The Tech Report

"A substantial number of rumors and speculation has already emerged regarding AMD's next-generation Radeon graphics cards, dubbed the Radeon HD 4000 series by news sites. Earlier this morning, AMD put out a press release to confirm one detail: it plans to use GDDR5 memory in its next-gen cards.

AMD says forthcoming Radeons will be the first commercial products to use GDDR5 memory, and that it has teamed up with major memory makers including Samsung, Hynix, and Qimonda to make that happen. Using the new memory type will allow for five times the bandwidth of GDDR3, the company boasts, and it will let AMD use narrower memory interfaces without sacrificing performance. In the press release, AMD graphics chief Rick Bergman suggests that may lead to smaller GPUs: "The days of monolithic mega-chips are gone. Being first to market with [GDDR5] in our next-generation architecture, AMD is able to deliver incredible performance using more cost-effective GPUs."

Also, AMD predicts that new error detection systems in GDDR5 RAM will translate into better reliability for its next-generation stream processors. AMD aims its existing dedicated stream processors like the FireStream 9170 at scientific and engineering applications, so such a trait should indeed be welcome."

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