i850E supports PC800 RDRAM only? (INTEL)
By Johan
Wednesday, February 27, 2002 7:54 AM EST
Intel spokesmen have confirmed to us that the new 850-E chipset will feature a 533 MHz FSB but will support only PC800 RDRAM. According to Intel, PC1066 is too expensive right now, but Intel will keep evaluating the price/performance ratio of PC1066. Intel indicated that it is still possible that the i850E features PC1066 support when it will be launched (around June 2002).
A few thoughts: it is rather obvious that Intel has been slightly "traumatized" by the huge price premiums that Rambus Rimms carried at the Launch of the Intel Pentium 4, back in November 2000. Back then, RDRAM costed up to 4 times more than PC133 SDRAM and it was one of the reasons why the Pentium 4 conquered much less marketshare than Intel would have hoped. It seems that They are determined not to make the same mistake again. Nowadays, PC800 Rambus costs about the same as good quality brand PC2100...
We have no accurate pricing right now, but it is weird that PC1066 carries a high pricetag. At the end of last year, some of our industry sources told us that Samsung was getting 35% and better yields at 1066MHz. Yields should have improved now and Rambus has been showing PC1200 rimms lately. We hope to get back with more information, stay tuned.