Why 320mb of Graphics Card ram?

[Zak33]

Questions you wanna ask, but are afraid of being ridiculed:

Zak sticks his neck right out and asks:
WHY 320 mb of ram?

What's magic about that amount?

[jimbouk]

5 chips of 64mb size or 10x32mb? Don't have a picture of under a heatsink to hand but maybe? There's 640mb versions as well. Ram always used to be in banks of 4 or 8 chips on gfx cards didn't it? Maybe they've got over the fear of anything not 2^n...

[Thorburn]

Because the 8800GTS has 5 x 64bit channels, 6 for the GTX.

Each channel has 2 chips, 32MB each (64MB each on the 640MB GTS and 768MB GTX).

[jimbouk]

Looks like the GTX has 12 chips:

Some pretty pictures of under the cooler

[Steve B]

that would hold true with Thorburns statement that there are 6 channels for the GTX, each with two chips

[Thorburn]

Thats a GTX, you can tell by the 2 x 6pin connectors.

This is a GTS...

[jimbouk]

And 10 for the GTS

[Steve B]

2 chips missing in the bottom right, case closed people!!!

[jimbouk]

Lol we're all on the forums at the minute!

[Biscuit]

Theoreticaly, is it actually possible to upgrade the memory yourself (if you where amazing at soldering) or add in the other two chips of memory?

[Thorburn]

No. You'd have to be REALLY amazing at soldering (its BGA mounting back there and its tiny), and even if you did manage it the 6th memory channel is must likely fused in the silicon.

[Lucio]

You'd think they'd offer a version of the 8800GTX with less RAM as well wouldn't you and thus fill all those memory blocks.

[Biscuit]

Well the cost of that would be kinda lower end 640 GTS money (at a prediction). They have the GTX with one configeration so that people who want the 'ultimate' performance have to pay ultimate cash

[moogle]

ram is always in 2^n. like jimbo said.