WE ASKED AROUND the industry why the nVidia GeForce FX does not use a 256bit bus with DDR II memory. We learned that nVidia wanted to go for DDR II memory simply because DDR I stops at the magic limit of 400 MHz and that was the reason for making card with DDR II memory. We wondered why they didn't use a 256bit memory bus as that memory working at 500 MHz would give them 32GB of raw bandwidth. It would have definitely been a Radeon 9700 PRO killer, it would have had almost 13GB/s greater bandwidth.
Calling around to find out about using DDR II memory with a 256bit interface, we learned that it would be possible to get some - though in limited quantities because there is no demand for it and it would be extremely expensive.
An even more important reason is that, according to whispers from those in the know, the GeForce FX memory controller looks very like the one that they used in GeForce 4 cards and it is definitely not capable of running DDR II with a 256bit interface. That is what we heard from our sources though we would be glad to see an improved GeForce FX that uses this memory at least as technology demonstration. But this is unlikely to happen.
Remember even R300 aka Radeon 9700/9700 Pro can work with DDR II memory so the R350 that is an advanced and faster version of R300 will be able to run this memory. If the price is right, ATI might just announce a card based on DDR II. But remember it needs DDR II with a 256bit interface to make the difference otherwise it would have lower bandwidth that its current cards even if the memory clock is faster.
News source: The Inq
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