ASUS pictured working on a DDR5 to DDR4 RAM adaptor
This adaptor may never even be released.
Share this article...
WePC is reader-supported. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Prices subject to change. Learn more
Since the advent of the brand-new Z690 and Intel Alder Lake boards, we’ve seen the first uses of DDR5 RAM in consumer systems. However, similarly to the GPU shortages we’ve seen over the past 18 months, there has also been a shortage of this brand-new type of RAM that these boards support, too. DDR5’s first-generation in consumer hardware means that they’re still ironing out some kinks with the architecture, so some people may also be hesitant to splash the cash on a new kit of DDR5 rather than just sticking with the old, reliable DDR4 DIMMs that we all know and love.
Some board manufacturers such as Gigabyte have gone to the lengths of making variant DDR4 Z690 boards for almost every Z690 SKU that they make. So, the good folks at ASUS have decided that the best way forward would be to start prototyping their own DDR5 to DDR4 kit, since both architectures work very differently from one another, and the corresponding slots are not keyed to be compatible with each other, either.
The ASUS DDR5 to DDR4 RAM adaptor requires its own power regulation due to the ways in which the two architectures differ, so the board needs those components on the adapter so that DDR4 is actually able to function at all. Additionally, it also requires a special version of a UEFI BIOS to even work at all. This project may never see the light of day, but it’s always interesting to see designers attempting to work their way around this issue as supplies for DDR5 are still so limited.
In the video, a user by the name of Bing is purported to be an ASUS engineer who often develops these kinds of skunkworks projects themselves, and more often than not never make it to retail. However, it remains to be seen if there is consumer demand for this type of device at all.
