Back in 2011, it was rather surprising to learn that AMD had begun producing DRAM kits again. After all, it seemed like at that point, RAM companies and their multitude of kits were a dime a dozen. But AMD’s goal since acquiring ATI has been to deliver a complete platform to people – regular user and gamer alike. AMD CPU, AMD GPU and then, AMD memory. It does make sense, even if at the end of the day a special RAM kit holds almost no appeal versus other components in a machine.
Since that first unveiling, AMD went on to produce the RV1333 “Value”, RE1600 “Entertainment” and RP1866 “Performance” kits. Later, to help entice consumers even more, it introduced AMD Radeon RAMDisk software, which it has been giving away in small doses and selling in larger ones. Fast-forward to today, and the company has announced its RG2133 kit – and yes, G stands for “Gamer”.
At DDR3-2133, the Gamer kit isn’t the fastest out there, but AMD touts overclocking-ability here, and its press deck alludes to DDR3-2400 being possible. The kit’s CAS latency is 10, so overall it’s a competitive offering. For those curious – yes, this RAM is equipped with XMP profiles so that you can take full advantage of this AMD RAM on your Intel rig. Snicker.
While it’s possible with some good searching to find an equivalent kit specs-wise for a bit cheaper (up to $10 from what I’ve seen), AMD is including an incentive here: Radeon RAMDisk software that supports up to 64GB of RAM. This will sound a bit unusual once you realize that launch kits will only be available in 16GB (4x4GB) varieties, but A) AMD might be offering larger kits in the future (its words) and B) you’re free to use it on another machine. Though it sounds like an odd scenario, if you pick this kit up for a secondary PC, you’re free to use the software on your main PC equipped with more than 16GB of RAM. Since the license for the software appears to be infinite, it’s good for future-proofing, too.
In the slide below, AMD illustrates how faster RAM can improve gaming performance – a bit of a contrast to what we’ve typically ever seen in our own testing. It’s not noted on this slide, but at the back of the press deck it states that the PC was equipped with an APU (A10, to be exact), which would explain the gains. An IGP directly benefits from the system RAM unlike a discrete GPU, so this is a good point, but a little misleading.
In addition to this launch, AMD has also released an updated version of its RAMDisk software (4.1) that can greatly increase boot times by up to 3x and shutdowns up to 20x. Those interested in the software don’t have to purchase an AMD kit, but those that do will receive it for free. A license for 32GB support retails for $14.99 while a 64GB one retails for $18.99.
For those interested in either the RAM or the RAMDisk software – or both – hit up the official Radeon Memory site.