techPowerUp! Forums - View Single Post - ATI M97 Already Using 5 GT/s GDDR5 Memory, Highest Memory Bandwidth for Any mGPU

BazookaJoe · Mar 6, 2009, 04:42 AM

AMD has been pulling all sorts of "Superior Bandwidth" nonsense for years and years but in so many cases it has all boiled down to nothing, with many of their "Superior Bandwidth" innovations performing worse than whats already been on the market in all but one or two synthetic tests.

And I should know - Ive been burned by all of that very underhanded marketing on a few processors before (And YES their theoretical bandwidth WAS better, but they still performed worse).

Effective mathematical bandwidth does NOT ALWAYS translate into performance (And can even AGGRAVATE pre-existing bottlenecks, creating buffer overruns that can actually cause entire transfer cycles to drop).

Don't get me wrong, in GFX processing , bandwidth is vital to taking full advantage of a GPU. This does indeed LOOK like good news on the surface, but I'm going to wait for the benchmarks before I begin swishing my credit-card around...

Mar 6, 2009, 04:42 AM	#7
BazookaJoe Join Date: Sep 2008 Posts: 800 (0.46/day) Thanks: 41 Thanked 207 Times in 125 Posts	AMD has been pulling all sorts of "Superior Bandwidth" nonsense for years and years but in so many cases it has all boiled down to nothing, with many of their "Superior Bandwidth" innovations performing worse than whats already been on the market in all but one or two synthetic tests. And I should know - Ive been burned by all of that very underhanded marketing on a few processors before (And YES their theoretical bandwidth WAS better, but they still performed worse). Effective mathematical bandwidth does NOT ALWAYS translate into performance (And can even AGGRAVATE pre-existing bottlenecks, creating buffer overruns that can actually cause entire transfer cycles to drop). Don't get me wrong, in GFX processing , bandwidth is vital to taking full advantage of a GPU. This does indeed LOOK like good news on the surface, but I'm going to wait for the benchmarks before I begin swishing my credit-card around... Last edited by BazookaJoe; Mar 6, 2009 at 04:52 AM.