when will we go 512bit gpu

[sonoma1993]

Is ati and nvidia ever planning on releasing gpu in the near future that are 512bit?

 

[Exsomnis]

You must die for the title which almost caused me to break my mouse clicking so fast.

 

[compgeek89]

Originally posted by: Exsomnis
You must die for the title which almost caused me to break my mouse clicking so fast.

:laugh:

EDIT: For those that didn't see before he edited the title, it was "new 512-bit gpu"

 

[Chesebert]

oh..sneaky..sneaky

 

[sonoma1993]

yeah im a sneaky one, gotta have fun here.

 

[lifeguard1999]

Define what you mean by "512-bit GPU". Are you talking internall representation of the floating point numbers? Are you talking about the memory bus bandwidth?

 

[sonoma1993]

im talking about the gpu itself, you can buy videocards that have 256bit gpu but only 128bit memory bus bandwidth.

 

[videopho]

My guess is that he meant 512mb memory bw. If that's the case you'll see 512mb will be defacto standard for hi-end or hi-price cards by both companies in 2006. Late 2006 or early 2007 it will go mainstream for mid-priced cards.

EDIT: My guess was wrong but not completely out of line!

 

[Munky]

I dont think anyone refers to the gpu as 256-bit, or however many bit, it mostly refers to the memory bus. So far all high end cards have a 256-bit memory bus, although the x1800 cards have an internal 512-bit mem bus inside the gpu, but the mem is still on a 256-bit bus.

Moreover, I doubt we will see a full 512-bit bus anytime soon, because that will require a complex, expensive board layour, and modern gpu's are not starved for bandwidth anyways.

Also, there are more effective solutions to increasing mem performance through a more efficient memory controller (a la x1800) or an embedded memory chip in the gpu die (xbox 360)

 

[Acanthus]

512bit memory will be the only way to break bandwidth barriers without resorting to serial busses. So its going to be one, the other, or both.

 

[sonoma1993]

oh id always thought when people refer to 256bit, they meant the gpu., i know there the 128bit, 256bit memory buses.

 

[sonoma1993]

id always thought the newer gpu were 256bit because of when nvidia release the geforce 256 back in the day. they refer to it as the first 256 bit gpu.

 

[compgeek89]

He wants to know when newegg will say

eVGA GeForce -800 GTX 512mb 512-bit

instead of -800 GTX 512mb 256-bit

 

[lifeguard1999]

To answer your question: no one knows when NV or ATI will go to a 512-bit memory bus. The problem is that to double the memory bus, they would need to double the number of traces. That makes it very expensive. Instead what you will see for the short term (6 months) is increasing the memory speed and increasing the amount of memory. ATI and NV probably already have 1~2GB models in their labs for testing (based on what TheInq is reporting).

 

[LTC8K6]

Matrox has had the Parhelia out for a long time.

512bit gpu with a 256bit memory bus.

 

[Schadenfroh]

Ever heard of a Matrox Parhelia?