Awesome article! =] Only concern I have is the limitation of only 4gb for now. Since DX12 will bring stacked memory, Crossfire solutions will love HBM memory. =]

Also very interested to see how they incorporate HBM in their APU's. Pack maybe 2gb of HBM on die, and use system memory that's slower for cache?

Just a quick question, isn´t HBM going to create an heat problem in the GPUs? With all the chips stacked on top of each other, isn´t this going to trap heat inside them, leading to higher temps or lower clocks, or i´m seing this the wrong way? Anyway, cool stuff. Can´t wait to see AMD´s next GPU with this "super" memory inside.

From the article: "For those wondering, will the HBM DRAM blocks be much higher (in physical size) then say a GPU ? E.g. isn't the HBM DRAM package like a skyscraper and the GPU or CPU the size of a house ? We asked AMD, and the answer was no, the difference looks blown up in the screenshots and diagrams, but the real-world difference is not big enough to make a substantial or relevant enough difference. Also mind you that both the GPU and DRAM packages will get materials around them. Thus concerns like heat conduction versus coolers are not a relevant issue, according to AMD." I was one of those people wondering how they would manage the different heights of DRAM and GPU core, but they're gonna have packaging material around those components to make it all the same height by the sound of it. If that's the case then I hope that material has good conductivity properties otherwise GPU cooling of the core could be compromised. I have no idea what material they'll use, maybe they'll even use a metal cap like intel, and we know the heat problems associated with the use of the metal cap and poor quality interface material between the chip and the metal cap. Fingers crossed they don't compromise in this area & cooling performance is not affected!

From the article: "For those wondering, will the HBM DRAM blocks be much higher (in physical size) then say a GPU ? E.g. isn't the HBM DRAM package like a skyscraper and the GPU or CPU the size of a house ? We asked AMD, and the answer was no, the difference looks blown up in the screenshots and diagrams, but the real-world difference is not big enough to make a substantial or relevant enough difference. Also mind you that both the GPU and DRAM packages will get materials around them. Thus concerns like heat conduction versus coolers are not a relevant issue, according to AMD." I was one of those people wondering how they would manage the different heights of DRAM and GPU core, but they're gonna have packaging material around those components to make it all the same height by the sound of it. If that's the case then I hope that material has good conductivity properties otherwise GPU cooling of the core could be compromised. I have no idea what material they'll use, maybe they'll even use a metal cap like intel, and we know the heat problems associated with the use of the metal cap and poor quality interface material between the chip and the metal cap. Fingers crossed they don't compromise in this area & cooling performance is not affected!