AMD “Tonga” Features a 384-bit Memory Interface

New information about the Tonga memory interface, surely this is news from weeks ago? You would think so, as we already know that the current AMD Radeon R9 285 graphics cards run via a 256-bit wide memory interface, but the actual silicon is hiding its true potential; the GDDR5 memory interface on Tonga is actually 384-bit wide, not 256.

The Tonga silicon is larger than that of Tahiti and this hidden wider interface goes a long way to explaining why. The chip die of the R9 285 is placed on a package that features just 256 pins, but there is no reason why the hardware can’t be set on a bigger package with more pins, allowing access to the full width of the memory bus.

This means that the next Tonga hardware from AMD will be able to re-use a lot of the same hardware, but at the same time it’ll be able to use 50% more memory bandwidth vs that of the current R9 285 hardware.

thank you PC Watch for providing us with this information.

Images courtesy of PC Watch.