NVIDIA D12U will have GDDR5 support

Memory makers told Bit Tech at Computex that NVIDIA is planing to release its first GPU with GDDR5 memory support sometime in late 2009.

Currently GDDR5 memory is made on a 70nm process and by the time that NVIDIA's next-generation D12U graphics card appears the memory should be available on 50nm, the chips will be cheaper due to mass production and the memory capacity density should be twice as high as the current chips.

Obviously, D12U probably hasn’t even left the drawing board yet, but it’s clear that Nvidia is already in discussions with memory manufacturers about the supply of high-speed GDDR5 memory. We already know that ATI’s next-generation graphics cards support GDDR5, and we’re likely to see the new memory technology used on the RV770XT-based products.

GDDR5 is currently made on a 70nm node, but by the time Nvidia gets around to using it, it’ll be manufactured on a 55nm process – that’s expected to happen at some point during 2009. What’s more, by the end of Q1 2009, memory manufacturers expect to have doubled the density of the technology, meaning higher capacity memory kits will be available for newer graphics cards.

Finally, many memory manufacturers suggest that GDDR5 will be limited to high-end products for the next twelve to eighteen months, by which time the price should have dropped significantly enough for it to be cost-effective at more volume-orientated price points.