Nvidia may still be considered the top option for graphics card enthusiasts but AMD has been showing it up recently. Aside from its hardware powering the PS4 and Xbox One, AMD also has the Radeon R9 295X2 which features a whopping 8 GB DDR5 RAM.
However, PC GPUs still rely on DDR3 RAM. What kind of bottlenecks does this create for the system and can DDR4 memory help resolve it? GamingBolt spoke to AMD head of global technical marketing Robert Hallock on the same.
“I do not believe DDR3 memory presents any sort of bottleneck to a modern graphics card. CPU-bound scaling is a function of the game’s API calls on the producer thread vs. the CPU’s ability to prepare those calls in the command buffer for the GPU’s consumer thread. Memory doesn’t play much of a role there.”
Hallock also commented on the value of high-end graphics cards to the majority of consumers. With both AMD and Nvidia continually raising the bar, do 12 GB GPUs have much place in the real world except among enthusiasts? Will they ever become the immediate standard?
“I personally do not envision 12GB being the standard, though lately we are seeing 8GB cards being advantaged. Reviewer data for games like Shadows of Mordor, for example, suggests that a game’s performance can improve by as much as about 15% on an 8GB card vs. a 4GB model. There are several 8GB AMD Radeon R9 290X GPUs entering the market from our partners to meet that challenge.
“As far as ‘raising the bar’ goes, I’m pleased that AMD continues to offer the world’s fastest graphics card: the AMD Radeon R9 295X2. It’s performance has gone unchallenged for months, and continues to receive praise for all aspects of its design.”
What are your thoughts on Hallock’s opinions? Let us know in the comments below.