GDDR4 goes into action

Samsung's initial run of GDDR4 modules come in 256Mbits chunks, which mean board makers will have to use eight chips to get to 256MB, or 16 for 512MB. If the company does not ship 64MB modules in a shipping revision of GDDR4, this could prove to be a limiting factor for reaching the maximum memory clock and bandwidth.

The latency of the shipped modules is set at 0.8 nanoseconds, which limits the highest clockspeed of the memory to an astonishing 1.25 GHz in DDR mode.

It does not take a braniac to calculate the possible bandwidth on G80/R580 boards: 32-bytes (256-bit) x 1.25 (GHz) x 2 (DDR) results in 80GB/s of theoretical bandwidth, almost double the currently shipping GDDR3 modules with ATI topping the GDDR3 charts with a 750MHz DDR clock on their R520XT baby.

Both FSAA and AF "for free"? That day approaches ineluctably. µ

L'INQ
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