hbm (high bandwidth memory) needed?

[clevercouple]

Hi, not sure if this has been covered yet but I am confused with all the talk about HBM coming out on the AMD cards. I do not know if you need that much bandwidth. I always overclock my memory last when I oc my graphic cards as that is not as big as a priority as the clock speed on the GPU right? So I know it can help a little with the fps but how much is enough? Is this just hype? Does actual vram capacity take a higher priority vs bandwidth? I just don't know. I game at 2560x1440 and I think that 8gb of vram is the sweet spot but at what bandwidth? I would just like some clarification so if you are in the know please let me know so I can wrap my head around it. Thanks 

[Tedster]

For 1440p you really shouldn't need more than 3-4GB of VRAM.

The bandwidth will be largely increased with HBM, meaning that it should help with card performance in general.

 

However, you probably shouldn't really bother. And VRAM usage depends on what games you're running. As long as there's enough VRAM there shouldn't be any measurably difference in performance.

[BoredErica]

Doubt it's hype. Developing chips is more esoteric and in my eyes not nearly as prone to hype as many other products, particularly peripherals like headsets. Designing chips takes a lot of smart people, and it's not a coincidence that both AMD and Nvidia are working on stacked vram. I believe that the future of discrete graphics includes stacked vram and old the style of placing memory chips far away from the core will one day be considered ridiculous.

 

In terms of actual gains, I cannot tell you because the products aren't even out yet. Give it a month or two, and we'll get a taste of what is to come. I have read in some places that higher bandwidth memory is really more relevant for higher resolutions, like 1440p or 4k or people pushing about that (surround setups). I want to see benchmark numbers, we can sit here all day and debate and dissect the technology (and people do actually do that), but that's all speculation.

8gb is more than enough for 1440p today and in the forseeable future, and some would say overkill.

[TheMcSame]

Honestly I'm doubting it's going to be a huge performance boost, I mean, significantly improve the performance of one thing and the other holds you back. Not to mention the 380 is a re-branded 290 and the difference between that and the 390 wont be huge. That's the way I see it anyway.

[MrSuperb]

The bandwidth will be largely increased with HBM, meaning that it should help with card performance in general.

It won't change performance at all, if the memory wasn't bottlenecked before ...

[RuKiddin06]

It won't change performance at all, if the memory wasn't bottlenecked before ...

Right, but if the memory has a significant bandwidth increase over GDDR5, then it could mean better memory-sharing in DX12, right? Just a thought.

[BoredErica]

It won't change performance at all, if the memory wasn't bottlenecked before ...

Define bottleneck.

[Aphala]

Define bottleneck.

 

^ Seconded

It won't change performance at all, if the memory wasn't bottlenecked before ...

[MrSuperb]

Define bottleneck.

your memory doesn't actually do any calculations.

so if the processing units on your GPU can't process any more data than they already can access it just won't make any difference.

from what it looks like GPUs like the 980 or Titan X aren't bottlenecked by their current memory solutions.

this might change in the future with faster processing units.

[Caeradwyn]

your memory doesn't actually do any calculations.

so if the processing units on your GPU can't process any more data than they already can access it just won't make any difference.

from what it looks like GPUs like the 980 or Titan X aren't bottlenecked by their current memory solutions.

this might change in the future with faster processing units.

 

Increased texture quality might start taxing the memory bus though, despite not really having such a major impact on rendering performance. This seems to be where games have really changed a lot over the last couple of years, more so than in polygon count. So it's not impossible, perhaps even likely, that memory bandwidth will be a much more noticeable problem in a year, perhaps two.

[Enerjex]

I welcome any advancement in GPU technology, there's nothing wrong with ruling out vram as a bottleneck. It's rumoured there will be a gddr5 version of the 390x, so the choice (could) be yours

[Badger906]

the main benefit is smaller gpus. as the HBM is stackable. so it can all be fitted closer to the gpus cpu.

the new 390x has "surfaced" I'm leaked pictures and is only about 200mm in length!

imagine a monster 4k rig in a m itx chassis!! I mean a proper m itx chassis so it's no bigger than a shoe box!!

try cramming a titan into that!

[Aphala]

the main benefit is smaller gpus. as the HBM is stackable. so it can all be fitted closer to the gpus cpu.

the new 390x has "surfaced" I'm leaked pictures and is only about 200mm in length!

imagine a monster 4k rig in a m itx chassis!! I mean a proper m itx chassis so it's no bigger than a shoe box!!

try cramming a titan into that!

 

Give me a hammer, a suite case and 5 tins of deoderant and i'll see what I can do.

[Orblivion]

The 290X and and 970 trade punches on overall performance, some games favor one and some games favor the other.  However in many of the games that favor the 970, when pushed to higher resolutions such as 4k and sometimes even 1440, the 290X suddenly pulls ahead.  The explanation for that swap in superiority is that AMD uses a wider memory bus, which indicates a memory bottleneck.  With 4k clearly on the horizon, HBM will help.  It will be tough to judge how much of the performance increase is from HBM however, since the 390(X) is a new GPU as well.

[Sintezza]

It's rumoured there will be a gddr5 version of the 390x, so the choice (could) be yours

 

i have nowhere seen that rumor.

[Enerjex]

i have nowhere seen that rumor.

I read it some months ago on one of the click-bait tech sites, was probably more speculation than rumour though.

[Aphala]

I read it some months ago on one of the click-bait tech sites, was probably more speculation than rumour though.

Nah GDDR would cost more to produce it would appear you may mean the WCE (Water cooled edition) and the Air cooled one

[MrTiC]

As long there are no official specs or benchmarks everything atm is pure speculation ...

 

But since we are speculating, my guess is that HBM is gonna shine at 4K and higher with 8K textures

[Enerjex]

Even if the memory is overkill right now the 490x will make good use of it.... in 2 years and 3 driver releases time

[clevercouple]

right, I will wait and see. That is what I thought but I am not expecting much in the way of performance. I do like tessellation and depth of field hopefully that will be a big increase. 

[RuKiddin06]

 I mean a proper m itx chassis so it's no bigger than a shoe box!!

try cramming a titan into that!

Its funny because Linus did it.