AMD has planned to change the production process of 3D-chips to 40nm in the first half of 2009. The roadmaps do not provide much information on any 40nm models yet, but it is clear that an RV740 will be the first to arrive. As the name suggests, the graphics cards that will use this chip are intended for the upper mid-segment of the market. The RV740 videochip has already had its first tape-out and is expected to be released in the second quarter of 2009.
VR-Zone claims this chip will feature 640 stream processors and 32 texture units. These values are equal to those in an HD4830 graphics card. The biggest difference with the HD4830 is that the new RV740-based graphics card has a smaller 128-bit memory bus and GDDR5 memory clocked at 1800MHz. This means the new card will have an equal bandwidth to the HD4830, whilst having less memory channels in the PCB.
Because of the 40nm design, the RV740 is even more efficient than the HD4830, while the increased (though still unknown) clock frequencies should stand for more performance. The RV740-based graphics card is estimated to cost less than 100 dollar.
Will the RV740 chip replace the Radeon HD4830?
