Samsung unveils next-gen GDDR7 memory with double the speed of its predecessor

Samsung has outlined more details about its upcoming GDDR7 memory standard in a recent company presentation, with these upcoming DRAM modules offering far more bandwidth and memory capacities. This memory standard will likely power future consoles and graphics cards.

Based on Samsung's claims, the upcoming memory standards will come with transfer data rates of up to 36 Gbps. GDDR6, on the other hand, was introduced with transfer speeds of only 14 Gbps. By the end of its life cycle, the fastest GDDR6 memory to hit production is expected to hit data rates of up to 24 Gbps.

However, GDDR7 DRAM is not expected to be used in consumer-grade graphics cards or products anytime soon. To that end, Samsung recently showcased its BGA-based GDDR6W memory, which is expected to hit 20 Gbps data rates while consuming 20% less power.

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More details on the upcoming GDDR7 memory standard

Operating details of the upcoming memory standard from Samsung (Image via Samsung)

Samsung has officially stated that the upcoming VRAM modules will be much faster while consuming less power. They will also utilize Pulse-Amplitude Modulation (PAM) 3 signaling to offer more efficient data transfer in comparison to the current GDDR6 standard.

These memory speeds will increase the total bandwidth from 36 Gbps, which is double the transfer rate of the GDDR6 memory currently found in the Radeon RX 6000 series video cards.

This will allow a 256-bit GDDR7 memory module based on the newer standard to match the bandwidth of a 384-bit GDDR6 VRAM module.

The upcoming GDDR7 memory standards will allow for up to 1152 GB/s memory bandwidth on a 256-bit bus. When paired with a 384-bit memory bus, the memory bandwidth is expected to hit 1728 GB/s, according to Samsung.

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More details on GDDR6 and why the industry needs faster memory

GDDR6 became widely accepted in the consumer graphics card market in 2018 when the RTX 20 series and Radeon RX 5000 series video cards picked these chips up.

With the RTX 30 series video cards, Nvidia wished to push the video memory beyond the 20 Gbps mark. Unfortunately, GDDR6 memory with such high data rates was not ready to hit production in 2020. Thus, the GPU manufacturer partnered up with Micron to create GDDR6X.

GDDR6X uses PAM 4 signaling to effectively increase the bandwidth to 23 Gbps. However, this jump came with an increase in power consumption and heat output. As a result, high-end RTX 30 series cards are infamous for their VRAM module overheating issues.

The upcoming Radeon RX 7000 cards pack GDDR6 memory modules that are capable of hitting up to 20 Gbps data rates. However, this is not enough for the new graphics cards to hit the market.

Based on this, the industry requires a massive boost in data transfer rates that only the upcoming GDDR7 can deliver. However, Samsung has not provided any official information about the launch window of its next-gen video memory standard.

Since the current-gen graphics cards, like the RTX 4080 and the 4090, have already launched with GDDR6 and GDDR6X memory modules, the community may have to wait for at least another two years.