San Jose, CA - December 13, 2005 : Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., the world leader in advanced memory technology, announced that it is mass producing the fastest graphics memory device in the world - a 900 MHz Graphics Double Data Rate 3 (GDDR3) chip. The device - already being used in graphics cards for PCs, workstations and notebooks - is 50 percent faster than the previous computer memory chip produced in large volume.
"NVIDIA is now shipping the GeForce 7800 GTX 512 graphics card, which some experts have proclaimed the fastest graphics card on the planet*, and which benefits greatly from Samsung's new 900 Mhz GDDR3 memory chips," said Bryn Young, Director of Memory Marketing and Sales, NVIDIA Corporation. "Samsung's 900 Mhz GDDR3 helped NVIDIA achieve the highest memory clock speed of any commercially available graphics processor."
Joe Macri, Director, Engineering, ATI Corporation, said, "Samsung's aggressive memory roadmap meshes quite well with our efforts to push the limits of speed to enable top-notch graphics for gamers and enthusiasts. We have worked closely with Samsung and have redesigned the memory controller in our recently announced architectures to take optimal advantage of its high-speed memory."
With the new 900 Mhz memory, the latest high-end graphics cards will be offering not only faster animation, but also richer graphic textures and images that are more realistic, bringing the digital world a step closer to true cinematic rendition.
"We are considerably upping the ante for enriching the imagery for gamers and professionals in the video and graphics industries," said Mueez Deen, Director of Marketing for Graphics, Mobile and Consumer DRAM, Samsung Semiconductor, Inc.
The last mass-produced computer graphics memory was the 256Megabit (Mb) 600 Mhz GDDR3 chip - also a first for Samsung at that time. The 512Mb 900MHz GDDR3, aligned in 32 rows of 16Mb chips, is enabling high-speed 256 and 512 Megabyte (MB) graphics cards.
According to Mercury Research, a PC component market research firm, the market for high-end graphics memory is expected to grow by 42 percent next year, from $1.1 billion in 2005 to $1.5 billion in 2006.