDR5 RAM in town, and it’s cheaper, but before you start rejoicing that all your memory-related prayers have been answered, keep in mind that there are some serious caveats attached here.
Tom’s Hardware noted ASRock’s announcement of their new HUDIMM DDR5 RAM module for Intel chipset motherboards. In a nutshell, these are designed to be quite a bit more affordable, but to achieve that, performance drops significantly.
A standard stick of DDR5 (UDIMM) uses a two-subchannel architecture (2 x 32-bit), but with HUDIMM (the ‘HU’ stands for Half Unbuffered), you get a single 32-bit subchannel instead.
The article continues below
It sounds very technical, but what happens is simple enough – the bandwidth and density of the RAM stick is effectively halved. And of course, sticks that need fewer memory modules can be made a lot cheaper because you only buy half the chips to produce them.
As the company noted it X: “ASROck’s HUDIMM architecture reduces chip count and cost, enabling more affordable and flexible system builds for users and system integrators worldwide.”
Intel’s Robert Hallock, VP and GM of its Enthusiast Channel Segment group, commented: “Innovations like ASRock’s One sub-channel DRAM technology are critical to ensuring that desktop computing remains accessible despite the rising demand and cost of DDR5 memory.
“Intel is grateful for ASRock’s support in bringing this to market for our 600/700/800 series chipsets, ensuring Intel users have more access to the benefits of DDR5 memory for years to come.”
So as mentioned, these new RAM offerings are compatible with ASRock’s Intel 600, 700 and 800 motherboards.
ASRock has joined TeamGroup to produce these HUDIMM sticks, and needless to say, they will be entry-level offerings. This RAM will also be manufactured for laptops in the form of HSODIMMs.
Asus is also reportedly looking into this type of memory according to leaks on the X, so we could see a wider shift towards HUDIMMs as the year progresses.
Analysis: sign of the RAM times
The catch is that the cuts in this RAM mean that performance will be much slower. Is that a compromise you want to make? Perhaps it is, given the price of DDR5 RAM right now, which has reached exorbitant levels, frankly.
The twist is that ASRock’s new way of working here can run alongside standard DDR5 RAM, which remains compatible in these motherboards. HUDIMM offers asymmetric dual-channel support at BIOS level, so you should be okay to put a HUDIMM next to a standard UDIMM and they will work fine in dual-channel mode (with 3 x 32-bit subchannels active – one from the HUDIMM and a couple from the UDIMM).
If you had an 8GB HUDIMM stick along with a 16GB UDIMM, this would in theory be a faster implementation than a single 24GB UDIMM stick. So you can e.g. start with just an 8GB HUDIMM (or 16GB) and then expand with a UDIMM later (when prices drop back to a more reasonable level).
As Tom’s points out, ASRock’s marketing indicates a not-insignificant 90ns latency with this RAM standard, and the proof will be in the pudding on how these kinds of theorized combinations work.
Meanwhile, HUDIMMs certainly represent a shortcut to lower DDR5 RAM prices, but the compromise in performance (away from mix-and-match scenarios) will be a high price in itself. Still, this may be an option that some people want to exercise, and I can’t say I blame them when I look at what retailers are asking for the most common DDR5 these days.
What this also serves as a reminder of how bad the RAM crisis has gotten, and the fact that hardware manufacturers are looking at long-term solutions like this scheme, isn’t much comfort as to the future duration of this whole affair.
The best laptops for all budgets
Follow TechRadar on Google News and add us as a preferred source to get our expert news, reviews and opinions in your feeds. Be sure to click the Follow button!
And of course you can also follow TechRadar on YouTube and TikTok for news, reviews, video unboxings, and get regular updates from us on WhatsApp also.
