Editor’s pick
Save 12% NOW!
MSI Gaming GeForce RTX 4080
16GB GDRR6X 384-Bit HDMI/DP Nvlink Tri-Frozr 3 Ada Lovelace Architecture Graphics Card (Gaming X Trio)
Samsung creates GDDR7 VRAM for next-gen GPUs
Plenty of speed and capcity, but will it be limited by a low bus?
Updated: Jul 20, 2023 9:23 am
Share this article...
WePC is reader-supported. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Prices subject to change. Learn more
What’s been a hot topic in recent GPU releases, has just got a lot faster. VRAM is a key part of what makes the graphics card perform well with rendering textures and creating the graphics you see on your screen. Now Samsung has created the next generation of DRAM chips that make up the memory on the card.
Current generation GPUs utilize either GDDR6 or GDDR6X. Initially, the basic 6 generation brought updated speeds, with per-pin bandwidth up to 16Gbps and lower operating voltages of 1.325V. That meant an increased performance with decreased power over the previous generation GDDR5X. Then an updated spec for the higher-powered GPUs was created, for those high VRAM flagship cards you got 19-21Gbps but at the cost of overall power usage.
Samsung has now created the successor to that spec of DRAM and created the GDDR7 chips. Capable of reaching speeds up to 32Gbps it outlines the primary use cases for the expected GPUs such as Nvidia’s Computex announcement of supercomputers. It also expects use in HPC (high-performance computing) and automotive vehicles. These can all benefit from the higher bandwidth and capacity these can provide and especially efficiency when it comes to such high capacities. Since Samsung claims 1.4 times the performance with a 20% improvement in efficiency.
This kind of improvement could be expected in the next generation of GPUs, either the likes of RTX 50 series or RDNA 4. Although AMD is less likely to opt for the faster and more expensive chip straight away as its cards are more value-orientated, with none of the current Radeon GPUs implementing GDDR6X but the lower end non-X spec.
While Nvidia GPUs could see the usage, certainly on the enterprise line but also on the flagships. Although the current Ada range uses GDDR6X all the way down from the top end to the RTX 4070. Even if it does implement it in the new generation of cards, we hope it gives the memory bus it deserves. As we’ve seen with the RTX XX60 range and its lack of memory bandwidth and capacity. That makes it a less viable option overall and limits the capabilities of the GPUs even compared to the previous Ampere generation.
