AMD DDR3 Radeon RAM Are Just a Test

When Advanced Micro Devices was found to have developed branded random access memory, questions immediately arose on whether it had serious intentions, and the answer might have come at last.

Advanced Micro Devices used to be known for its x86 central processing units, until it bought ATI and also became a power on the graphics market.

The Sunnyvale, California-based company proceeded to refining its various products and even combined CPUs with GPUs, creating the Fusion chips, although, admittedly, bringing them to market took quite a few years.

In the meanwhile, it has maintained a comparatively small DRAM business on the side, one that never really got any attention, until recently that is.

AMD has been supplying its add-in-board partners with GDDR5 memory chips for years, but some days ago, some Radeon modules were discovered that used DDR3 memory.

Now, it looks like the outfit may have explained its official stance on the matter, at least according to newer reports.

Basically, the RAM modules were just a test of opportunity to see if there were any regions that could produce profits should AMD start selling RAM there.

It is unclear if the ultimate decision will be favorable, given the way DRAM prices have been falling for so many months and, thus, those very profits will be hard to gather, especially since the memory is low end.

"AMD does not manufacture memory and does not plan to sell system memory directly to our customers. AMD is currently determining if the sale of AMD Radeon-branded memory through channel partners is a viable opportunity and as such it has appeared in some regions for purchase through retail," said Dave Erskine, a spokesman for AMD.

In the future, Advanced Micro Devices could establish a program to supply Fusion-based systems with own-brand RAM, but the ultimate decision lies with PC makers who probably won't be very inclined to do something like this right off the bat.