Now that the GeForce GTX 280 is out, you may be wondering what the alternative from AMD will be like. Well, for starters, it will have GDDR5, something the first GTX 280s don't. Quimonda, or was that Infineon? is more than ready to mass provide GDDR5 (Graphics Double Data Rate) memory modules. Other manufacturers like Hynix Semiconductor, or Samsung, will also jump onto that wagon, but it looks like having skipped GDDR4 entirely, in favour of GDDR5, gives Quimonda the edge, here.

The chips waiting to be produced are configured at 512 Mb and reach a speed of 4.5 GHz. This could translate, with a 512 bits memory bus, into a bandwidth of roughly 300 GB/s. Top of the line graphics cards form AMD/ATI are sure to benefit from the improvement, while nVidia should also join the fun (it's anyone's guess just how soon they will). It would actually be time for them to leave GDDR3, like ATI did (when they adopted GDDR4 in 2006).

After almost five years of GDDR3 rule (let's face it, GDDR4 was never a big deal), it's time for a new push in graphics memory performance that doesn't rely on the expensive bus trick. GDDR5 won't be cheap either, but in the long term prices will go down.

Link: X-bit labs.

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