Next Generation Hardware Speculation with a Technical Spin [pre E3 2019]

Indeed. Don't know how I missed/forgot the details.

 

Those kinds of oversights are real head scratchers. After Nintendo's handheld team had managed forward/backward compatibility for Gameboy in the 80's and kept on maintaining it gen after gen, I still can't believe how little effort console designers seam to put into planning ahead for that stuff.

 

https://www.techpowerup.com/251108/gddr6-memory-costs-70-percent-more-than-gddr5

 

Yeah, how does this compare to last gen...people back then said the PS4 RAM was too expensive to have 8gb;

http://www.redgamingtech.com/ps4-developers-were-speechless-when-8gb-gddr5-ram-was-announced/

"It’s extremely likely that one of the major reasons developers were so surprised at Sony’s announcement is the extra costs associated with the 8GB of GDDR5 RAM. Prices regularly fluctuate on RAM, but the PS4’s RAM is currently around 30 dollars more expensive than the PS4’Xbox One’s. Cost and worries over yields of chips large enough to provide 8GB RAM are the reasons its thought Microsoft opted to go with DDR3 in the X1."

 

Comment on that article from a reader there questioning the accuracy of it all as list prices show 27% difference not 70%.

 

hhmmm;

https://techinsights.com/about-tech...laystation-4-vs-xbox-one-teardown-comparison/

This has the memory cost at $39 for XBO vs $62 for PS4 which is around 60% more...

 

Thats DDR3 vs GDDR5 for those not following along at home.

 

I suppose I'm just saying that the RAM cost ~60% more in PS4 so does it really matter that this RAM might be 70% more? (even though it seems that figure is off anyway)

 

From ram manufacturers statements, we know the production cost overhead of gddr6 is 20% at launch and will drop to 10% afterwards. But that doesn't include offer/demand price gouging. Maybe that 70% isn't crazy until production ramps up.

Not sure I fully understand, but it looks like the low quantity suppliers like digikey, farnell, mouser etc... don't change the price based on offer and demand. That's why you see the availability at 0 with no lead time, you won't get anything from there until the supply side can make more parts than their big contracts ask for. So it follows that large orders which require a hundred million chips is going to be much more expensive if the supply is limited.

The 8GB of ps4 wasn't just buying twice the chips for twice the price on a whim, it must have required a significant negociation to get the rumored low price sony managed to get. I speculate that rebalancing the yield by helping samsung dump a stable hundred million lowest bin gddr5 per year might have been profitable to both companies. It increased the availability of the very profitable high speeds bins for samsung.

 

Can you please link the source for your first paragraph? Thanks.

 

https://www.gamersnexus.net/industr...-next-gen-nvidia-gpus-3-month-mass-production

 

New specs for HBM2E, it allows 16gbits per die.
https://www.jedec.org/news/pressrel...breaking-high-bandwidth-memory-hbm-standard-0

The jesd235b doc is not available for free yet.

A single stack of 4 of even the garbage speed bin would allow a ps4pro-slim?

 

Why is it that it only comes in even numbered stacks, why no 5-high stacks, for example?

 

I doubt they revise the pro. Going to a 128-bit GDDR6 bus makes more sense if you’re going to touch the memory controller.

Notice they skip 10-stacks too. I’m not sure why.

 

It's a question of banking and channel aggregation through the stack. With HBM the stack gets full speed and full bank count from 4 dies together, (2 channels per die, 8 channels on the interface at the bottom of the stack). Anything that isn't a multiple of 4 makes little sense unless it's the half speed 2hi and quarter speed 1hi for special low capacity and low power needs, I don't think those exist yet outside of standards docs.

It would be like putting different dimm sizes or count in different ddr4 channels on a PC, or using a single dimm and leaving the other channels empty. You know, like Dell does all the time.

 

https://www.flatpanelshd.com/news.php?subaction=showfull&id=1546474656

LG announce first HDMI 2.1 TV. It begins future proof TV for next generation console.

 

Don't tell me I have to replace my E7 for next gen too...that'll go down well with the Mrs!

 

Open a tab for Russian brides, and a tab for a new TV, and let her choose. You might get lucky: Russian bride + new TV