AMD Confirms HBA High Memory Bandwith for Graphics Cards
AMD also has shared more information about the choice for HBA graphics memory usage with it's upcoming Graphics Cards and APUs. Rumors have been on-going for a long time now.
HBA is a technology that uses multiple stacked DRAM dies with dedicated memory paths into a single package, cutting down on power-draw, thermals, and PCB materials. There will be three HBM memories available, 2Hi, 4Hi and 8Hi. If you look at a slide that AMD shared you will notice this is not '3D' stacked memory, but '2.5D'.
It is 2.5D because the the DRAM layers are stacked nect to the graphics processor. The DRAM layers and interposer are connected with a vertical through-silicon via tsv-channels that rest on a base layer. Tsv's form paths through the silicium and offers shorter paths. According to AMD HBM opposed to GDDR5 will offer a threefold in performance per watt and will result into 50% less power consumption. Details about the cards and solutions using HBM AMD has not shared yet.
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Looking at those pictures then i'd have one slight worry about this stacked vram.
Getting off future HSF's might be a total nightmare, if the Vram is actually quite a bit higher than the GPU then i can see many a broken GFX card. You might in fact just twist it off with the heatsink

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Looking at those pictures then i'd have one slight worry about this stacked vram.
Getting off future HSF's might be a total nightmare, if the Vram is actually quite a bit higher than the GPU then i can see many a broken GFX card. You might in fact just twist it off with the heatsink

schema
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Joined: 2012-10-07
Looking at those pictures then i'd have one slight worry about this stacked vram.
Getting off future HSF's might be a total nightmare, if the Vram is actually quite a bit higher than the GPU then i can see many a broken GFX card. You might in fact just twist it off with the heatsink

Yeah, I agree, I thought something similar when I saw the diagram of the HBM stacked memory being higher than the GPU core yet being right next to it. To me this would mean that heatsinks will have to be specifically designed to sit flat on the GPU core, and then have a step down to allow the HBM to fit. I think this would be a difficult design to manufacture accurately, and I think we will see inefficiencies with cooling due to heatsinks not mating to the surfaces properly, as well as the increased likelihood of damage being caused to the structure of the HBM when the heatsink is being placed & also when removed.
On a side note with HBM, it's just allowing larger bandwidths and throughputs, but AMD will need to manufacture an efficient core in order to take advantage of that extra bandwidth otherwise it's pointless.
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Waiting for BF5 + DX12 + R395X. That should be a nice step forward.
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That looks very promising.
Increased x86 investments, I wonder why they would want to invest in x86-architecture instead of x64