RV740 a 40nm RV770LE in Disguise?

[btarunr]

RV740, the first GPU built by AMD on the 40nm silicon fabrication process, seems to be gaining attention. While earlier reports suggested this core to be simply a miniaturized RV730, a fresh report emerging from VR-Zone says otherwise.

The RV740 is supposed to be largely derived from the RV770, as in its RV770LE avatar which went into making the ATI Radeon HD 4830. There are some interesting specifications attached to it. To begin with, the core physically holds only 640 stream processors, in comparison to the 800(+) on the RV770. The core continues to have 32 texture memory units (TMUs) and 16 render back-ends. Interestingly, there is a 128-bit wide GDDR5 memory bus instead of 256-bit wide GDDR3 (for the RV770LE). With this, the RV740 has a rated memory bandwidth identical to that of the RV770LE, 57.6 GB/s, though the bus width would warrant the use of lesser number of memory chips, and effectively reduce manufacturing costs. Graphics cards based on this GPU are expected to emerge in early 2009. You can also expect derivatives based on this core with GDDR4, GDDR3 or even DDR2 memory. In any case, the products are expected to cost below US $100.



Source: VR-Zone

[erocker]

Interesting they call it the RV740 if it is indeed a shrink of the RV770LE. It somewhat leads me to believe that there may be a shrink of the 770XT coming afterall.

[DaJMasta]

Originally Posted by erocker

Interesting they call it the RV740 if it is indeed a shrink of the RV770LE. It somewhat leads me to believe that there may be a shrink of the 770XT coming afterall.

With the GTX295 'refresh', it wouldn't be too surprising.


Here's to hoping for it, I may be in the market for a sub $200 4870 or similar card in a month or two

[mrw1986]

Psht, TechFuzion had this posted hours ago from VR-Zone

J/k, hopefully this is that push that ATI needs so their stock can go back up! I'm in the hole so much with them

[smartali89]

I think this will deliver comparable performance to 4830.. and sub $100 makes its $30 cheaper then 4830.. this will be cool... can't wait to get my hands on it.

[Dixxhead]

The perfect chip for a mainstream, powersaving, high-performance laptop GPU; don't you all agree?

Hope it'll make it to the mobility series.

[PCpraiser100]

That's pretty funny, seeing RV740 going up to HD 4830 specs, I was expecting it to be part of HD 4600 series.

[WarEagleAU]

I like the 512mb of GDDR5 that is awesome. I do not like the 128 Bit interface though.

[Dixxhead]

Originally Posted by WarEagleAU

I like the 512mb of GDDR5 that is awesome. I do not like the 128 Bit interface though.

Well, the GDDR5 is there for this. May get slightly higher timings on the ram, but in exchange you get the same bandwidth as double the bus width on DDR2, GDDR3 or GDDR4.

[HTC]

Originally Posted by Dixxhead

Well, the GDDR5 is there for this. May get slightly higher timings on the ram, but in exchange you get the same bandwidth as double the bus width on DDR2, GDDR3 or GDDR4.

Not to mention the smaller die. Unlike the 4830 which has 800 shaders but 160 are disabled during manufacture process, this one only has 640 which also contributes to a smaller die.

Smaller die = less temp (on principle).

[Dixxhead]

Originally Posted by HTC

Not to mention the smaller die. Unlike the 4830 which has 800 shaders but 160 are disabled during manufacture process, this one only has 640 which also contributes to a smaller die.

Smaller die = less temp (on principle).

Ineed; not only because of the now physically unavailable shaders, but also because a 128bit memory controller should be less complex and therefore use less transistors.

I really see this Chip as a possible Laptop GPU hit, as the x700 Mobility was at it's time.

Interesting indeed, the 4830 can easily be overclocked to very close to the performance of the 4850, with a die shrink (possibly allow higher clocks) this could very well be the next best bang for buck card on the market, if they keep the price low then this could sell like hot cakes!

[kysg]

this could be a possibility but I don't see it as next bang for buck, I just don't. Well maybe I'm thinking to far ahead as I'm more interested to see what the 5 series is packing at this point.

[Polarman]

Probably less power, so less heat.

[Hayder_Master]

they don't add rop's or texture unit's , dumm

[magibeg]

Originally Posted by hayder.master

they don't add rop's or texture unit's , dumm

It's not meant to be a high end card, it's meant to be a very affordable high performing card. A great bang for your buck card basically.