Nvidia confirms GT-200 with 1 billion transistors

[trinibwoy]

I think his point is that if the two options can provide the same bandwidth (256+GDDR5 vs 512+GDDR3) it's cheaper and way less complex to design and use the first.

GDDR3 is far cheaper and much more widely available than GDDR5. Also, Nvidia is concerned about the cost of their chips not the cost of the cards. If they use GDDR5 they don't get any benefit from using more expensive memory. Expensive chip + cheap memory for the same net performance and price to the consumer is an overall win for the chip maker. It's the AIB's that get squeezed.

[STaRGaZeR]

GDDR3 is far cheaper and much more widely available than GDDR5. Also, Nvidia is concerned about the cost of their chips not the cost of the cards. If they use GDDR5 they don't get any benefit from using more expensive memory. Expensive chip + cheap memory for the same net performance and price to the consumer is an overall win for the chip maker. It's the AIB's that get squeezed.

Do you think the difference in cost will be enough to compensate double the chips, double the PCB complexity? Maybe in the first weeks/months of GDDR5, but not later.

[trinibwoy]

Do you think the difference in cost will be enough to compensate double the chips, double the PCB complexity? Maybe in the first weeks/months of GDDR5, but not later.

Maybe not, but 512-bit GDDR3 is a far safer bet from Nvidia's perspective as they have more control. If AMD could do it with R600 I don't see why Nvidia couldn't do it now. Going with GDDR5 puts your fate in the hands of the memory manufacturers. Personally, I would prefer GDDR5 on 256-bit for the obvious reasons.