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What's so special about GDDR3 memory? Its major advantage is that it requires only 1.8V (Micron) or 1.9V (Samsung) and it also has to have on-die termination, both of which allow it to run at much higher frequencies (500-800MHz) than GDDR1 and the disappointing GDDR2 (because of the high heat generated by the chips).
Although 800MHz GDDR1 chips are available they are prohibitively expensive. The new chips run cooler, especially at the slower speeds.
But it's not quite all good news. The new chips have higher latencies than the older GDDR1, so the GDDR1 modules are slightly faster then GDDR3 chips at the same clock speed, but this is outweighed by the higher frequencies that are possible with GDDR3.
NVidia's FX5700 Ultra was the company's first card to use the new chips. It shows the advantage of using 256MB modules as it needs only four chips to reach 128MB, instead of the eight modules for the original FX5700 Ultra.
Sparkle's FX5700 Ultra DDRIII is a reference design even down to the heatsink and fan, but it is highlighted by Sparkle's use of a gold edging strip to the edge of the PCB.
There's no big bundle of goodies with the card, but this helps to keep the price down. All you get is a power cable, SVideo cable, DVI-I to VGA adaptor and a driver CD.
Contact: Discount Computer Supplies
www.dcs-online.biz
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