Wednesday, May 21st 2008
AMD Confirms GDDR5 for ATI Radeon 4 Series Video Cards
AMD today announced the first commercial implementation of Graphics Double Data Rate, version 5 (GDDR5) memory in its forthcoming next generation of ATI Radeon graphics card products. The high-speed, high-bandwidth GDDR5 technology is expected to become the new memory standard in the industry, and that same performance and bandwidth is a key enabler of The Ultimate Visual Experience, unlocking new GPU capabilities. AMD is working with a number of leading memory providers, including Samsung, Hynix and Qimonda, to bring GDDR5 to market.
Today's GPU performance is limited by the rate at which data can be moved on and off the graphics chip, which in turn is limited by the memory interface width and die size. The higher data rates supported by GDDR5 - up to 5x that of GDDR3 and 4x that of GDDR4 - enable more bandwidth over a narrower memory interface, which can translate into superior performance delivered from smaller, more cost-effective chips. AMD's senior engineers worked closely with industry standards body JEDEC in developing the new memory technology and defining the GDDR5 spec.
"The days of monolithic mega-chips are gone. Being first to market with GDDR in our next-generation architecture, AMD is able to deliver incredible performance using more cost-effective GPUs," said Rick Bergman, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Graphics Product Group, AMD. "AMD believes that GDDR5 is the optimal way to drive performance gains while being mindful of power consumption. We're excited about the potential GDDR5 brings to the table for innovative game development and even more exciting game play."
The introduction of GDDR5-based GPU offerings marks the continued tradition of technology leadership in graphics for AMD. Most recently AMD has been first to bring a unified shader architecture to market, the first to support Microsoft DirectX 10.1 gaming, first to lower process nodes like 55nm, the first with integrated HDMI with audio, and the first with double-precision floating point calculation support.
AMD expects that PC graphics will benefit from the increase in memory bandwidth for a variety of intensive applications. PC gamers will have the potential to play at high resolutions and image quality settings, with superb overall gaming performance. PC applications will have the potential to benefit from fast load times, with superior responsiveness and multi-tasking.
"Qimonda has worked closely with AMD to ensure that GDDR5 is available in volume to best support AMD's next-generation graphics products," said Thomas Seifert, Chief Operating Officer of Qimonda AG. "Qimonda's ability to quickly ramp production is a further milestone in our successful GDDR5 roadmap and underlines our predominant position as innovator and leader in the graphics DRAM market."
GDDR5 for Stream Processing
In addition to the potential for improved gaming and PC application performance, GDDR5 also holds a number of benefits for stream processing, where GPUs are applied to address complex, massively parallel calculations. Such calculations are prevalent in high-performance computing, financial and academic segments among others. AMD expects that the increased bandwidth of GDDR5 will greatly benefit certain classes of stream computations.
New error detection mechanisms in GDDR5 can also help increase the accuracy of calculations by indentifying errors and re-issuing commands to get valid data. This capability is a level of reliability not available with other GDDR-based memory solutions today.
Source:
AMD
Today's GPU performance is limited by the rate at which data can be moved on and off the graphics chip, which in turn is limited by the memory interface width and die size. The higher data rates supported by GDDR5 - up to 5x that of GDDR3 and 4x that of GDDR4 - enable more bandwidth over a narrower memory interface, which can translate into superior performance delivered from smaller, more cost-effective chips. AMD's senior engineers worked closely with industry standards body JEDEC in developing the new memory technology and defining the GDDR5 spec.
"The days of monolithic mega-chips are gone. Being first to market with GDDR in our next-generation architecture, AMD is able to deliver incredible performance using more cost-effective GPUs," said Rick Bergman, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Graphics Product Group, AMD. "AMD believes that GDDR5 is the optimal way to drive performance gains while being mindful of power consumption. We're excited about the potential GDDR5 brings to the table for innovative game development and even more exciting game play."
The introduction of GDDR5-based GPU offerings marks the continued tradition of technology leadership in graphics for AMD. Most recently AMD has been first to bring a unified shader architecture to market, the first to support Microsoft DirectX 10.1 gaming, first to lower process nodes like 55nm, the first with integrated HDMI with audio, and the first with double-precision floating point calculation support.
AMD expects that PC graphics will benefit from the increase in memory bandwidth for a variety of intensive applications. PC gamers will have the potential to play at high resolutions and image quality settings, with superb overall gaming performance. PC applications will have the potential to benefit from fast load times, with superior responsiveness and multi-tasking.
"Qimonda has worked closely with AMD to ensure that GDDR5 is available in volume to best support AMD's next-generation graphics products," said Thomas Seifert, Chief Operating Officer of Qimonda AG. "Qimonda's ability to quickly ramp production is a further milestone in our successful GDDR5 roadmap and underlines our predominant position as innovator and leader in the graphics DRAM market."
GDDR5 for Stream Processing
In addition to the potential for improved gaming and PC application performance, GDDR5 also holds a number of benefits for stream processing, where GPUs are applied to address complex, massively parallel calculations. Such calculations are prevalent in high-performance computing, financial and academic segments among others. AMD expects that the increased bandwidth of GDDR5 will greatly benefit certain classes of stream computations.
New error detection mechanisms in GDDR5 can also help increase the accuracy of calculations by indentifying errors and re-issuing commands to get valid data. This capability is a level of reliability not available with other GDDR-based memory solutions today.
135 Comments on AMD Confirms GDDR5 for ATI Radeon 4 Series Video Cards
Most ATI users here could probably vouch for how quick we see performance gains in new to the market games, but without strong evidence, I have to call my own argument flaky.
Anyhow, back to the discussion at hand - I'm fairly certain by the way it looks that the HD4000 series will be the true contenders that we haven't seen from ATI since the 1900 series; sure, nVidia will be coutering with new hardware a couple of months after the HD4000 release, but if it's another "panic countermeasure" like nVidia tends to do, we're not going to see any "epic" advancements to their hardware -
The way it loosk right now, IMO, is that ATI will be able to reclaim the performance crown with this new series, and once nVidia releases their upcoming hardware, both companies are going to be toe-2-toe. Price will be the biggest determining factor as to who will win the fight, not performance.
Either way, though, we're in for a heated year between red and green, and I'm really looking forward to it again :toast:
16th June - HD4850
18th June - GTX 260 and 280
And week later than the HD4850 the HD4870 with availabity on first half of July.
And there's not going to be any "panic countermeasure", it never was IMO. 8800GT's low availability was the first time for Nvidia, as so was the first time that Ati delivered at launch instead of doing a paper launch in my recent memory. Ati does good hardware, but when it comes to delivering the actual cards...
but, going by how things have rolled in the past, when ATI states a release date and starts releasing specs, they're usually on the money as far as when they intend to begin sale, nVidia tends to be questionable when all they state is a new hardware release in a "round about this time of year" kind of way.
Although, I can't say for certain what type of counter nVidia's new hardware will be - if it's just a quick fabrication change, then they've probably been capable of the change for quite a while and were just waiting on ATI's new series announcement (it wouldn't surprise me, Intel does the same thing with AMD; they've been sandbagging their processors for quite a while now). ATI on the otherhand have been desiging the R700 for quite some time now, and rumors have been floating around about it's design for a long time now, I'm sure nVidia knew it was coming - so, I guess you're right in that nVidia's new series isn't a "panic countermeasure" like the 9800GX2 was, but, I'd argue that it's more of a "cock block" instead.huh? I've never heard of any issues with ATI card supplies not meeting customer demands on release . . . nVidia, on the other hand, has a hard time preparing for demand. Sure, ATI might not have the kick over nVidia these last couple of years with new hardware, but many customers have gone with ATI's newest cards because nVidia can't supply at first.
now as to short supply, the x800xt pe was the only card i saw in "short supply" from ati, and around here, the 6800ultra was in the same sate, u could get the gt, but not the ultra, you could get the x800pro or pro vivo(pro vivo at the time ALL flashed to xt pe specs, some needed slitly lower clocks, but most dirrect flashed no problem)
and as i said, in my area( neer portland oregon) we had shortages of nvidia cards from the geforce1 up, till the g80 cards hit, the mid and lower versions like the gt/gts where avalable IF they wherent the top version but if the where, you could endup waiting weeks in line behind others who had already sign up toget one when they came in.
the x1800 and 1900 cards when they hit on the other hand had NO supply issues here, dispite selling VERY VERY well(the x1800gto sold like hotcakes at a county fair) really.
and ati has put off relece dates b4, but if they say "it WILL be out by this time", you could get it from channels within days of that, nvidia are never clear on a date till they put the card out, its a way to try and avoid paper launches.....
i know alot of people including myself lost alot of the respect they had for tomshardware due to some extreamly bias reviewers tom hired once apon a time(toms personal reviews alwase came of to me as being very low on bias and at times very blunt about flaws the reviews items had) but one thing you gotta respect him for, if you look thru his archives he once stoped reviewing products that where "paper launch" and he had a front page statement to nvidia,ati,intel,amd and other hardware makers flat out telling them he wouldnt review stuff that wouldnt be readly avalable on the open market at launch, and he stuck to that, dispite it pissing off those companys that wanted their next great paper launch item reviewed to get the hype up..
i do remmber that some items he mentioned when interviewed about that where the p4EE chips that many times you COULDNT get ahold of after launch because intel kept them in such extreamly short supply.
the FX chips because it took a month in some cases for the chips to acctualy be readly avalable.
and he slamed nvidia and ati for the same crap, putting out their ultra hign end products but not having a ready supply, the xt pe and ultra seirse cards where the primary target for this since they where alwase in short supply after launch.
and check ur facts about toms hardware, he reamed nvidia and ati as well as intel, and to a far lesser extent amd(amd had one fx chip that was in VERY short supply as well as a low watt chip line that was hard to get ahold of)
example 6800ultra=paper launched and took MONTHS to acctualy become readly avalable......
the 2900 was also pushed back from orignal launch date(drastickly) but at least around here u could get them in stores after official launch.
the x800pro/pro vivo where NOT paper launched, they where very easy to come by, as was the 6800gt(same class cards) and the 9700/9800 where not hard to get, i knew plenty of ppl who got them when they hit, at the time i didnt have the $ to get one :/
your claim that nvidia never paper launches is countered by a simple google search.
try it, you will find that if you combine proper terms all the company are pretty much equialy guilty of paper launching stuff, now to diffrent market impacts, amd's early low watt chips went thru paper alunches for all intents and perpouses, intel.....well they paper launched every time amd put out a new chip that dirrectly thretened ther few leading points with the p4, nvidia and ati, well they both have a LONG history of launching stuff and having VERY low supplys avalable OR pushing launches back for untold reasions.
latist ones I have seen personaly where the x800xt pe/6800ultra and the 8800gt it was avalable but VERY short supplys, was launched in a panic to avoid ati's 3800 cards from taking market share, the rush launch also showed in the crappy sub-par cooling the cards where given.......the 8800gt lacks polish......
and as i said before, the xt pe was hard/impossable to get but the pro vivo cards from the time could enlarge flash to xt pe specs, i only ever had 4 pro vivos that didnt dirrectly flash to xt pe. and those where all sapphire cards(sapphire in my exp tend to be the worst choice for moding or infact componant quility)
meh, i cant find the toms hardware thing, i think its archived it was years back, around the time of the xt pe/6800ultra where out.
Only two things:
1. 6800 Ultra was out the same day, with tons of cards, but were launched all around the world, so supply was short. On the other hand Ati loves to supply enough to US and don't care alot about the rest of the world, another thing that counts a lot IMO. You could find a 6800 Ultra the same they launched it, at least here in Spain. I know it because I worked in a computer store back then, and we had the card 3 days before launch, but couldn't sell it till THE DAY. Happened the same with 7800.
EDIT: Now, if you are talking about the ULtra 512, then right. That was a paper launch, from my expeirence, indeed, I could say it was a fairy launch, as I never had the chance to see one in the store.
2. X800 XT was a lot later than what they first said, x1800 and x1900 too. Again I know it first hand. Paper launch is not only not having the card in supply at launch, it is also to announce it and constantly delay the launch. Ati has done this a lot of times. Indeed they are going to do it with the HD4870, they are going to "launch" it around 22 June, with availability on first half of July. That's also a paper launch to me.