The future 40nm graphics solutions may sport the fastest memory out there

Nov 27, 2008 08:55 GMT  ·  By

Not long ago we learned that Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) started building chips under the new 40 nanometer process technology, and both AMD and NVIDIA announced their plans to release 40nm products. As previously reported, the first graphics chip manufactured under the new fabrication process would surface sometime in the first quarter of the next year, if all goes according to plans.

The latest news on the Web should bring more joy to enthusiasts and gamers, as we've heard that both graphics makers would plan to pack their upcoming 40nm chips with the fastest Hynix 7Gbps GDDR5 graphics DRAM, announced only a few days ago. According to the news, the next-to-come AMD RV870 and NVIDIA GT216/206 might feature Hynix's latest technology advancement.

As many of you may already know, AMD's ATI Radeon HD 4800 Series uses the Qimonda GDDR5 graphics DRAM, which pushed the cards all the way to the top of the best performance list. Now we learn that AMD plans using the Hynix 7Gbps GDDR5 DRAM on upcoming chips, as well as on the already existing ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2 graphics cards.

As for NVIDIA, we know that it is getting ready to release its first 55nm products, while also working on the 40 nm ones, which were supposed to arrive sometime in March 2009. The green company is reported to have lowered the power consumption of their upcoming cards quite a lot. As the news states, the NVIDIA GT212 (or the 40nm GT200) should gain as much as 25 percent in energy efficiency compared to the company's previous 65nm chips.

There is no specific information on the period the 40nm chips would hit the market, or whether they will feature the GDDR5 DRAM. The pieces of news have not been confirmed by either AMD or NVIDIA, and they might be only speculations at the time, yet plausible enough to see turning into reality.