DDR5 prices are still in the upper atmosphere right now but looks like someone’s looking to do something about it. Youtuber 林大餅Bing is showing off a prototype card, featuring ROG branding, and discusses the card and even shows it in action.
The video goes into detail how the card works but explains that the card is primarily aimed at converting DDR4 signals for a DDR5 slot and will not spoof the system the boards the recognize DDR4 sticks as DDR5. Intel’s Alder Lake supports both DDR4 and DDR5 natively which allows this cross-compatibility to work.
There are design concerns though like the sheer size of the card which lengthens trace paths which could pose a problem for high-frequency operation. As seen in the image, the majority of the converter card’s space is taken up by the power delivery circuit which is now handled by the DDR5 modules.
The purpose of the card is noble but its actual application is easily ruined by the height. Should the design improve and the height is reduced to allow better compatibility, it could work but performance restrictions may apply. The full video is below and is in Chinese only: