Quick question: If my video card says DDR2, is that actually GDDR2?

[hurtstotalktoyou]

Here's my card: Biostar V6202TS63

Newegg calls it GDDR2. Biostar calls it DDR2. Which is correct?

Also, if it is real DDR2, is that better or worse than GDDR2? What about GDDR3?

Thanks!

 

[dme92189]

Well, I think it is stated as "G" DDR2 to signify that its is "graphical" double data rate memory. There is no real physical difference, just a marketing term. It is in fact DDR2 RAM, which is worse in performance than DDR3 (or GDDR3, w/e you want to call it). GDDR3 is faster and thus will be better for your framerates, which could be a large issue depending on the game you are playing. But to summarize, GDDR2 = DDR2!

 

[hurtstotalktoyou]

Originally posted by: dme92189
Well, I think it is stated as "G" DDR2 to signify that its is "graphical" double data rate memory. There is no real physical difference, just a marketing term. It is in fact DDR2 RAM, which is worse in performance than DDR3 (or GDDR3, w/e you want to call it). GDDR3 is faster and thus will be better for your framerates, which could be a large issue depending on the game you are playing. But to summarize, GDDR2 = DDR2!

I don't mean to second-guess you, but there's conflicting information on wikipedia:

The first commercial product to claim using the "DDR2" technology was the NVIDIA GeForce FX 5800 graphics card. However, it is important to note that this GDDR-2 memory used on graphics cards such as the GeForce FX 5800 is not DDR2 per se but rather an early midpoint of DDR and DDR2 technologies. Using "DDR2" to refer to GDDR-2 is a colloquial misnomer. In particular, the performance-enhancing doubling of the I/O clock rate is missing. It had severe overheating issues due to the nominal DDR voltages. ATI has since designed the GDDR technology further, into GDDR3, which is more true to the DDR2 specifications, though with several additions suited for graphics cards...

GDDR3 is now commonly used in most NVIDIA- or ATI-based video cards. However, further confusion has been added to the mix with the appearance of budget and mid-range graphics cards which claim to use "DDR2". These cards actually use standard DDR2 chips designed for use as main system memory. These chips cannot achieve the speeds that GDDR3 can but are fast and cheap enough to be used as memory on mid-range cards.

Is that information correct? Is my Biostar card just plain jane DDR2, which is as wikipedia claims somewhere between GDDR2 and GDDR3 in performance? Or is it just a mislabel for GDDR2?

 

[dme92189]

What the article is meaning to say is that the graphical DDR2 (GDDR2) on the FX5800 among others is not truly DDR2 spec. It seems to say that GDDR3 is more like system DDR2, however it also states that "However, further confusion has been added to the mix with the appearance of budget and mid-range graphics cards which claim to use "DDR2". These cards actually use standard DDR2 chips designed for use as main system memory." What I seem to be getting out of this is that certain cards that were early to use "DDR2" tech did not necessarily achieve those speeds associated with system DDR2; yet modern day cards that state the use of DDR2 actually use that RAM clocked at proper DDR2 speeds. The quote "performance-enhancing doubling of the I/O clock rate is missing" also leads me to believe that once again, older cards like the 5800 used a higher clocked version of DDR and labeled it GDDR2 as a marketing ploy of sorts. In short, I still believe that your card, being of the more modern G6 series actually employs true DDR2 technology, while newer cards like the 7900GT etc employ a possibly "dumbed down" version of DDR3 tech or an overclocked version of DDR2 tech. In any case, I still think they are the same, but lets see if we can't find some more information on this!
Dan

 

[dme92189]

Going to bed now hehe, I'll check back in the morning!

 

[hurtstotalktoyou]

Thankyou.