DDR2 memory has been in use in computer graphics cards for years. Intel began support for DDR2 on their chipsets with the 925 and 915 chipsets in 2004 but AMD has waited till today to implement support for the memory on their memory controller. DDR2 has become mainstream priced, with similar or lower prices on DDR2 compared to DDR2.

There several significant differences between DDR and DDR2 memory. DDR2 memory is packaged in a Fine Ball Grid Array (FBGA) while DDR uses a Thin Small Outline Package (TSOP) configuration. FBGA packaging is generally smaller than TSOP packaging, allowing more memory to be put on the same DIMM. Memory frequencies are also higher on DDR2. While DDR support is currently limited to 400MHz on the AMD platform, DDR2 memory has moved from 533MHz to 667MHz, to 800MHz and potentially 1066MHz.

AMD has put the memory controller on the CPU since the advent of the Opteron and Socket 940 platform. What this means is the key differences between chipsets that characterized earlier CPUs in memory support and performance is relegated to lower latency rather than simply by looking at the frequency. DDR2 latency is normally 4 while DDR latency is at best 2.