Monday, November 21st 2011
Noises About Radeon HD 7900 Series with XDR2 Memory Grow
As early as in September, we heard reports of AMD toying with Rambus XDR2 memory on its next generation of high-performance GPUs. Apart from our own community's response, that news met with a wall of skepticism as it was deficient in plausibility. New reports from Chinese websites have raised the topic again with fresh rumors that AMD will attempt to implement XDR2 on some of its next-generation ultra-high end products after all. XDR2, according to Rambus, can transport twice the amount of data per clock as GDDR5.
Apparently AMD and Rambus have had much more cordial relations with each other, than other companies the latter engaged in patent disputes with. In 2006, AMD settled outstanding disputes with Rambus by willing to pay licensing costs for certain technologies claimed by Rambus, turning a leaf in the relations between the two. What Chinese sources are suggesting now, is that AMD will design its high-end GPU (codename: "Tahiti") in a way that will let it support both GDDR5 and XDR2. Certain higher-end SKUs based on Tahiti will use XDR2, while the slightly more cost-effective SKUs will use GDDR5.
In related news, other sources told TechPowerUp that AMD could adopt a "top-to-bottom" strategy with the high-end portion of its next-generation of products. This means that AMD could launch the dual-GPU "New Zealand" graphics card first, followed by single-GPU SKUs.
Source:
Mydrivers
Apparently AMD and Rambus have had much more cordial relations with each other, than other companies the latter engaged in patent disputes with. In 2006, AMD settled outstanding disputes with Rambus by willing to pay licensing costs for certain technologies claimed by Rambus, turning a leaf in the relations between the two. What Chinese sources are suggesting now, is that AMD will design its high-end GPU (codename: "Tahiti") in a way that will let it support both GDDR5 and XDR2. Certain higher-end SKUs based on Tahiti will use XDR2, while the slightly more cost-effective SKUs will use GDDR5.
In related news, other sources told TechPowerUp that AMD could adopt a "top-to-bottom" strategy with the high-end portion of its next-generation of products. This means that AMD could launch the dual-GPU "New Zealand" graphics card first, followed by single-GPU SKUs.
64 Comments on Noises About Radeon HD 7900 Series with XDR2 Memory Grow
John Doe obviously referred to data rate with "SD" (SDR-SDRAM), not the basic type of the DRAM.
You're being a pedant for no reason.
XDR2 has it's own specialized controller, which may affect how system memory is accessed. PCIe 3.0 offers less overhead, which may make transfers faster over PCIe 2.0, if done right.
Add in the IOMMU, for additional system ram accesses, and yes, the interface used might play a role.
I'm not sure why you think it's a moot point. Nothing wrong with answering a question, now is there?
www.anandtech.com/show/2792
Slower CPU, but faster memory, wins. Note that both are using identical ram speeds(1333 MHz 9-9-9-24). The APU platform is far more efficient at memory control than Thuban's.
I make a point of using benchmarks anyone can replicate.
This is doublied by the addition of an IOMMU, which is basically just yet another memory controller, but one specific to System Memory Access, rather than both accessing system memory, and onboard caches. Perhaps the use of the IOMMU is needed with the XDR2 contorller, or perhaps not...time will tell.
It's something to be aware of, and to look at, when and if this new technology is used. This also bolster's ECH's interest in if PCIe matters..he never said it would matter...he was curious how it will play out. Could amount ot nothing, of course, but it's far to early to tell.
I wish there was a black hole on the internet where we could put this XDR2 rumor so it would never return. :banghead:
IF this thing has XDR2 I want it !!! :laugh:
Add to that AMD seems to like to be ahead of the curve vs. nVidia with new tech.