14 DAY TRIAL // At a time when NVIDIA is working on its yet unannounced 55nm graphics card, which is supposed to take the performance crown away from ATI's Radeon HD 4870X2 board, AMD's graphics division is maintaining its focus on the 40nm technology process. We reported a few days ago that the company had taped out the first GPU under the new fabrication technology, and now we learn a few more details on the chip.
The first next-generation core developed under the 40nm node is reported to come under the name of RV740. The chip would be a mid-range part, the successor of RV730. Being the first of a new series, the GPU is expected to lay the foundations for the company's future RV870 chip, which should be a high-end part.
What seems rather interesting is that the upcoming RV740, although a mainstream part, is reported to feature 900Hz GDDR5 memory, which translates into 3600MHz effectively. Word on the Web has it that AMD has such a part in the lab and that it is testing it, probably to see how well the chip would perform if it had no memory limitations. It seems that AMD did the same with RV730 cards, which were tested in the labs with much higher memory speeds than those featured in the products available on the market.
According to the news, the RV740 silicon AMD taped out is an A11 revision, the board is B507/895, while the memory used on it is GDDR5 Qimonda, or IDGV1G-05A1F1C-40X, to be more precise. It is already known that the company announced plans to use the latest GDDR5 memory advances in its 40nm parts, yet many expected the GDDR5 to be seen inside high-end parts, and not mid-range chips.
AMD should unveil its actual plans in the near future, considering the fact that the first 40nm parts were announced to surface sometime in March next year.