AMD to have trouble sourcing HBM2 memory in 2016?

Posted on Thursday, October 01 2015 @ 12:11 CEST by Thomas De Maesschalck
AMD logo
A somewhat strange rumor was posted over at TweakTown about the availability of HBM2 memory. Previously, there were some concerns that NVIDIA might not be able to source enough of HBM2 or its Pascal GPUs due to a priority supply agreement between SK Hynix and AMD, but those fears were alleviated when news broke about Samsung's HBM2 production dates.

Oddly enough, today's rumor revolves around AMD not being able to adopt HBM2 in 2016, but it's not exactly clear what the issue is as TweakTown's source didn't reveal a whole lot of information:
Our source reached out to us tody, saying that they "wouldn't count on [AMD] using HBM2 next year", but wouldn't elaborate further. This is an interesting rumor, because if it were true, it would mean that the use of HBM2 would shift primarily to NVIDIA. NVIDIA's next-gen Pascal architecture is already being tested internally by the company according to the latest rumors, and will rock HBM2. But AMD's next-gen GPU is rumored to rock between 8GB and 16GB of HBM2, is something we don't know too much about yet.

If AMD is in trouble with HBM2 next year, they might be stuck with short end of HBM2 yields. If so, we could see AMD utilizing HBM2 for their highest end GPU, which will most likely be a Fury X successor. Under that, we could see the company possibly using HBM1, but personally, I think HBM1 is something that should be used on mid-range cards for AMD's next-generation product stack.


About the Author

Thomas De Maesschalck

Thomas has been messing with computer since early childhood and firmly believes the Internet is the best thing since sliced bread. Enjoys playing with new tech, is fascinated by science, and passionate about financial markets. When not behind a computer, he can be found with running shoes on or lifting heavy weights in the weight room.



Loading Comments