AMD today hits the 32GB GPU mark with their FirePro W9100 card. You might recall this device is not new, SemiAccurate first wrote up the W9100 card in mid-2014.
What is new today is the memory, the old 16GB card has now been bumped up to 32GB for the creative types. That would be content creators working in 4K resolutions and VR where large surfaces and high pixels depths are the norm. Other than that it is a Hawaii with a massive memory allocation, ‘pro’ drivers, and a box without a teen fantasy chrome bikini clad woman with a 3M sword on it.
Given no other company has a 32GB card on the market, at least 32GB in one memory space as opposed to split across two GPUs, the new W9100 should do quite well. Those needing 16.0001GB or more will see a massive performance increase, those needing 15.9999GB or less won’t buy this card anyway.
More importantly this brings up a very interesting aside, there are obviously new high density GDDR5 memory stacks floating around. Hawaii has a 512b wide memory interface meaning 16 GDDR5 die are supported, 32 in clamshell mode. 32 die would mean 8Gb DDR5 die have to exist, something which should trickle down to the mainstream consumer cards soon enough.
This tells us something interesting about Nvidia’s upcoming Pascal GPU too.
Note: The following is for professional and student level subscribers.
Disclosures: Charlie Demerjian and Stone Arch Networking Services, Inc. have no consulting relationships, investment relationships, or hold any investment positions with any of the companies mentioned in this report.
Charlie Demerjian
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