June 2008: AMD launch his Radeon HD 4870 with 512Mb of brand new,
and very costly,
GDDR5 @ 4Gbps.
April 2009: AMD
use these vram for his Radeon HD 4890, wich is a high-end card.
April 2009: And AMD also
use these same vram for his Radeon HD 4770 ... a mid-range card with a $100 price tag.
We are now about 15 months after the RV770 launch, and 15 months after the first use of 4Gbps GDDR5, which means the price of these vram must be really low now. So I have no reason to believe that the +5,0Gbps GDDR5 is sold at an exorbitant price. Actually the price for the 6,0Gbps GDDR5 must be the same that AMD have paid for the 4Gbps GDDR5 at the RV770 launch time.
So why not 6,0Gbps GDDR5 for the HD 5870 or maybe HD 5890 ?
What you are saying is helping my case...
In Q2 2008 Hynix was
selling 5,0Gbps GDDR5 ICs and Samsung 5,5Gbps GDDR5 ICs
For example:
http://www.hynix.com/datasheet/ShortForm/2Q08_ShortFormCatalog_GraphicsMemory.pdf
So although there were 5,5Gbps GDDR5 ICs in Q2 2008 after 1 year and 1 quarter the memory is still not used by AMD & ATI.
What you said is this
only:
"
So who will buy the 5,5Gbps & 6,0Gbps GDDR5 from Hynix ?
If Hynix produce it, it's because someone wants it.
Surely Hynix won't pile up these vram in a warehouse.
There are only two possibilities: AMD or Nvidia."
This particular logic doesn't lead anywhere...
If you have said instead,
that in your opinion the upcoming products (standard config) will be bandwidth limited with 5,0Gbps GDDR5,
then i wouldn't even say anything... (although i can analyze the 4870/5870 analogy further... )
So for the above example (Q2 2008 4870),
probably a logic thing to say is,
that the 4870 didn't need more than 4,0Gbps GDDR5 ICs which i agree of cource, and that
depending on the core clock and the architecture,
the 5870 will probably be a lttle bit bandwidth limited with 5,0Gbps GDDR5 ICs,
but as you can see
you didn't say that
and your logic was the kind of "if they (Hynix) build them (6,0Gbps), then they (AMD&ATI) will come"
"
So who will buy the 5,5Gbps & 6,0Gbps GDDR5 from Hynix ?
If Hynix produce it, it's because someone wants it.
Surely Hynix won't pile up these vram in a warehouse. (You mean like what they did for a year with their Q2 2008 5,0Gbps ICs?)
There are only two possibilities: AMD or Nvidia."
About Samsung/Hynix production correlation....
The below terms are different:
Tape out
Risk production
Mass (volume) production
Hynix anounced that is
planning to start volume production in H2 (Q3 & Q4) 2009! (Samsung in early Q1 2009...)
The above,
only as a clarification,
because this fact like i said above it doesn't play a role with the logic that you followed in your first reply...
In your second reply you said that probably the 6,0Gbps GDDR5 ICs will have now the same price with what price the 4,0Gbps GDDR5 ICs had in Q2 2008!
Let's say that i agree (although the 6,0Gbps GDDR5 ICs are in the same process with the 4,0Gbps GDDR5 ICs so i am not sure what are the Yields Hynix has or in what price they want to sell them...)
But anyway let's say that this is correct (
very costly 6,0Gbps GDDR5 ICs)
You said:
"
June 2008: AMD launch his Radeon HD 4870 with 512Mb of brand new, and very costly, GDDR5 @ 4Gbps."
and
"
Actually the price for the 6,0Gbps GDDR5 must be the same that AMD have paid for the 4Gbps GDDR5 at the RV770 launch time."
ATI launched in Q2 2008 the:
4850 (256mm2) with GDDR3 at 200$
and then they had also the 4870 (256mm2) GDDR5 based model at 300$
100$ difference (or 1,5X)...
I don't see that analogy happening with the upcoming launch...
(i am talking only, about memory configuration differencies (5850->5870) & die size differencies (RV770 256mm2 -> RV870 +300mm2 ...)
But no need for us to argue here... (we will see in a few days the actual product spec anyway...)
