We've spent quite a bit of time talking to the memory guys and we've learned that DDR3 time is finally ahead of us. Memory manufacturers have expected that DDR3 memory would account for the majority of their sales and revenue a year ago, but X48 and Intel didn't make it happen.

One of the key reasons were many X48 and X38 DDR2 motherboards and the incredible price gap between super expensive DDR3 and very affordable DDR2.

DDR3 prices are currently at the right level, but X58 and Core i7 generation will really push the DDR3 sales, as this chipset simply doesn’t work with DDR2 or any other memory. By Q2 2009 AMD should be selling its DDR3 motherboards and socket AM3 processors and this will lead to even broader adoption of this memory standard.

The message is simple, there will be more DDR3 in Q4 2008 and onward, and if you want Core i7 you simply don’t have a choice; you will have to go after DDR3 and most likely you will be getting three modules, if not even six module packages, due to the three way memory controller in Core i7 Bloomfield CPU.