SK hynix has showed that their GDDR7 VRAM memory chips, that are expected to power future graphics cards from Nvidia and AMD, can reach up-to 40Gbps in speeds.
At the start of this month, the specs for the GDDR7 VRAM memory chips were officially announced by JEDEC. JEDEC, also known as Joint Electron Device Engineering Council, looks after the specifications of all the various industry devices.
The current-generation of graphics cards use a version of GDDR6 to power their memory. While AMD uses normal GDDR6, Nvidia uses modified GDDR6X in its more expensive versions.
While GDDR6 came with base speeds of 16Gbps, GDDR7 specs double that to 32Gbps. But those are just base speeds.
Initially, all graphics cards with the GDDR6 memory came just 14Gbps, rather than the base 16Gbps. Though the later versions have allowed much faster speeds, even faster than the official specs.
Reports suggest that initially, graphics cards based on GDDR7 could come with just 28Gbps memory chips, rather than the officially stated 32Gbps. Graphics cards with 32Gbps could come in later versions.
Now it seems that the GDDR7 speeds could reach way higher than the official specs too.
GDDR7 To Reach Up To 40Gbps
Hardwareluxx reports, via KitGuru and VideoCardz, that SK hynix has showcased next-gen GDDR7 VRAM memory chips. In that showcase, SK hynix has stated that it’s intending to make GDDR7 chips which can reach massive 40Gbps in speeds.
If that is not enough, it’s also going to release these chips in both 16Gb (2GB) and even 24Gb (3GB) capacities later. Till now, graphics cards have come with just 2GB VRAM memory chips. But with 3GB chips coming, expect future graphics cards to come with even bigger memory capacities.
While AMD Radeon RX 8000 graphics card are unlikely to use GDDR7, Nvidia GeForce RTX 5000 graphics cards may come with GDDR7. But those GDDR7 VRAM memory is expected to be capped at 28Gbps and come in just 2GB capacities.
It’s only when Nvidia releases RTX 5000 refresh or RTX 6000 graphics cards is when one will see full powered GDDR7 chips. Same for AMD Radeon graphics cards, which may make use of them only in RX 9000 series.
Samsung Too Making Faster GDDR7
In January this year, TechRadar reported, via VideoCardz, that Samsung was going to showcase GDDR7 memory chips reaching 37Gbps speeds in February. However, we are not aware how much was discussed back then.
What we do know now is that as per Hardwareluxx, Samsung says that their GDDR7 chips will start from 32Gbps speeds. However, due to efficiency reasons, it will initially come with a cap of 28Gbps.
Samsung claims that their chips will run at 1.1v, that is lower than the official 1.2v specs. All these improvements allows 20% better power efficiency.
Conclusion
Faster VRAM memory chips are always welcome. Especially those reaching 37-40Gbps.
The only major memory chipmaker missing from the speeds announcements is Micron. Which had announced a year ago that their GDDR7 offerings were going to release in the first half of this year.
How much will these faster GDDR7 VRAM memory chips actually help in real world usage, that we can only confirm when graphics cards using them when they are officially released.
