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View Full Version : News: X1800 can support 1 gig GDDR

Cooper
10-31-2005, 09:13 AM
The INQ (http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=27336) reported today some new info about X1800 mem controller :

We asked around and it turns out that the R520 memory controller is very flexible, and can support even future memory standards such as GDDR4 but more interesting is the fact that it will let you use more than 512MB of memory.
MaxxxRacer
10-31-2005, 09:17 AM
Thats cool.. But WHY!

I suppose you could load ALL of the textures from the entire game into the vid card all at one time... but you would only do this if you had some sort of masacistic need to have 10 minute load times.
Vapor
10-31-2005, 09:18 AM
".....but we only did it for marketting purposes" comes to mind :rolleyes:
Ugly n Grey
10-31-2005, 09:30 AM
the memory controller is programmable... that it supports this or that today means little, but could be important in the future. Why be short sighted? the extra effort required wasn't much I bet (for 1 gig support) if it was anything at all.

Most people here have a gig of RAM according to the poll on the subject. It would have been short sighted of DFI/ASUS etc to make the system boards only support one gig...or two for that matter.

Having a GIG and assigning half of that Gig for Phsyics comes to mind. There's probably other useful functions you can do with RAM on a chip this flexible.
Mehmet_Ali
10-31-2005, 10:26 AM
that will be great.
trakslacker
10-31-2005, 10:35 AM
In terms of today's games, there is no point. But its a great idea for the future. I equate move like this with investing smartly in the stock market. If you make 10% on your money, you won't see huge gains this year, or even 5 years form now, but 30 years from now you will have quite a great deal of money. the R520 performs well now, but I have seen and heard various whispering and offhanded remarks about there being far more to this core than we see at present. So many companies focus on short-term results and as such they never really get anywhere. I do believe that this time ATi has made an investment with this core that will pay off big time down down the road.
jjcom
10-31-2005, 11:18 AM
Yep, if ATI plans to keep using this memory controller in their next gen card, and cards after that, at some point we're going to need 1gig of RAM on video cards. It wasn't all that long ago when 256mb was enough system memory...now 1gig is pretty much standard with 2gigs moving in.
mr_knowitall15
10-31-2005, 03:07 PM
Thats cool.. But WHY!

I suppose you could load ALL of the textures from the entire game into the vid card all at one time... but you would only do this if you had some sort of masacistic need to have 10 minute load times.
ya know, i think id sit thru a 10 minute load if it meant no other loading during the game. HL2 is SOOO annoying for that. It seems like it loads such a tiny area considering the time it sometimes takes....
onewingedangel
10-31-2005, 03:33 PM
Could see a 1gig equipped firegl card doing particuarly well, especially in light of ati's recent driver advancements in open gl.
Shadowmage
10-31-2005, 04:34 PM
You made a good point, 1GB RAM would ROCK for workstations :)

Anyways, I'm guessing they'll definately be reusing the mem controller. It's definately a nice piece of tech :)
jjcom
10-31-2005, 05:31 PM
Like what's said above, this is a plan for the future. The design they've come up with seems nice, since they can tweak and allow their current GPUs to work with GDDR4.

I'm thinking of Crossfire with two 1gig memory cards...probably pointless right now, but in the future that'll probably be useful
Shadowmage
10-31-2005, 07:28 PM
2GB VRAM....

wow, I don't even have 2GB standard RAM for my CPU!
Quad Master
10-31-2005, 09:04 PM
Thats gr8 news , 1GB of GDDR3
Ugly n Grey
11-02-2005, 08:42 AM
I can think of a lot of instances in 3d rendering for film movies etc where a couple gigs of VRAM would speed the process...a lot.. I think it's usefull technology TODAY for this market.
Pinnacle
11-02-2005, 09:11 AM
[QUOTE=MaxxxRacer]Thats cool.. But WHY!

QUOTE]

Because ATI will be riding this technology for a LONG LONG time, increasing the core mhz and increasing the mem mhz. Just like the r480
Stuperman
11-02-2005, 09:20 AM
Yeah, the memory controler from the R600 will probably be a mostly carried over piece from the R520, and I am sure that fireGL with 1024mb of vram will be able to find a home somewhere.