ATI X300 SE HyperMemory

[Rys]

We don't just play around with the latest and greatest here at HEXUS you know! While not quite a new product to wow you with, post-Computex and Canada I've had the chance to sit down and properly evaluate ATI's HyperMemory, in the form of their first HM SKU, the X300 SE. HyperMemory uses the PCI Express bus to treat system memory as card memory seamlessly. The GPU sees a large chunk of memory that could reasonably be on the board itself, letting board vendors cut the number of memory chips they need on the board, lowering costs, board sizes and other physical attributes.

So while Tarinder wows you with piccies of his little AOpen thing, you get pics of X300 SE HM on the test bench instead. Click each for a closer look.





Look out for the full article this week, and another pipelines post to tell you what I'm up to after HyperMemory is done and dusted.

[Dougal]

Designed for low end systems by the looks of it.

With this technology could you therefore theoretically (THEORETICALLY PEOPLE) get 1GB of memory for your GPU?

[Rys]

Yep, 1GB, if supported by the GPU's MMU, could be a feasible supported memory size, on systems with lots of physical memory.

[exAndrzej]

I have been using an X300SE HyperMemory card for quite a while

For normal tasks (like skiving off in your favourite forums) you don't notice any difference

My reality came crashing down to earth when my 7 year old asked for a sneak peak at Riddick while his mum was in the garden

Being quite used to having high end hardware in my work rig, I booted the game and engaged 1280x1024 with everything on maximum


Needless to say that I did not quite reach 30fps

[Speed]

So whens this full article coming? Thinking of buying one so I neeeed to know how good it is.

Rys

[Dougal]

So whens this full article coming? Thinking of buying one so I neeeed to know how good it is.

Rys

And whack as much memory as poss into the system so we can tell how much of a difference it makes

[streetster]

What is the difference between AGP Aperture Size and this PCI-e HyperMemory thingy then? I realise AGP/PCI-e are quite different, but is this the same concept just for a different bus?

[Speed]

Any news on this review?

[Rys]

Speed: It's finished (has been for a week now), just waiting for someone to push the button to activate it. I'll push for that.

streetster: HyperMemory and TurboCache work slightly differently to AGP memory (GART). AGP couldn't let you write back into system memory in anything other than whole framebuffer-sized chunks. PCIe effectively allows arbitrary GPU-to-host writebacks of any size, at any time. So it can truly be treated as an extra generalised memory store, as if the memory was on the board next to the GPU.

Dougal: I used 512MiB of main system memory I'm afraid (to simulate the kind of system a HyperMemory board will find itself in). I used 1GiB in the TurboCache review though, if you have a peek at that.

[Speed]

Yay it's done! *Prods the person who is in charge of the button pushing intill it is up*

[Speed]

Hi mate,

Having just read the review I have to say well done, it was very good. Certainly helped me decide to get one.

One slight error at the end however with regards to DVI on the X300 SE. You mentioned "Firstly, I've yet to find a HyperMemory board with a DVI port", this is something that might put me off as well but they do exist and are quite common tbh :

http://www.savastore.com/productinfo...281440&pid=207

http://www.savastore.com/productinfo...279345&pid=207

http://www.savastore.com/productinfo...279346&pid=207

and so on.

The only other thing that the review lacked would be compairing the 128mb card and the 256mb card, but of course you can only get the samples you are sent.

I look forward to seeing your next review!

Thanks again.

[Rys]

Thanks for that, hadn't had a look at savastore on my rounds. I'll update the article this morning with the information. Cheers!

[Speed]

It's not just savastore, many stores have them with DVI.

[Rys]

Edited the article to make note, cheers!

[Speed]

Cool, nice review btw, ordered mine the other day!

[Rys]

Thanks. I'll get my hands on the 256MiB board in due course, hopefully for a low-end to low-mid-range roundup.