[toast0]

I think this makes sense for IBM, but probably not for AMD and Intel. AMD and Intel are putting out new chips every year (even if they're just Skylake refreshes), so it's not too big of a deal to change the memory interface, and they are capable of putting in two flavors of DDR support when some flexibility is needed. For IBM, I don't think they release incremental chip designs each year, so it makes more sense for them to take the tradeoff of a flexible interface, so they can get onboard with newer ram faster.

[varispeed]

It is pretty much the current greed driven technology. Company doesn't want to invest in proper FPGA technology that will allow reconfiguration of chipsets on the fly, but instead they want people to buy new chipsets every year or so and preferably make the old ones obsolete (not resellable)

[wmf]

Computers have never used FPGA memory controllers that are upgradeable to newer DRAM standards so there's really no reason to say that's the "proper" solution. And memory standards overlap for 4-5 years which also happens to be the lifetime of a PC so the price/performance benefit of future-proofing really isn't there.

[varispeed]

This kind of proves my point. It doesn't lead to maximisation of profits therefore it is not being developed.

[toast0]

How would the increased cost of a FPGA memory controller benefit the end user?

They would still need a new motherboard to use newer memory types, because the modules will have different connectors. They might need a new chipset if the newer memory type wasn't actually addressable with the FPGA (not enough pins, not enough signalling capacity, not enough voltage flexibility, etc).

For the majority of users, they don't change the cpu, motherboard, or memory for the life of the computer (in many cases, some or all of these parts are soldered to the board). Paying more for flexibility that will never be used isn't good for anyone.

[r1nkgrl]

I would agree that it supports your point. Proves it? no.

[Klinky]

AMD and Intel have released multiple DDR4 chipsets over there last 4~ years. The chipsets releases have hardly been related to RAM type support. Typically it's power or PCIe related, with Intel being the worst offender.

[selectodude]

RAM support is on the CPU die. The chipset doesn't connect the CPU to RAM anymore and hasn't for a very long time.

[Klinky]

Did I say it did?

Ryzen has seen improvements to DDR4 module support with each generation and to take advantage of the latest generation you may need to upgrade your motherboard to one with the latest chipset, depending on vendor support. Even if your older board supports the newer generation, likely you have a more limited QVL for DDR4 modules, so compatibility and perf may be limited.

This is why I implied it had limited impact, though there is some truth to boards with newer AMD chipsets offering better memory support.

This was a response to parent comment stating it was greedy behavior to try to get consumers to buy new motherboards with new chipsets, when the chipsets have little impact on RAM compatibility/support.