14 DAY TRIAL // As the next-generation HBM GPUs from AMD get nearer, the next of the Volcanic Islands generation of GPUs gets revealed showing the Tonga GPU having a 384-bit memory controller on the full chip.
Introduced with the Radeon R9 285 graphics card that saw the light of day a short time before the Maxwell GM204 came with GeForce 900 series parts, it was thought that it would offer just enough bandwidth using the strength of the 2048 stream processor. Initially limited to only 256-bit bus, it was the die color that enhanced its memory transfer, allowing the GPU to use bandwidth more efficiently and reducing the bottleneck risk.
The second chip that used the Tonga architecture was the Radeon R9 M285X made especially for portable platforms having the same powerful 2048 stream processor also with a 256-bit memory bus packing 4 GB GDDR video memory.
Tonga gets an upbeat
The incremental release of AMD GCNs (Graphic Core Next) in the form of the planned Tonga GPUs was delayed last year with the release of Nvidia's Maxwell architecture that came from the start with a 384-bit bus, prompting AMD to delay its new Tonga GPU that should be part of the latest Radeon R9 380 series.
However, during the Carrizo presentation, which we covered it earlier, AMD teased the public with a die shot that may indicate a very much needed update of its Tonga GPU that will probably enter the market inside the next AMD Radeon R9 300 series.
This will help put things more into perspective as the new HBM GPU launch date gets nearer, and more details will be revealed on June 16. It seems that the new GPU has already been shown to a select group of journalists, and a worldwide launch will be slated during AMDs press conference at E3.