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FeaturesEverything You Need to Know About GDDR Memory

We invariably refer to the video memory in modern videocards as GDDR, differentiating it only by version (GDDR2, GDDR3, GDDR4, and now GDDR5), but the technology’s full acronym is actually GDDR SDRAM, which stands for Graphics Double Data Rate Synchronous Dynamic Random Access Memory.

“Double data rate” describes the memory’s capacity for double-pumping data: Transfers occur on both the rising and falling edges of the clock signal. This endows memory clocked at 800MHz with an effective data-transfer rate of 1.6GHz. “Synchronous” refers to the memory’s ability to operate in time with the computer’s system bus. This allows the memory to accept a new instruction without having to wait for a previous instruction to be processed, a practice known as instruction pipelining.

Think you know everything about GDDR? Read on.

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FeaturesIn the Lab: Will Smith Gets Burned by the Apple TV

As part of my testing for this month’s cover feature, I spent a few quality days watching movies from the iTunes Store on my PC and in my living room. By necessity, I had to integrate a newly updated Apple TV into my entertainment center, which is a fairly common closed cabinet with a few air vents in the back. All of my other electronics devices—my receiver, my TiVo, my Xbox 360—live happily in this environment (although I do open the cabinet door when I fire up the 360).

Click Read More for more. 

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FeaturesIn the Lab: David Murphy Doesn't Like Microsoft Mucking with Standards

Guess who's to blame for your media streaming woes? (Hint: Microsoft)

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FeaturesIn the Lab: Gordon Mah Ung Re-Examines RealTek Audo

RealTek's cheating drivers might finally be fixed, maybe.

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FeaturesIn the Lab: Gordon Mah Ung Wants to Kill ATX

Why do we stick with a legacy formfactor and kill the forward-thinking ones?

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COMMENTS 1
FROM THE ARCHIVEIn the Lab: Gordon Mah Ung Thinks ESA Is Long Overdue

More knobs and gauges are a good thing.

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FROM THE ARCHIVEIn the Lab: Nathan Edwards Flies the Friendly Skies

And pits Hypersonic's triple display against the reigning single-panel champ.

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FeaturesIn the Lab: David Murphy Explains Case Reviews

The ins and outs of determining a chassis' verdict at Maximum PC

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This Month's Issue
FEATURE Build a Crazy-Fast $647 PCFEATURE Six Single-Band 802.11n Routers ReviewedHOW TOTweak BitTorrent and FirefoxFEATUREClose Look at ClarkdaleWHITE PAPERLCD Panel Technology