idk going with DDR3/4/5 upgrades are really makes me doubt the whole argument...

those upgrades ARE ACTUAL UPGRADES, and if exiting ddr4 helps on producing more ddr5, why not?

(and the cheap chinese makers can produce plenty of those ddr4 chips, so it's NOT that "monopoly destroying the market" scenario)

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poglet an hour ago | parent | next [-]

Where is everyone finding this cheap Chinese ddr4? Looking for a 16gb sodimm, can't see anything cheap.

	▲	fartfeatures 7 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		China are keeping their pricing high too for now. ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT) chips are entering the market but they don't seem to be reducing prices. Additionally I expect China will serve their domestic market preferentially. Hopefully that still drives prices down long term.

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cowlevel 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

It doesn't. They're made in different factories with different processes.

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gbnwl 2 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Is it just about the factories though? I thought a big part of the current shortage was there literally not being enough silicon wafers to meet demand so much of that supply being redirected towards HBM led to a shortage of DDR4/DDR5 production.

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an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-]

[deleted]

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sysguest 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

...why not?

you can just sell the production line and re-purpose human workers for ddr5?

	▲	cowlevel 44 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		I don't think you get how specialised these facilities are. They can't convert from one process to another, for the same reason they can't just build a new one on the new process. The physical building is not even slightly the bottleneck. If they can afford a new process they can afford a new building for it. There's a story where a fab company tried to open a fab in America but the chips kept coming out broken, and they tried everything and the only thing that worked was disassembling the whole factory and rebuilding it in the exact floor layout of their Taiwanese one. Sometimes they do salvage one or more machines as both processes use the same one. But that had better be worth shutting down the old process, financially.